25.174, Review: Applied Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Marques-Sch=?UTF-8?Q?=C3=A4fer_?=(2013)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-25-174. Sun Jan 12 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.174, Review: Applied Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Marques-Schäfer (2013)

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Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2014 10:17:57
From: Ilona Vandergriff [vdgriff at sfsu.edu]
Subject: Deutsch Lernen Online

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-2180.html

AUTHOR: Gabriela  Marques-Schäfer
TITLE: Deutsch lernen online
SUBTITLE: Eine Analyse interkultureller Interaktionen im Chat
SERIES TITLE: Giessener Beiträge zur Fremdsprachendidaktik
PUBLISHER: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Ilona Vandergriff, San Francisco State University

SUMMARY

This monograph, a revised version of the author’s 2011 dissertation, is an
empirical analysis of text chat interactions in informal language learning.
The data come from the synchronous text chat “JETZT Deutsch lernen” (‘NOW
Learn German’), a tool hosted, moderated and tutored by the Goethe Institute
that is open to any user around the globe. The chat data sets consisting of 40
tutored and 40 untutored chat hours were subjected to both quantitative and
qualitative analysis. In the “JETZT Deutsch lernen” chat room, users typically
participate as individuals rather than as group members and ask questions
about German language and culture.

Following a research review of interaction and computer-mediated communication
in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in Part A (Chapters 1-3), the author
describes the design of this study (Part B: Chapters 4-5) and reports her
findings in three areas of analysis, namely a) error correction, b) learner
questions related to language and c) learner questions related to culture
(Part C: Chapters 6-10). The reference section is followed by an extensive
appendix containing questionnaire forms, interview notes and analytical
categories, inter alia.

Part A is divided into three chapters which provide an introduction to
research into second language learning and interaction, technology use and
text chat, respectively. Taking a sociocultural approach, Marques-Schäfer
underscores the promise of second language text chat for language learning by
arguing that through dialog and interaction learners can construct collective
knowledge that contributes to second language competence. As learners
negotiate questions of language and culture, language learning is
conceptualized as a dynamic and interactive process, dependent on both
cognitive and sociocultural factors. Chapter 2 provides a relatively broad
description of technology use in language learning, highlighting the need for
careful pedagogical design and planning. Chapter 3 describes the chat mode,
its linguistic features and its pedagogical potential for language learning,
and summarizes major research findings on text chat in SLA. Table 1 (pp.
68-86) gives a convenient overview of forty studies of text chat in SLA from
1994 to 2010, highlighting selected findings.

Part B introduces the present study, along with the research questions
(Chapter 4) and provides a detailed description of the data collection and
analysis procedures (Chapter 5). Following Smith (2003) and Tudini (2007),
Marques-Schäfer identifies four phases in a chat sequence, namely “trigger”,
“indicator”, “response” and “reaction to response”.

Part C reports on the findings. Following a very brief analysis and discussion
of supplementary survey and interview data on learner participants and tutors
in Chapter 6, Chapter 7 looks at error correction in text chats to ascertain
to what extent chat participants and tutors correct themselves and/or others,
which types of errors get corrected, and how, and how chat participants react
to the corrections. Marques-Schäfer finds that error corrections are an
important part of text chat interactions on the “JETZT Deutsch lernen”
platform, with self-corrections occurring more frequently than
other-corrections. Even in untutored text chat sessions participants were
self-correcting. Other-corrections are done by tutors as well as peers but are
requested only in tutored, not in untutored text chat sessions.
Marques-Schäfer also finds that most error corrections concern spelling and
grammar, rather than vocabulary or expression.

In Chapter 8 the analysis focuses on the extent to which learners use the text
chat to ask metalinguistic questions, which kinds of questions the ask, and
whether these questions arise in the emerging interaction. In addition,
responses to such metalinguistic questions are analyzed. To do so, the author
distinguishes between questions focused on form and questions focused on
meaning. The findings show that tutored sessions promoted more metalinguistic
questions than untutored sessions. Roughly half arose out of the ongoing
interaction (48%), while 52% did not, suggesting that it is an important tool
for language learners, a place where they can get answers to their questions.
Roughly 90% of metalinguistic questions were answered, a remarkably high
percentage in light of the speed of the interaction. In answering these
questions, tutors used a range of techniques from providing synonyms or
examples to referring participants to websites. Based on her analysis, the
author concludes that the metalinguistic exchanges in the chat interactions
promote language learning.

Chapter 9 provides a broad introduction to teaching culture in SLA before
zooming in on the central question, how intercultural text chat can promote
(inter-)cultural competence. The analysis explores to what extent learners ask
questions on culture in “JETZT Deutsch lernen”, what kinds of questions they
ask and how these questions are answered by the tutors and/or other learners.
The findings show that asking questions about German culture not only provides
chat participants with the opportunity to talk about the target culture but
also about their own or their peer’s culture. Because participants share their
personal stance rather than merely facts and information, the author argues,
these interactions often provide a window on cultural practices and
perspectives. In her analysis she distinguishes between short-answer and
long-answer questions. Most questions prompt short answers and frequently lead
to intercultural comparisons. However, since questions requiring longer
answers and requests for expansion or justification are rare there is little
evidence of reflection on culture.

Chapter 10 provides a brief summary and conclusion.

