Effects of negative input on communicative grammar instruction in computer mediated communication in comparison to face-to-face communication

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of negative input, or corrective feedback on grammar learning through computer mediated communication (CMC) in comparison to face-to-face communication (FFC). The underlying assumption of the current study was that grammar should be taught holistically dealing with form, meaning and use (Larsen-Freeman, 2001) within the interactionist framework. A total of sixty students who participated in this study were divided into two groups, CMC and FFC. Both the groups first attended the offline (face-to-face) class during which listening activities and lectures on grammar were conducted and afterwards, had topic discussions on the topics elicited from previous listening and grammar lesson materials. Based upon the major findings made from the transcription analyses along with the results of the questionnaire and interviews, the researcher concluded: 1) meaning negotiation was more abundant in CMC than in FFC by average 33% more discourse interchanges with the peers and the teacher in CMC, 2) learners' noticing of the negative input was prevailing in CMC since the typed messages were more salient than the spoken language, 3) since the learners of CMC noticed the negative input better, they made more modified output.,