Teacher Participation Styles in Foreign Language Chats and Their Effect on Student Behavior

Authors

  • Estela Ene University of Arizona
  • Senta E. Görtler University of Arizona
  • Kara McBride University of Arizona

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v22i3.603-634

Keywords:

Chat, Learner Behavior, German, Teacher Effect, Error Correction

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact that a teacher's virtual presence--or lack thereof--has on students' chat behavior with regard to error correction, uptake, target language use, and on-task behavior. The data come from beginning German students engaged in pair and small-group chatting activities at a major American university. Transcripts from chat sessions in a first-semester German class and a second-semester German class were analyzed. The data were triangulated with student surveys and teacher interviews. Results suggest that the teachers' participation styles had a greater influence on learners' chat behavior than simply whether or not the teachers were present and that the form-focused participation style of one of the teachers had an apparently inhibitory effect on learner participation.

Author Biographies

  • Estela Ene, University of Arizona

    Estela Ene is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Interdisciplinary Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Arizona, majoring in pedagogy and minoring in linguistic analysis. She teaches English composition, Italian, and linguistics, and she served as editor of the Student’s Guide to First-Year Composition. Her research interests include advanced ESL writing, CMC, and issues of international GTAs.

  • Senta E. Görtler, University of Arizona

    Senta E. Görtler is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program at the University of Arizona with a major in pedagogy and a minor in German Studies. At the University of Arizona, she teaches all levels of German and the language-specific portion of the Teaching Methods course and also serves as the Assistant to the Director of Basic Languages. In addition, she teaches ESL at Pima Community College and works for the ESL software developer of English, Baby Inc. Her research interest is in CMC, particularly the role of the teacher during chat.

  • Kara McBride, University of Arizona

    Kara McBride is a Ph.D. Candidate in the interdisciplinary Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program at the University of Arizona, majoring in pedagogy and minoring in psycholinguistics. Her recent studies have focused on information literacy and the use of computer chat in the foreign language classroom. She teaches ESL and Spanish and was the primary designer of the CALL research website CODI (http://coh.arizona.edu/codi). She is interested in what insights psycholinguistics can give to teaching and assessment practices and how that might be applied to educational software and web page design.

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Published

2013-01-14

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 3 (2005)

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Ene, E., Görtler, S., & McBride, K. (2013). Teacher Participation Styles in Foreign Language Chats and Their Effect on Student Behavior. CALICO Journal, 22(3), 603-634. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v22i3.603-634