Coda: the interactional affordances and constraints of technology-rich teaching and learning environments

ABSTRACT

This coda describes various affordances and constraints associated with technology-rich language teaching and learning. It begins with a discussion of articles in this special issue of Classroom Discourse and then expands to engage with broader dynamics associated with uses of digital tools in language education. In particular, we address research issues relating to technology-rich activity such as the complexity of multimodal transcription and analysis when mapping multiple semiotic fields, potential challenges presented by polyfocality, the implications of response latency on the sequential organisation of talk, the historically and experientially formed cultures-of-use of digital communication tools as they may inform patterns and expectations of behaviour, and the potentially active role of various technologies as co-constitutive of the morphologies of action of teachers and learners in technology-rich settings.

KEYWORDS:

• cultures-of-use
• multimodal transcription
• new materialism
• polyfocality
• response latency
• sequence organization

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven L. Thorne

Steven L. Thorne is Professor of Second Language Acquisition in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Portland State University (USA), with a secondary appointment in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). His research draws upon contextual traditions of language analysis and usage-based approaches to language development. Areas of interests include formative interventions in world languages education, communication across digital media and mobile technologies, and Indigenous language revitalisation.

John Hellermann

John Hellermann is a Professor in Applied Linguistics at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon (USA). Using methods from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, he has investigated the sequential actions and semiotic practices involved in language learning, the prosodic organisation of language, the linguistic landscapes of urban areas, and theories of language and learning.