Table 1

Overview of participant structures

Presenting problem

Individual

writing

Small

Group

Sharing

Teacher

Monitoring

Student

writing

Student to

whole group,

mediated by

teacher

Participant(s)

Teacher

and

whole

class

Individual students

Students

in small

groups

Teacher and

small group

Individual

Whole class

Purpose of

communication

To assign

problem

To work

out

problems in

preparation

for next

event

To share

solutions

To give

feedback to

small groups

To work

out

problems in

preparation

for next

event

To share

solutions and

discuss

meaningfulness

Modes

Students

read

and/or

listen;

teacher

talks

Individual students

write multisemiotic

text

Students

speak

mediated

by multisemiotic

text

Teacher and

small groups

talk,

mediated by

multisemiotic

text

Students

write multisemiotic

text

Individual

students and

teacher talk;

students

comment;

mediated by

multi-semiotic

text

Esquinca Multilingual Education 2012 2:4   doi:10.1186/2191-5059-2-4