ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATION

This paper examines how context is configured in ESL students’ language learning practices through computer-mediated communication (CMC). Specifically, I focus on how a group of ESL students jointly constructed the context of their CMC activities through interactional patterns and norms, and how con...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dong-Shin Shin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Foreign Language Resource Center 2006-09-01
Series:Language Learning and Technology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num3/pdf/shin.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849415108292247552
author Dong-Shin Shin
author_facet Dong-Shin Shin
author_sort Dong-Shin Shin
collection DOAJ
description This paper examines how context is configured in ESL students’ language learning practices through computer-mediated communication (CMC). Specifically, I focus on how a group of ESL students jointly constructed the context of their CMC activities through interactional patterns and norms, and how configured affordances within the CMC environment mediated their learning experiences. After a brief review of relevant studies of CMC in the literature, I discuss ecological perspectives of language learning as a core construct of this study, to explain contextual fluidity in relation to learners’ agency in their learning. Next, I present an ethnographic study of how members of an ESL class constructed a community of social practices through synchronous CMC. The findings indicate that (a) the constructed interactional patterns and norms of the students’ CMC activities represented group dynamics among the participants, (b) the participants’ roles in joint construction of the activities reflected their language socialization experiences, and (c) the activities provided a way for spousal participants to assume academic identities, while becoming a social space for academic gatherings. This study highlights the fluidity of CMC language learning contexts; fluid contexts entail learners’ agency in dialogic engagements with the contextual elements of the learning environment as language socialization processes.
format Article
id doaj-art-62d495c2207e4c4d8a1e6e929634f308
institution Kabale University
issn 1094-3501
language English
publishDate 2006-09-01
publisher National Foreign Language Resource Center
record_format Article
series Language Learning and Technology
spelling doaj-art-62d495c2207e4c4d8a1e6e929634f3082025-08-20T03:33:38ZengNational Foreign Language Resource CenterLanguage Learning and Technology1094-35012006-09-011036584ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATIONDong-Shin ShinThis paper examines how context is configured in ESL students’ language learning practices through computer-mediated communication (CMC). Specifically, I focus on how a group of ESL students jointly constructed the context of their CMC activities through interactional patterns and norms, and how configured affordances within the CMC environment mediated their learning experiences. After a brief review of relevant studies of CMC in the literature, I discuss ecological perspectives of language learning as a core construct of this study, to explain contextual fluidity in relation to learners’ agency in their learning. Next, I present an ethnographic study of how members of an ESL class constructed a community of social practices through synchronous CMC. The findings indicate that (a) the constructed interactional patterns and norms of the students’ CMC activities represented group dynamics among the participants, (b) the participants’ roles in joint construction of the activities reflected their language socialization experiences, and (c) the activities provided a way for spousal participants to assume academic identities, while becoming a social space for academic gatherings. This study highlights the fluidity of CMC language learning contexts; fluid contexts entail learners’ agency in dialogic engagements with the contextual elements of the learning environment as language socialization processes.http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num3/pdf/shin.pdfComputer-Mediated CommunicationDiscourse AnalysisLiteracySocial ContextComputer-Assisted Language Learning
spellingShingle Dong-Shin Shin
ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATION
Language Learning and Technology
Computer-Mediated Communication
Discourse Analysis
Literacy
Social Context
Computer-Assisted Language Learning
title ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATION
title_full ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATION
title_fullStr ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATION
title_full_unstemmed ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATION
title_short ESL STUDENTS' COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION PRACTICES: CONTEXT CONFIGURATION
title_sort esl students computer mediated communication practices context configuration
topic Computer-Mediated Communication
Discourse Analysis
Literacy
Social Context
Computer-Assisted Language Learning
url http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num3/pdf/shin.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT dongshinshin eslstudentscomputermediatedcommunicationpracticescontextconfiguration