ESL Students' CMC Practices: Context Configuration

Author: Dong-Shin Shin

Year: 2006

Data Design: Qualitative

Research Design: Ethnographic

Problem: Previous studies show that the occurrence of social interactions in language learning needs to be understood in relation not only to immediate situational contexts, but also to the broad cultural andsocial contexts shaping immediate situations. The conceptual complexity of context in language and literacy education can be captured by a definition that considers context as a relationship between a focal event and the field of action within which that event is embedded.As such, the conceptual complexity of context has been concerned with micro and macro dimensions of context since the beginning of CMC use in languagelearning and teaching practices.

Purpose: The paper explores how context is configured in ESL students’ language learning practices through computer-mediated communication (CMC). Specifically, It centers 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.

Questions: 1. What kinds of interactional patterns are a group of ESL students jointly constructing?
2.What kinds of interactional norms are the ESL students establishing within computer-mediated social interactions?
3. How do the ESL students utilize CMC activities for their linguistic, social, and academic goal