Abstract:
This classroom-based research study aims at investigating the effects of assigned roles on students' interaction in groupwork with specific foci on comparing numbers of utterances, lengths of utterances, the nature of exchanges, and functions of utterances.The students who took part in this study were 49 M.4 students fiom Wat-Puttabucha School. The four subjects were selected for close study concerning their performances in groupwork i.e. one dominating student, two students with average performance, and one passive student.The students did two activities in this experiment. They did the first activity without roles while roles were assigned to them in the second activity. The roles assigned to the subjects were a secretary for the dominating student, participants for students with average performance, and a chairperson for the passive student.The research instruments used for gathering data were video and audiorecording. The materials used in the experiment were two problem solving activities, which required the subjects to discuss for a group consensus. It was expected that roles assigned would help to equalize the subjects' interaction in groupwork.The findings of the data revealed that roles could only help in reducing the dominating student's interaction, but could not help to increase the passive student's interaction. Moreover, it was found that the domination of speaking shifted to the other two students with average performance in the second activity, which was not as expected. Two possible reasons supported the consistently low interaction of the passive student, namely, not enough time for training roles and teacher's lack of concern about students' learning styles were discussed.The researcher raised two directions for further study in the same field:there should be more than one role assigned to the students, and the students should be interviewed after watching the video of their own interaction. The results can help teachers examine in more details about students' learning styles, the reasons for unexpected performances and students' attitudes towards the roles assigned to them. Finally, the teachers will be able to identify clearly which role is appropriate to students' learning styles and which role can activate more interaction for passive students.