The Impact of Task Type and Gender on Total Incidence of Negotiation for Meaning

The current study aims at investigating whether the gender of EFL learners and the kind of task utilized in task-based conversational interactions influence the total incidence of one salient type of feedback, namely, negotiation for meaning. Forty Iranian EFL students who were all English teaching majors completed the interactional tasks with both male and female interlocutors. Their language production in terms of the exchanged feedback was analyzed for the total incidence of negotiation for meaning. The study investigated whether (1) the total incidence of negotiation for meaning in feedback is different according to the group type (matched vs. mixed) and the kind of task utilized, (2) the feedback of males and females interacting in mixed-gender groups is different from each other in terms of negotiation for meaning and the type of the assigned task, and (3) the incidence of negotiation for meaning in feedback is different according to the interlocutors ’ gender. The results of statistical analysis indicate that the incidence of negotiation for meaning did not vary across the group types; thus the gender composition of the group did not seem to affect the amount of negotiation. The participants of both genders generally tended to be engaged in more negotiation for meaning in mixed-gender groups than in matched-gender groups, but this engagement was highly under the influence of task type