Language Learners' "Willingness to Communicate" through Livemocha.com

This case study is based on an investigation into the use that a group of language learners made of Livemocha.com, a Social Networking Site through which language exchange is enabled via social media applications. The learners created profiles in the website and proceeded to interact with speakers of their target languages, reporting back on their experiences over a 10-week period. As communication between language partners can take place through several different channels, and can be asynchronous or synchronous, written or spoken, it was considered that the preferences of learners with different personality types (as indicated by responses to a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire) might be accommodated. Several studies have suggested that the anxiety that some language learners feel when communicating in L2, especially when speaking, is reduced in online environments. Under the premise that a reduction in anxiety may lead to an increased "willingness to communicate" (MacIntyre et al., 1998), the principal objective of this project was to examine the type and frequency of online interactions that the participants engaged in with other speakers of their target languages in the Livemocha language learning community.

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

[2]  H. Kanuka,et al.  Exploring the effects of personality type on perceived satisfaction with web-based learning in continuing professional development , 2003 .

[3]  M. Ritter,et al.  Understanding and Working with 'Failed Communication' in Telecollaborative Exchanges , 2013 .

[4]  Fernando Rosell-Aguilar.  WELL done and well liked: online information literacy skills and learner impressions of the web as a resource for foreign language learning , 2004 .

[5]  Uschi Felix,et al.  The web’s potential for language learning: the student’s perspective , 2001, ReCALL.

[6]  JOHN GILLESPIE.  Mastering multimedia: teaching languages through technology: Selected papers from eurocall 2007 , 2008, ReCALL.

[7]  Steven L. Thorne,et al.  "Bridging Activities," New Media Literacies, and Advanced Foreign Language Proficiency , 2013 .

[8]  Claire J. Kramsch,et al.  Toward an Intercultural Stance: Teaching German and English through Telecollaboration. , 2005 .

[9]  J. Belz,et al.  Teachers as Intercultural Learners: Negotiating German–American Telecollaboration along the Institutional Fault Line , 2003 .

[10]  Anna Comas-Quinn,et al.  Mobile blogs in language learning: making the most of informal and situated learning opportunities , 2009, ReCALL.

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

[12]  Raymond Moody,et al.  Personality Preferences and Foreign Language Learning , 1988 .

[13]  Douglas Jarrell,et al.  Willingness to communicate: can online chat help?1 , 2006 .