Despite the recent growth of mobile instant messenger (MIM), research into the correlation between English learners' learning gains, learning engagement, and how this engagement helps develop authentic relationships remains underexplored. This mixed-method study involved 222 college English learners to investigate their engagement in team-based…

An important characteristic of expert teaching is the ability to adapt instruction to meet learners' needs. One way this type of ownership of instruction happens is through teachers interactively constructing knowledge about pedagogical content with others. In this article, the authors looked at how a group of thirteen participants enrolled in an…

We tested sarcasm production and identification across original communicators in a spontaneously produced conversational setting, including testing the role of synchronous movement on sarcasm production and identification. Before communicating, stranger dyads participated in either a synchronous or nonsynchronous movement task. They then completed…

This ethnographic case study has focused on language use in texting out of institutional contexts between voluntary language partners. Within the translanguaging and digital literacies framework, we explored how two pairs of Korean-English language partners practice translanguaging in texting in order to construct their multilingual identities.…

This paper discusses to what extent synchronous communication via Skype by Argentine university students of History and Danish university students of Spanish contributed to fostering intercultural competence in the two groups of participants. Intercultural gains are considered both as part of the planned tasks to be solved by the participants…

Communication strategies (CSs) play important roles in resolving problematic second language interaction and facilitating language learning. While studies in face-to-face contexts demonstrate the benefits of communication strategy instruction (CSI), there have been few attempts to integrate computer-mediated communication and CSI. The study…

This study investigates the phases of development of synchronous and asynchronous virtual communication produced in a community of inquiry (CoI) by analyzing the internal structure of each intervention in the forum and each chat session to determine the evolution of their social, cognitive and teaching character. It also analyzes the participating…

This article examines the discursive construction of social presence and identity in a bilingual collaboration between tertiary distance learners of German in New Zealand and Academic English students in Germany. Drawing on positioning theory, this small-scale study investigated the collaborative practices of a group of students, whose synchronous…

This quasi-experimental, mixed methods study examined the transfer of a well-established pedagogical strategy, Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), to an online workshop environment (cPLTL) in a general chemistry course at a research university in the Midwest. The null hypothesis guiding the study was that no substantive differences would emerge between…

Despite the growing interest in examining the link between peer-peer collaborative dialogue and second language (L2) development in recent years (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002), much of the empirical work in this regard focused on face-to-face communication, leaving the operationalization of collaborative dialogue in text-based…

This paper reports on the task-based interaction of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in the 3D multiuser virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life. The discussion first explores research on the precursors of MUVEs, text-based 2D virtual worlds known as MOOs. This is followed by an examination of studies on the use of MUVEs in Computer…

The present study explored how negotiation of meaning occurred in task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) environment among college English learners. Based on the theoretical framework of the interaction hypothesis and negotiation of meaning, four research questions arose: (1) how negotiation of meaning occur in non-native…

This paper reports on an exploratory case study that investigates the synchronous interaction of intermediate level EFL learners in the 3D virtual world "Second Life." The subjects took part in three seventy-minute chat sessions that involved the use of affordances provided by a purpose-built world within this environment. Analysis of the data…

This qualitative study explores the impact of potential linguistic, technical and educational hegemonies on the learning outcomes for English language students in Hebron, Palestine, and Padova, Italy, who were involved in the Soliya Connect Program, a telecollaboration project developed to explore critical issues that divide the "West"…

This paper presents a study that illustrates how the author and an in service secondary school teacher used basic synchronous computer mediated communications (CMC) technology to help them uncover students' physics preconceptions and thought processes (including their misconceptions and misunderstandings) in a real class setting. In this paper, I…