2023 年 34 巻 p. 17-32
This study examined the effect of the presence or absence of an assigned lead student on group work dynamics (GWD) and students’ motivation in an online English class. A total of 78 university students were divided into groups of three, either with or without a leader, to work on a picture description task. To analyze the GWD process, we used Poupore’s GWD instrument as a reference to record and quantify all verbal and nonverbal student behaviors. The results showed that: (1) the groups with a leader maintained a higher level of motivation throughout the task; (2) the groups with a leader yielded higher verbal and nonverbal GWD scores than the groups without a leader; (3) GWD scores were higher in the groups with a leader for almost all positive verbal/nonverbal characteristics; (4) these higher scores were especially pronounced for the characteristics “Asking for others’ ideas” and “Mild laughter”; and (5) groups with frequent “Mild laughter” had higher positive verbal/nonverbal GWD scores than the overall average. Based on the results, pedagogical implications for teachers are discussed concerning the use of group work in an online English classroom.