"A Narrow Thinking System": Nonnative-English-Speaking Students in Group Projects across the Curriculum

Abstract

In examining the contexts of learning for L2 English bilinguals, educators and researchers may have ignored an important feature of that context, the social/academic relationships the learners develop with native-English-speaking peers. Long considered a means of promoting learning and independence among students, group work is one domain where such social/academic interactions occur in university-level courses across the curriculum in English-dominant countries. The research reported here details the experiences of two nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) students in course-sponsored group projects. The findings suggest that the particular social/academic relationships that develop within work groups may undermine the ability of NNES students to make meaningful contributions to the group projects. Furthermore, even group projects that appear to work well may conceal particular burdens for NNES students of which faculty who assign group projects may remain unaware.