Collaborative construction of emergent grammar in Japanese university English language learning tasks: From graphic materials to spoken and written production

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The first year of this three-year research project examining the collaborative construction of emergent grammar in language learner discussion tasks was productively initiated as the two researchers on this project were able to collect a significant amount of data, process the data, present some initial findings at two international conferences, consult with our Research Collaborator, and submit one paper with revisions to an international journal. In detail, the first year of the project was successful as we were able to accomplish the following: (a) purchased new equipment for data collection and studied the latest technology for these devices; (b) collected over 70 hours of data of Japanese university students' group work discussion in English, recorded over 350 minutes of the students' presentations on the results of their discussions, and compiled 279 pages of their written summaries about the discussions; (c) we submitted a paper to an international journal, received reviews on the submission, resubmitted the paper after responding to the reviews, and we are now waiting for the editors final decision on acceptance of the paper; (d) conducted a data session with our Research Collaborator and his colleagues, receiving useful feedback and suggestions on the direction of our research; (e) presented two papers at international conferences: one focused on the construction of emergent grammar from classroom learning materials, while the other presented our findings on student deployment of direct reported speech for supporting the positions taken in the group discussions.