Opportunities for second language learning in online search sequences during a computer-mediated tutoring session

ABSTRACT

To inform pedagogical decisions about using technology, it is important to understand from the ground up how technology is utilised during language learning activities. This paper takes an ethnomethodological conversation analytic approach to examine a learner’s participation in epistemic management actions and its consequences for second language learning during online search sequences. Data come from a conversation-for-learning between a tutor and a tutee conducted via voice and text chat in Skype. Microanalysis of the online search sequences reveals that the emergence of a teachable/learnable can be spurred by the confluence of interactional practices and computer technology affordances. Further, we show how technological friction can induce rather than constrain language use and practice. Our findings call for more attention to coordinated online searches as a learning activity in its own right.

KEYWORDS:

• Conversation analysis
• online searches
• second language learning
• epistemic management
• vocabulary

Transcription notations

Transcription notations follow Jefferson (2004) and in addition:

Table

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Andre Langevin for the support with collecting the data and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A ‘searchable object is ‘something stored on the Internet’ or ‘something that can be produced using materials found on the Internet’ (Brown, McGregor, and McMillan 2015, 511).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanh thi Nguyen

Dr Hanh thi Nguyen is professor of Applied Linguistics in the TESOL Programme at Hawaii Pacific University. Her research interests include the development of interactional competence in a second language and at the workplace, classroom discourse, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, and Vietnamese applied linguistics.

Ann Tai Choe

Ann Tai Choe is a PhD candidate in the Department of Second Language Studies at University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. Her current research interests centre on multimodal interaction, membership categorisation analysis, and classroom discourse.

Cristiane Vicentini

Cristiane Vicentini is a graduate research assistant and PhD candidate in Language and Literacy Learning in Multilingual Settings at the University of Miami. She earned an M.A. in TESOL from Hawaii Pacific University, and an M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Tampa. Her research interests include TESOL, multiliteracies, multimodality, and the use of technology for language teaching and learning.