But the computer say me the time is up: the shaping of oral turns mediated with and through the screen

Abstract

Research on mode in computer-mediated communication and language learning has primarily focused on mode-as-channel of communication such as audio- or videoconferencing. However, increasingly sophisticated technological tools now facilitate communication in multiple ways so that learners can convey and respond to peers and screen-based resources, both orally, visually and/or through touch with the screen. By highlighting learner-to-learner turns as well as screen related turns, this paper looks at how learners’ oral meaning making is shaped through both verbal and non-verbal resources. This can provide a better understanding of how the interplay between modes and resources on interfaces might be harnessed to increase learners’ oral turns and identify potential interface-related difficulties learners might face. Audio recordings of six dyads are analysed using discourse analysis, with notions from conversational analysis, alongside interface screenshots. Results reveal that screen-based resources become: 1) embedded or modified in oral turns; 2) resources to initiate and support oral turns; 3) diverse topics of talk. It was also found that learners orientate towards some resources as 4) agentive turn-takers (e.g. pop-ups, to initiate an action). Such multimodal experience reveal how peer-to-peer talk can occasionally resemble a multi-party encounter whereby some resources can act as participants in the interaction. It is proposed that a fuller understanding of this interplay can help teachers and designers optimize computer-mediating communicative language learning tasks.