EFL Eight-Graders' Negotiatio Capacities in a Peaceful Classroom Environment

Abstract

This thesis reports on a qualitative-research project in a private school in Bogotá that accompanied the production of narratives by teenagers in eighth grade where they report on intra and interpersonal conflicts they faced. Within the Peaceful classroom environment, it examines the question: What do eighth-graders’ written life stories unveil about their capacity for conflict negotiation in a Peaceful classroom environment? It also aims to discover and display pupils’ negotiation capacities when facing conflicts autonomously and creatively by means of the L2 – which stands for Second Language – as a mediator. Analyzing the data, teenagers themselves become co-interpreters of their own semi-structured interviews and written life stories. The interpretive inductive approach served as the framework; findings address the interplay of learners’ negotiation capacity and their autonomy at the time of facing and solving conflicts.