 
|
 |
L2 proficiency in audio-synchronous online environments: rethinking communicative competence in the framework of multimodal interactions
Maud Ciekanski, Thierry Chanier
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
Since the last decade, most studies in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) have shown a special interest in language teaching and learning in audio-synchronous online systems (also called conferencing systems). This kind of multimodal environment, with its written, spoken and even graphic modes, offers great potential for language learning, and challenges designers and tutors in distance learning, as well as researchers in discourse analysis. Several works have already highlighted the affordances of such a variety of modes and their impact on interaction and communication in L2 (Chanier & Vetter, 06; Hampel, 06). Still further research is needed on how learning can be supported in multimodal distance settings. Our approach focuses on analysing the organisation of the multimodal discourse. We intend to define the rules of interaction in an audio-graphic synchronous system, questioning anew the models proposed by those using ethnographic and sociological approaches.
This study deals with false-beginners on an English For Specific Purposes (ESP) course, presenting a high degree of heterogeneity in their proficiency levels. An original coding scheme was developed in order to transcribe the video data (screen capture) into a set of users’ actions embedded into the different modalities of the system. Two levels of relationships are described: the first between spoken and other verbal events, and the second between verbal and non-verbal events (task oriented). The methodology adopted combines both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of learners’ use of multimodality to delineate what may be considered as action schemes.
As an illustration of multimodal communication structures, we consider sessions where learners accomplish, within the audio-synchronous online environment, collaborative writing tasks in L2, supported by a joint production tool and a set of spoken/written communication tools. Particular attention will be paid to events in the course of which learners negotiate their perception of the ongoing multimodal online interaction. |
| Return to the event page |
Click here to submit a question or comment
The webcast was open to 100 users
|
 Click below to play the event (44 minutes) |
|
|
