Willingness to communicate: can online chat help?1

This study compared the experiences of small groups of female Japanese university students communicating in English to solve tasks using online chat with those who solved the same tasks in face-to-face settings using spoken language. The groups were compared using a counterbalanced research design so that the nine groups consisting of four participants each took part in solving tasks in both the online mode and the traditional face-to-face setting. Data gathered from questionnaires, along with an analysis of the discourse produced by students, led to the conclusion that under the conditions in the study, online chatting provided a more comfortable environment, enhancing students’ willingness to communicate. Regarding benefits to the language teacher, online chat provides another fruitful tool to enhance interaction in the target language.

[1]  R. Clément,et al.  A Chinese Conceptualisation of Willingness to Communicate in ESL , 2003 .

[2]  Z. Dörnyei.  Motivation in second and foreign language learning , 1998, Language Teaching.

[3]  R. Clément,et al.  Ethnicity, Contact and Communicative Competence in a Second Language , 1980 .

[4]  R. Zajonc.  Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. , 1968 .

[5]  Mark R. Freiermuth.  Internet Chat: Collaborating and Learning via E‐Conversations , 2002 .

[6]  R. Schmidt,et al.  Motivation: Reopening the Research Agenda , 1991 .

[7]  M. Halliday.  Spoken and Written Language , 1989 .

[8]  R. Oxford,et al.  Language Learning Motivation: Expanding the Theoretical Framework , 1994 .

[9]  Lee Sproull,et al.  What's Mine Is Ours, or Is It? A Study of Attitudes about Information Sharing , 1994, Inf. Syst. Res..

[10]  Mark R. Freiermuth,et al.  Native Speakers or Non-Native Speakers: Who Has the Floor? Online and Face-to-Face Interaction in Culturally Mixed Small Groups , 2001 .

[11]  Z. Dörnyei.  Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom , 1994 .

[12]  J. Schumann.  The neurobiology of affect in language , 1997 .

[13]  Lee Sproull,et al.  Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization , 1991 .

[14]  M. Lepper.  Motivational Considerations in the Study of Instruction , 1988 .

[15]  Peter D. MacIntyre,et al.  How Does Anxiety Affect Second Language Learning? A Reply to Sparks and Ganschow , 1995 .

[16]  Robert C. Gardner,et al.  Learning Another Language: a True Social Psychological Experiment , 1983 .

[17]  E. Horwitz.  Language anxiety: from theory and research to classroom implications / Elaine K. Horwitz, Dolly J. Young , 1990 .

[18]  Z. Dörnyei.  Understanding L2 Motivation: On with the Challenge! , 1994 .

[19]  Klaus Schwienhorst,et al.  Native-Speaker/Non-Native-Speaker Discourse in the MOO: Topic Negotiation and Initiation in a Synchronous Text-Based Environment , 2004 .

[20]  S. Herring.  Computer-mediated communication : linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives , 1996 .

[21]  Orlando R. Kelm.  The Use of Synchronous Computer Networks in Second Language Instruction: A Preliminary Report , 1992 .

[22]  Robert C. Gardner,et al.  Towards a Full Model of Second Language Learning: An Empirical Investigation , 1997 .

[23]  Rosalind Horowitz,et al.  Comprehending Oral and Written Language. , 1987 .

[24]  Caroline Haythornthwaite,et al.  Studying Online Social Networks , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[25]  Robert C. Gardner,et al.  On Motivation, Research Agendas, and Theoretical Frameworks† , 1994 .

[26]  Mark R. Freiermuth,et al.  Features of electronic synchronous communication : a comparative analysis of online chat, spoken and written texts , 2001 .

[27]  Dorothy M. Chun.  Using computer networking to facilitate the acquisition of interactive competence , 1994 .

[28]  Richard E. Snow,et al.  Conative and affective process analyses , 1987 .

[29]  Richard G. Kern.  Restructuring Classroom Interaction with Networked Computers: Effects on Quantity and Characteristics of Language Production , 1995 .

[30]  Thomas L. Good,et al.  Looking in Classrooms , 1973 .

[31]  R. Clément,et al.  Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and Affiliation , 1998 .

[32]  David Crystal,et al.  Language and the Internet , 2001 .

[33]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction , 1981, Cogn. Sci..

[34]  C. Werry.  Linguistic and interactional features of Internet relay chat , 1996 .

[35]  P. MacIntyre,et al.  On the Measurement of Affective Variables in Second Language Learning , 1993 .

