ComputerMediated Communication in South Asian Language Instruction

1
Computer-Mediated Communication in South Asian
Language Instruction

• SALRC Pedagogy Workshop
• June 7, 2005
• J. Scott Payne
• Penn State University
• jspayne_at_psu.edu

2
Role of Output in SLA

• "Noticing" - make learners aware of gaps in their
  knowledge.
• Test hypotheses, experiment with new structures
  and forms.
• Internalization of new forms and increased
  control over previously internalized forms.
• Enhance fluency through practice.
• Swain (1985) Swain Lapkin (1995)

3
Comparing CMC Modalities Tools

• Synchronous
• communicative urgency
• presence
• - processing constraints
• Tools
• IRC-style chat
• Immediate display-style chat (ICQ)
• Instant Messaging

• Asynchronous
• distance/reflection
• depth of engagement
• - volume issues
• Tools
• Email/listservs
• Threaded discussion
• Weblogs
• Wikis

4
Chatroom Tasks Pedagogy

• Chatroom Task Types
• Structured - jigsaw task, role-play, info-gap
• Unstructured - discussion of text, open-ended
  question, free topic
• Pedagogical Issues
• Group size
• Level
• Activity Type

5
Chat Activity 1 - Liar, Liar

• One person makes a statement such as My
  sister-in-law has eight children. Other members
  of the group must ask questions to determine
  whether this statement is true or not (e.g. what
  are their names?). The objective is to formulate
  a question that would be difficult to answer if
  the person is lying. Once you are certain that
  the person is lying (though he/she may be telling
  the truth), then you can accuse them of lying.

6
Chat Activity 2

• Respond to the following quote
• All education is distance education, that is
  until we learn how to fuse our brains together.
• Gregory Farrington, Middlebury College, June 2000.

7
Characteristics of Chatroom Discourse

• Increased monitoring of language - focus on
  accuracy
• More monitoring of language output and input
• No turn-taking rules, hence more output
• Participation attendance
• Requires language for communication
• Decreased speed of conversation
• Non-ephemeral nature of chatroom conversation.

8
Findings from CMC Research

• Students tend to produce more complex language in
  chatrooms than in face-to-face conversational
  settings (Warschauer, 1996 Kern, 1995).
• Increase in social equity and learner
  participation (Warschauer, 1996 Kern, 1995
  Chun, 1994 Cummins Sayers, 1995).
• Improved attitudes towards the target language
  (Healy-Beauvois, 1992 Warschauer, 1996 Kern,
  1995 Chun, 1994).
• Increase in the total production of language by
  students (Kern, 1995, Warschauer, 1996)

9
Findings from CMC Research Cont

• Restructuring of interlanguage over time (Chun,
  1994 Sotillo, 2000)
• Expansion of authentic discourse options
  available to learners (Kinginger 1998, 1999,
  2000 Thorne, 2000)
• May assist the noticing of lexical gaps and
  promote communicative output (Blake, 2001)
• Increase affordances for cultural contact,
  conflict, and development (Belz, 2001 Kramsch
  Thorne, 2001 Warschauer Kern, 2000)
• Indirectly improve oral proficiency (Payne
  Whitney, 2002 Payne Ross, to appear)

10
Conversation Memory

• Schema
• Socio-pragmatics

Topic Knowledge
11
Conversation Memory

• Schema
• Socio-pragmatics

Topic Knowledge
Lexical Knowledge

• Lexical access
• Phonological encoding
• Grammatical encoding

12
Conversation Memory

• Schema
• Socio-pragmatics

LTM
Topic Knowledge
Lexical Knowledge

• Lexical access
• Phonological encoding
• Grammatical encoding

13
Conversation Memory

• Schema
• Socio-pragmatics

LTM
Topic Knowledge
Topic Knowledge
Lexical Knowledge
Discourse Record
Lexical Knowledge
Macro/Micro-level planning

• Lexical access
• Phonological encoding
• Grammatical encoding

14
Conversation Memory

• Schema
• Socio-pragmatics

LTM
Topic Knowledge
Topic Knowledge
Lexical Knowledge
Discourse Record
Lexical Knowledge
Macro/Micro-level planning

• Lexical access
• Phonological encoding
• Grammatical encoding

Memory Resources
Communicative Behavior
15
Developing L2 Speaking Ability

• Speaking ability is improved by practice speaking
  in a variety of situational contexts and on a
  range of topics with diverse socio-pragmatic
  requirements.

