Changing practices of instruction-giving in video-mediated interaction for an extensive reading book club

Abstract

This study shows how a facilitator gives directive-instructions to create interactional spaces for second language (L2) learning in an online setting by investigating interactions in a video-mediated extensive reading (ER) book club. Taking a multimodal conversation analysis approach, the study observes the facilitator’s changing practices of instruction-giving over time, focusing on two points. First, from a general standpoint, this study focuses on the way the facilitator, through instruction-giving, establishes the institutional boundaries of participation for the book talk activity. Second, and more specifically, this study focuses on the way the facilitator informs the students of or talks about questions she provides as prompts for the students’ book talk. Overall, the analysis indicates that, over time, the facilitator appears to be taking a less controlled approach toward the students’ freedom to choose the topic of discussion during the book talk activity of the book club. The analysis also shows the facilitator diversifying the interactional resources on which she draws in doing question talk, as well as her becoming more aware of the students’ understanding of the questions and therefore giving instructions that are clearer for the students. The findings contribute to a growing body of research on the embodied work of L2 teaching in general, and on facilitators’ instruction-giving in video-mediated interaction specifically. The study also offers methodological implications for conducting video-mediated interaction research and pedagogical implications regarding giving instructions in online settings.