Promoting After-School English Book Clubs for Communicative L2 Use

Abstract

This study explored how a student-led literature discussion in an out-of-school book club offers young ESL learners the opportunity to promote their second language use. A group of privileged English language learners in grades 4-5 were observed during a 60-minute-long book club that took place twice weekly in a local public library over a period of four months. The data sources included field notes, 32 audio-taped literature discussions, interviews, and written surveys with students and their parents, students’ response journals, and the researcher’s journal. To describe the verbal interactions among students during student-led literature discussions, constant comparative analysis was conducted in combination with discourse analysis. The student talk during the student-led literature discussion was characterized by the students’ control of topic and its management, engagement in higher-order thinking, and collaboration. This study emphasizes the value of embedding reading comprehension strategy instruction in a literature discussion and extends the understanding of Vygotskian social constructivism applied to second language and literacy learning by exploring interactions among nonnative English learners.