EVALUATION

Tapping into the biggest potential of technology for SLA, more and more
language learners engage in informal or even incidental language learning
(e.g., through global social media). This growing trend creates an urgent need
in the field to understand how Web 2.0 tools shape the language and social
interactions in second language contexts. Marques-Schäfer’s empirical study is
a welcome addition and an important contribution to the growing body of
research on interaction-oriented digital tools in language learning and as
such enhances our understanding of how chat tools can promote learner
interaction and exchange with peers and tutors. Whereas the vast majority of
previous empirical studies have looked at data from intraclass or interclass
formal language learning, this study breaks new ground in its analysis of
computer-mediated informal language learning. As far as I know, this study is
unique in the type of chat data analyzed. Unlike in most other studies, chat
users participated as individual learners rather than groups of learners.
Another important difference compared to prior research concerns the location
of chat participants. Whereas other studies have drawn, for the most part, on
chat data generated by two groups of participants in two locations such as in
telecollaborative set-ups, participants in this study were geographically
dispersed. Along with medium factors, these social factors are likely to
impact computer-mediated discourse and interaction in major ways (Herring,
2007) and help to illustrate the rich variation inherent in learner
computer-mediated communication. In this way, the study’s data sets featuring
tutored and untutored chat interactions between learners and their peers and
between learners and their tutors in this global informal language learning
space extend the empirical base of chat research in SLA beyond interclass or
intraclass formal language learning data.

With its analysis of learners’ metalinguistic and metacultural chat, which
echoes the major research trajectories within the field of technology in
language learning into negotiation of meaning and intercultural competence,
this study’s broad goals have been achieved in part because the research
questions have a fairly narrow focus. In each of the areas of analysis, the
research questions are formulated in such a way as to allow for the coding of
analytical categories (e.g., self-initiated self-correction, other-initiated
self correction, self-initiated other-correction, other-initiated
other-correction.). In the intercultural competence section that analyzes
learners’ questions about German culture, some of the analytical categories
are more useful than others. Tutor G’s question ‘Were you a sailor with the
Navy?’ in extract 88 (p. 268) is coded as a question that invites a short
answer (presumably because it’s a yes-no question) but in the context of Tutor
G’s repeated attempts to elicit extended discourse, the coding of questions
into those that invite short answers versus long answers does not advance the
analysis. After all, some questions that invite short answers may just be a
way to coax the interlocutor into more extended discourse. Yet,
Marques-Schäfer also offers an in-depth, spot-on data analysis and discussion
of some data extracts.  Referring to extract 96 (p. 284), for example, she
discusses some of the pedagogical challenges that arise in the
computer-mediated discussion of clichés and stereotypes. Data coding into
analytical categories may be useful but does not always do enough to enhance
our understanding how, in the emerging interaction, learners construct
collective knowledge that contributes to second language competence.

Overall, Marques-Schäfer’s book is best when she delves more deeply into the
microlevel analysis and discussion. From that perspective, the barely forty
pages allotted to the analysis and discussion of learners’ metacultural
questions (pp. 258-297) leave this reader wanting more, perhaps an
unreasonable expectation given the scope of analysis. Because the
intercultural analysis is only one of three foci, the book’s subtitle “An
analysis of intercultural interactions in chat” is somewhat misleading.

Another quibble is with some of the introductory sections of the book. The
perspective at the beginning of chapter 2, for example, seems far too broad
before zooming in on what is relevant. One wonders why the reader needs the
excursion into the digital divide or digital literacy; after all, they don’t
seem central to the main line of argument. Similarly, in chapter 9 the author
begins the chapter on metacultural questions with a broad discussion of
language and culture that offers little of use for the ensuing analysis.
Overall, the book is well-written and remarkably error-free, with the
exception of a few typos. However, a formatting error in extract 88 (p. 268)
could lead to confusion as the transcript lines in the left column and the
analytical code on the right seem to be misaligned.

Among the most interesting findings are the results of a comparison between
tutored and untutored chat sessions, the participants’ insistence on correct
spelling and abundant reporting of personal concrete cultural experiences that
neither challenge co-participants nor prompt real reflection of cultural
perspectives. These and other results are contextualized appropriately in the
discussion. Yet, the data sets analyzed also prompt many more questions, e.g.,
how intercultural interactions and meta-cultural talk change in the absence of
common cultural ground, to what extent negotiation of meaning or
metalinguistic talk may differ when the target language also serves as a
‘lingua franca’, or whether among the individual chat participants there is
any evidence of social cohesion or perhaps even of ‘tribalization’. The
discussion hints at some of these questions and thus opens up potential future
research. With implications for future research and informal language learning
practice, the book should be of interest to CALL researchers.

REFERENCES

Herring, S. C. (2007). A faceted classification scheme for computer-mediated
discourse. “Language@ internet”, 4(1), 1-37.

Smith, B. (2003). Computer–mediated negotiated interaction: an expanded model.
“The Modern Language Journal”, 87(1), 38-57.

Tudini, V. (2007). Negotiation and intercultural learning in Italian native
speaker chat rooms. “The Modern Language Journal”, 91(4), 577-601.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ilona Vandergriff is Professor of German at San Francisco State University.
Her research interests focus on Internet-mediated communication in
second/foreign language contexts.








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