16
Study of Transfer from Chatting to Speaking
(Payne Whitney, 2002)

• Hypothesis chatting will develop the same
  cognitive mechanisms underlying L2 speech.
• 58, third-semester Spanish students
• Quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design
• Control four hours/week of classroom instruction
• Experimental 2 hours chat, 2 hours classroom
• Curriculum was the same for both conditions.
• Oral proficiency measured in weeks 2 and 15
• Working memory measured in week 2

17
Results

• Oral proficiency increased more for experimental
  group.
• Role of working memory in oral proficiency
  development.
• Conversational bootstrapping effect

18
Chatting and Speaking

• How do speaking and chatting differ?
• Speaking is faster
• Speech is ephemeral
• Oral/aural versus textual
• Presence/Absence of paralinguistics
• Enhanced monitoring of language input and output
  (Kelm, 1992 Payne Whitney, 2002)
• Helps students chunk language better (Kelm, 1992)

19
Implications for L2 Oral Proficiency Development

• Teaching L2 speaking only via F2F interaction may
  actually disadvantage a significant portion of
  our students.
• Challenges for us as teachers
• design activities that reduce the cognitive
  burden placed on students.
• Question our assumptions about L2 instruction.

20
Reducing Cognitive Demands

• Pre-task planning
• Transform the cognitive constraints of
  conversational exchange.
• Use technology in a principled fashion.

21
Integrating CMC into Language Instruction

• Coordinated use of Synchronous and Asynchronous
  CMC (Payne, 2004).
• Curriculum sequence
• Asynchronous discussion followed by real-time
  discussion of the same topic.
• Real-time discussion can be f2f or in a chatroom.

22
Configurations Dynamics

• Intra-class interaction whole class and small
  groups
• Similar level volume of L, classroom culture,
  modality shifts
• Inter-class interaction within or across
  institutions
• Differing levels near peer role models, peer
  editing, projects
• International interaction FLL as x-cultural
  travel
• Mark Twain I was greatly discouraged
• Cost-efficient access to expert speakers
• To embed FLL in development of meaningful
  relationships

23
Cultura Project

• Uses word-association, asynchronous discussion,
  and sentence-completion exercises to illustrate
  cultural differences.
• http//web.mit.edu/french/culturaNEH/

24
Weblogs in FL Instruction

• Weblog -- blogs public journaling, personal
  narrative and reporting, opinions, comment
  feature
• individually (or group) controlled
• massive popular culture usage among youth
• study abroad
• Wiki collaborative writing tool, universal
  write-access, distributed text production,
• distributed expertise (wikipedia, collective
  fiction, pooled resources)

25
References

• Payne, J.S. Whitney, P.J. (2002). Developing L2
  oral proficiency through sychronous CMC Output,
  working memory, and interlanguage development.
  CALICO Journal, 20 (1), 7-32. Available online
  http//php.scripts.psu.edu/faculty/j/s/jsp17/artic
  les/calico2002/
• Payne, J.S. (2004). Making the most of
  synchronous and asynchronous discussion in
  foreign language instruction. In R. Terry, L.
  Lomicka, and J. Cooke-Plagwitz (Eds.), Heinle
  Professional Series in Language Instruction
  Teaching with Technology, 1 (pp. 155-161).
  Boston Heinle.
• Kelm, O.R. (1992). The use of synchronous
  computer networks in second language instruction
  A preliminary study. Foreign Language Annals, 25
  (5), 441-454.
• Levelt, W.J.M. (1989). Speaking From intention
  to articulation. Cambridge, MA The MIT Press.
• Levelt, W.J.M. (1993). Language use in normal
  speakers and its disorders. In G. Blanken, J.
  Dittmann, H. Grimm, J. Marshall, C. Wallesch
  (Eds.), Linguisitic disorders and pathologies An
  international handbook (pp. 1-15). Berlin de
  Gruyter.