Qu.: What are effective uses of educational technology in English as a Second Language instruction?
I found an interesting article outlining a study “Comparing Face-to-Face and Electronic Discussion in the Second Language Classroom”, by Mark Warschauer of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. (In my search I found several scholarly articles and a book authored by Warschauer, and it appears that the University of Hawaii is a powerhouse in ESL research.) In his study, Warschauer tests the hypothesis that using “computer-mediated communication” can foster more equal participation among students. Small groups of English language learners (ELLs) conducted English language discussions both electronically and face-to-face. The study concluded that a) there was a tendency toward more equal participation in computer mode, and b) students used more formal and complex language (lexically and syntactically) in electronic discussion than during face-to-face communication.
In addition, the article discusses other benefits of computer-mediated communication. Several cited studies reported that using the computer to teach English language composition also had an equalizing effect on participation, namely that women’s participation increased because the “floor” was shared more equally, rather than being dominated by a few students, hesitant writers benefited from electronic peer critiquing, and weaker students increased the amount of communication with both their teachers and other students. Another study posited that electronic communication is linguistically from both traditional written and spoken discourse, in that the language used in electronic discussion is as complex as written text, yet it resembles face-to-face discussion in terms of functions performed. This could serve as a bridge for transferring skills from the written to the spoken domain.
As a result of reading this article, I will try to incorporate electronic discussions in ESL classes to increase students’ equality of participation, complexity of language used, and transfer of skill from written to spoken domain.
Bibliography:
Warschauer, Mark. “Comparing Face-to-Face and Electronic Discussion in the Second Language Classroom”, CALICO Journal 13(2), 7-26. 1996
What is considered computer-mediated communication? Students using Google translate in the same room or chatting with other students around the world?
ReplyDeleteComputer mediated communication means using a computer rather than a face to face conversation, so it could be both of the things you mentioned. However, in the study I cited, the computer was used to facilitate discussion among members of the same class, either during class or remotely.
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