Theory, Research and Practice in Spoken Online Learning Events: Towards New Understandings

Theory, Research and Practice in Spoken Online Learning Events: Towards New Understandings
Prof. Cynthia White

This event took place on 22nd June 2007 at 10:00am (09:00 GMT)
Knowledge Media Institute, Berrill Building, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, MK7 6AA

Research into spoken online learning events has entered its second decade, and we now have a clearer sense of the affordances and constraints of different online mediums for developing spoken interaction. How we now think about language teaching and learning, and the activities, experiences and processes which support the development of interactive competence have also been transformed by virtual learning opportunities. In this paper I identify predominant research paradigms and directions in online spoken interaction and critically evaluate what we have gained and what we may have overlooked in using such approaches. Key challenges include reducing the distance between research and pedagogical practice, identifying ways of enhancing the research-practice nexus, and developing a research agenda based on such ongoing interrelationships. I then propose a number of questions, methodologies and research tools aligned with that agenda. In the latter part of the paper I also explore three diverse ‘problems’ in spoken online learning - curricular congruence and articulation, intercultural competence, and assessment - to illustrate how new approaches to research and teacher development can bring together the worlds of theory, research and practice. To conclude I argue that while a number of factors work against the development of links between research and practice, closing the gap between them is valuable for all participants in spoken online learning events - researchers, teachers and learners - as a means of developing an informed understanding of what we think we may know, what we may need to know and what we do.