[36]  Michael H. Long,et al.  OPTIMAL PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ENVIRONMENTS FOR DISTANCE FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING , 2003 .

[37]  M. Lepper,et al.  When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? , 2000 .

[38]  E. Deci,et al.  Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation , 1996 .

[39]  R. C. Gardner.  Social psychology and second language learning : the role of attitudes and motivation , 1985 .

[40]  Kuo-shu Yang.  Social Orientation and Individual Modernity among Chinese Students in Taiwan , 1981 .

[41]  P. MacIntyre.  Variables underlying willingness to communicate: A causal analysis , 1994 .

[42]  M. Warschauer.  Computer-Mediated Collaborative Learning: Theory and Practice. , 1997 .

[43]  Nancy Sullivan,et al.  A comparative study of two ESL writing environments: A computer-assisted classroom and a traditional oral classroom , 1996 .

[44]  Carol A. Chapelle,et al.  Computer applications in second language acquisition : foundations for teaching, testing and research , 2001 .

[45]  八島 智子.  Orientations and Motivation in Foreign Language Learning : A Study of Japanese College Students , 2000 .

[46]  Mark Warschauer,et al.  Computer Learning Networks and Student Empowerment. , 1996 .

[47]  Simeon J. Yates.  Oral and written linguistic aspects of computer conferencing , 1996 .

[48]  K. Miller,et al.  Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior , 1975, Perspectives in Social Psychology.

[49]  James Simpson.  Conversational floors in synchronous text-based CMC discourse , 2005 .

[50]  Robert C. Gardner,et al.  Attitudes and Motivation: Their Role in Second-Language Acquisition , 1968 .

[51]  Tomoko Yashima,et al.  Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language: The Japanese EFL Context , 2002 .

[52]  Joy Kreeft Peyton,et al.  Network-based classrooms: promises and realities , 1993 .

[53]  M. Lepper,et al.  Rethinking the value of choice: a cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  Lesley Shield,et al.  Promoting Oral Production in a Written Channel: An Investigation of Learner Language in MOO , 2003 .

[55]  W. Lambert,et al.  Motivational variables in second-language acquisition. , 1959, Canadian journal of psychology.

[56]  B. Vanpatten,et al.  Talking to learn : conversation in second language acquisition , 1987 .

[57]  Marshall Kremers.  Student authority and teacher freedom: ENFI at New York Institute of Technology , 1993 .

[58]  W. Chafe.  Discourse, Consciousness, and Time: The Flow and Displacement of Conscious Experience in Speaking and Writing , 1996 .

[59]  Donna M. Johnson.  Approaches to Research in Second Language Learning , 1980 .

[60]  Penelope Brown,et al.  Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage , 1989 .

[61]  M. Warschauer.  Comparing Face-To-Face and Electronic Discussion in the Second Language Classroom , 2013, CALICO Journal.

[62]  J. Keller.  Motivational Design of Instruction , 1983 .

[63]  Zoltán Dörnyei,et al.  Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom , 2001 .

[64]  Tora K. Bikson,et al.  Work Group Structures and Computer Support , 1989 .

[65]  M. Lepper,et al.  A desire to be taught: Instructional consequences of intrinsic motivation , 1992 .

[66]  E. Schegloff,et al.  A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation , 1974 .

[67]  M. Lepper,et al.  Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning: Beneficial effects of contextualization, personalization, and choice. , 1996 .

[68]  Klaus Schwienhorst,et al.  Evaluating Tandem Language Learning in the MOO: Discourse Repair Strategies in a Bilingual Internet Project , 2002 .

[69]  Susan C. Herring.  Interactional Coherence in CMC , 1999, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[70]  W. Chafe,et al.  Properties of spoken and written language. , 1987 .

[71]  John M. Keller,et al.  Motivation and instructional design: A theoretical perspective , 1979 .

[72]  E. Berscheid,et al.  What is beautiful is good. , 1972, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[73]  Raffaella Negretti,et al.  Web-based Activities and SLA: A Conversation Analysis Research Approach , 1999 .

[74]  R. Clément,et al.  Second Language Proficiency and Acculturation: An Investigation of the Effects of Language Status and Individual Characteristics , 1986 .

[75]  Evangeline Marlos Varonis,et al.  Non-native/Non-native Conversations: A Model for Negotiation of Meaning , 1985 .

[76]  D. Byrne.  The Attraction Paradigm , 1971 .

[77]  T. Newcomb.  The acquaintance process , 1961 .