Foreign language learning with CMC: forms of online instructional discourse in a hybrid Russian class

Abstract

Where the role of instructor discourse has been the focus of much recent research on asynchronous online instruction, the anatomy of effective instructional discourse of foreign language educators has yet to be examined. Indeed, the majority of work in the area of foreign language and telecommunications has concentrated on student–student, student–peer interaction and the power through autonomy these dyads encourage. Little attention has yet been given to specific language strategies used by teachers in online conversations that are instructional in nature. The authors examine the online teaching strategies employed by the teacher of a first-year Russian class that integrated Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) for extended language practice and, in this case, instruction through the teacher’s careful interventions. In some respects, these interventions resemble those of the ideal communicative classroom where authentic, student-centered activities incorporate focus on form. Based on this one case of a foreign language educator actively using this tool to instruct, it would appear that CMC includes the opportunity for both teacher and students to stop the clock, examine the language being used in the online conversation, determine teachable and learnable moments, and respond accordingly.