Task-Enhanced Peer Interaction for Morphosyntactic Development in Young EFL Learners: A Cognitive-Interactionist Perspective

Objective

The project Task-Enhanced Peer Interaction for Morphosyntactic Development in Young EFL Learners: A Cognitive-Interactionist Perspective (TEPIMoD-YELL) investigates how peer collaboration and task repetition can support children’s grammar development in foreign language classrooms. Despite the increasing interest in task-based approaches, research on young learners’ second language acquisition remains scarce, particularly regarding morphosyntactic features such as articles, past tense morphology, and subject–verb agreement. Addressing this gap, the project examines how task-enhanced peer interaction contributes to accuracy and long-term learning gains. The study adopts a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design with 40–60 learners aged 9–12 in bilingual and CLIL contexts in Spain. Quantitative data will be collected through pre-tests, post-tests, and delayed post-tests, while qualitative analyses will focus on classroom interaction, corrective feedback, and uptake. Individual differences such as working memory and proficiency will also be examined, providing a deeper understanding of the cognitive and social factors that shape learning. Expected results include robust empirical evidence on the effectiveness of peer interaction and task repetition for young learners’ grammar development. These findings will advance theoretical debates in second language acquisition and provide practical guidelines for curriculum design and teacher education. The fellowship will also enhance the researcher’s expertise in applied linguistics, research management, and open science practices, contributing to her long-term career development and to the wider dissemination of innovative, evidence-based approaches to language teaching.