Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication: Negotiated Interaction And Lexical Acquisition

Much research has been conducted on the application of information technology in language teaching.However,relatively few studies in second language acquisition have investigated how task-based multi-mode synchronous computer-mediated communication(SCMC)promotes students‘ online interaction and their resultant linguistic development.This study investigated a cross-border cyber course jointly scheduled among four universities from Eastern Asia and Northern America.The study aims to explore two research questions.First,the research attempts to reveal what effects students‘ L1 homogeneity and L1 heterogeneity exert on negotiated interaction process,represented by three key components of negotiation of meaning,Language Related Episodes(LRE)and uptakes;and what model of negotiated interaction students follow during the interaction process.Second,the study attempts to discover the influence of students‘ L1 homogeneity and L1 heterogeneity on their lexical development,and identify a link between students‘ negotiated interaction and their lexical acquisition.The effects of shared or different L1 are investigated from two perspectives of across groups and within groups.The lexical growth is measured by a series of pre-testing,post-testing,and one week delayed post-testing to examine students‘ receptive,productive,oral and written acquisition of target lexicons.The data were collected from the joint cyber course in the researcher‘s university in four semesters.120 tertiary students in the United States of America,Japan,Korea and China participated in the research.The subjects were divided into three different L1 groups(each including 10 small groups): 20 L1 Chinese students and other 20 L1 Chinese students forming the CS-CS groups(shared L1);20 L1 Chinese students and 20 L1 Korean or Japanese students speaking non-native English(10 Korean students in a Korean university and 10 Japanese in a Japanese university)forming the CS-NNS groups(different L1);and 20 L1 Chinese students with 20 L1 native English students forming the CS-NS groups(different L1).The subjects collaboratively completed four online communicative treatment tasks.Altogether a total of 30 hours of peer multi-mode online interaction was collected.The SCMC corpus of video-based negotiated interaction were transcribed,coded and analyzed for the incidence of negotiation of meaning,LRE and uptakes.Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance(ANOVA),and paired sample t-tests were performed on the transcription data.Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics are reported.The study reveals the following findings.Regarding shared or different L1 effects across groups and within groups,the results show that L1 homogeneity and L1 heterogeneity groups significantly influence the incidence of negotiation of meaning in general(p<.001),?3C? of negotiation devices(p<.005);LRE(p<.001);uptakes in general and immediate uptakes(p<.001),apply moves of deferred uptakes(p<.005);but shared or different L1 does not significantly influence recognize moves of deferred uptakes(p>.05).Timing is a significant factor in uptakes(p<.05).The results show the three L1 groups produce significantly different amount of interaction and overall output.In terms of the effects on subjects‘ lexical development,the study finds that there is a significant difference across the L1 groups immediately after the treatment tasks(p<.01).In delayed post tests,significant differences are observed in delayed receptive tests(p<.001)among the three L1 groups,but not in delayed productive tests(p>.05).The three groups demonstrate significantly different lexical increase immediately after the treatment,but slightly different word retention one week later(p<.05).The data reveal that the CS-NNS groups employ the largest number of negotiated interaction moves for communication and demonstrated best lexical increase;the CS-NS groups fall the second and the CS-CS groups are the last.Therefore,the present research shows that L1 homogeneity and L1 heterogeneity groups influence students‘ interactional negotiation process and their resultant lexical development.The general conclusions are presented below.Firstly,based on the quantitative and qualitative findings,an expanded negotiated interaction model in the multi-mode SCMC environment is proposed.?Negotiation of meaning?(focus on meaning),?LRE?(focus on form),and ?uptakes? prove to be key components of negotiated interaction reflecting different aspects and stages of the interaction process.The ?3C?,LRE(reactive),and uptakes prove to be essential devices to realize the ?indicator?,?response?,and ?reply to response? moves in the process.The SCMC model with key constructs offers an approach to both measure multi-mode SCMC interaction quantitatively and describe the online discourse qualitatively.Secondly,the study discovers the mechanism of shared or different L1 influence on negotiated interaction process.Students‘ shared or different L1 exerts varying degrees of impact on each stage of the process.The findings disconfirm Varonis and Gass‘(1985b)assumption that the more degree of interlocutors‘ background differences,the more incidence of negotiation of meaning.The findings reveal that the difference creates ?triggers?,but not ?indicators?,which depend on affective factors like interlocutors‘ willingness to signal non-comprehension.Shared or different L1 then influences the ?resolution? procedure by affective factors to ?apply(uptake)? peer ?response? or not.The varying quantity and quality of moves to solve non-comprehension exert priming effects on the process,demonstrating different depth of linguistic processing,and leading to lexical development.Thirdly,other factors also contribute to the results.The task design of information gap helps draw students‘ attention to unknown lexicons.The multiple layers of each stage in the interaction process and large amount of output demonstrate students‘ high engagement.SCMC features like equal participation,reduced anxiety,and authentic communication help promote interaction.Last but not least,the benefits of L1 heterogeneity groups,especially in NNS groups of different L1,prove beneficial to connect different L1 students across the globe,which is often not easy to achieve in EFL classrooms.This study highlights the affordances of information technology both theoretically and pedagogically.In conclusion,students‘ shared or different L1 in task-based multi-mode SCMC promote their interaction and lexical acquisition.The study proposes an expanded model of negotiated interaction in multi-mode SCMC environment.Moreover,it discovers the mechanism of shared or different L1 influence on interaction process,and it implements the conditions in ESL context facilitative for negotiation of meaning from the EFL perspective.The study confirms the conclusion that negotiated interaction is a site for second language acquisition.