Applying the networking power of Web 2.0 to the foreign language classroom: a taxonomy of the online peer interaction process

ABSTRACT

Over the years, educational institutions have increasingly integrated Web 2.0 platforms as support tools in the foreign language learning curriculum to facilitate learners’ engagement with the foreign language, increase motivation, and enable them to socially and collaboratively interact with fellow learners online. While descriptive studies on the topic have long dominated the field, they often lack close examinations of the nature of peer interaction, its mediating factors, and the effect it has on participants’ learning curve. Presenting a research project in which two groups of more than 200 first-year foreign language majors were introduced to collaborative writing through Facebook, this study demonstrates how and why online peer interaction occurs and unfolds. It is shown that learners engage in cognitive and metacognitive processes while being social and responsible participants in the learning process. These findings are compiled in a taxonomy, modelling the communicative functions of peer interaction for academic purposes in the Facebook environment. This study illustrates how first-year English majors use language to establish themselves as learners in a new learning environment while discussing academic writing challenges online. In the peer interaction process, learners initiate cardinal learning activities in which they strive for proper cognitive, metacognitive, organisational and social functioning..

KEYWORDS:

• Sociocultural context
• grounded theory
• foreign language learning
• peer interaction
• Facebook

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Conceptualising the term ‘communicative function’ after Halliday's (1975) description of language development, does not fully address the different semiotic dimensions of the language system. However, this interpretation opens up the possibility to model functional patterns and set the first steps in decoding the nature of different utterances and postings in the peer interaction process. For a more elaborate account on language development and the spectrum of metafunction in the adult language system, see Halliday (1975).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ward Peeters

Ward Peeters is a PhD researcher in applied linguistics at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and is a teaching assistant at the department of English Studies at Ghent University (Belgium). He studies social network impact in foreign language learning and has conducted research projects in both Belgium and South Africa as part of an extensive study on computer-supported collaborative work.