STRUCTURING AND UN-STRUCTURING INTERACTION AMONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS (ELL) AND THEIR NON-ELL PEERS

Facilitating positive and purposeful interaction among English Language Learners (ELLs) and their non-ELL peers is a well-established, but often elusive goal. Much of the existing literature frames such interaction across linguistic and cultural difference in terms of spaces, structures, and instrumental goals to be mediated by teachers, yet there are few descriptions of such interaction that include students’ perspectives and interpretations. This paper explores the interaction among a diverse group of immigrant students collaborating to create a digital video for the purpose of welcoming new students to their high school. While the project curriculum was specifically designed to ameliorate the well-documented challenges of ELL/non-ELL interaction, it turned out that some of these well-intended structures had the paradoxical effect of stifling responsive and authentic interaction.