Computer-mediated communication and group journals: expanding the repertoire of participant roles

Abstract

The ability to recognize and adopt a variety of social roles is essential for successful communication. First language research is available on this topic, but very little information is available on participant roles foreign language learners adopt in classroom interactions. The present study investigated the participant roles learners adopted in the two different writing environments: synchronous computer-mediated-communication (CMC) and pencil-and-paper group journals. The subjects were 46 students of intermediate German, each of whom participated in two CMC and two of group journal assignments over the course of a 15-week semester. The data was coded for participant roles learners adopted. The coding was based on categories established by previous research in discourse analysis, social psychology and sociology in first language research. These categories were then expanded to fit the needs of the language learners participating in this study. The results indicated that while some social roles appeared in both writing contexts (speaker, respondent, scolder, creator of in-group identity), others were only found in CMC (attacker, challenger, supporter and joker). Not only did learners adopt a larger variety of participant roles during CMC than in group journals, these roles were also more interactively negotiated in the CMC environment.