"….it is like a single body being controlled by two heads.": exploring cognitive, social, and affective engagement in...

Successful collaborative writing relies on productive interaction and cooperation between learners, which makes engagement a crucial factor in the collaborative process. However, little is known about how learner engagement is manifested across different pairing configurations.

This study explored undergraduate students' engagement in L2 collaborative writing (CW) by comparing two pedagogically common pairing configurations: student-selected pairs and teacher-assigned high-low proficiency pairs, using both quantitative and qualitative data. Twenty pre-service English teachers-10 categorized as higher proficiency and 10 as lower proficiency-at a state university in Türkiye participated in both pairing conditions within a classroom context. Data were collected through transcripts of collaborative conversations, reflective papers, and participant interviews.

Quantitative findings revealed variations in patterns of interaction and focus of collaborative dialogue across the two pairing configurations. Student-selected pairs, which were predominantly proficiency-homogeneous, tended to demonstrate more collaborative interaction, whereas teacher-assigned high-low pairs engaged more frequently in content-focused talk and fewer mechanics-focused discussions. Although most LRE types and resolved LREs did not differ significantly, student-selected pairs with lower-proficiency core participants showed a higher number of unresolved LREs compared to teacher-assigned high-low pairs. Qualitative findings suggested that student-selected pairings were associated with mutual learning opportunities and emotional comfort, teacher-assigned high-low pairs, however, were more frequently associated with unequal participation and emotional tension particularly for less proficient students.

Overall, the findings suggest that pairing configuration is linked to variation in different dimensions of learner engagement. Because of this, how pairing is structured in classroom contexts-including decisions regarding selection procedures and proficiency composition-may be an important issue for teachers to address when planning collaborative writing activities.