Improving Communicative Competence through Synchronous Communication in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments: A Systematic Review

Xi Huang

doi:10.3390/educsci8010015

Abstract

Computer-supported collaborative learning facilitates the extension of second language acquisition into social practice. Studies on its achievement effects speak directly to the pedagogical notion of treating communicative practice in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC): real-time communication that takes place between human beings via the instrumentality of computers in forms of text, audio and video communication, such as live chat and chatrooms as socially-oriented meaning construction. This review begins by considering the adoption of social interactionist views to identify key paradigms and supportive principles of computer-supported collaborative learning. A special focus on two components of communicative competence is then presented to explore interactional variables in synchronous computer-mediated communication along with a review of research. There follows a discussion on a synthesis of interactional variables in negotiated interaction and co-construction of knowledge from psycholinguistic and social cohesion perspectives. This review reveals both possibilities and disparities of language socialization in promoting intersubjective learning and diversifying the salient use of interactively creative language in computer-supported collaborative learning environments in service of communicative competence.

Highlights

Previous meta-analyses have reported that computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), where individuals are encouraged or required in negotiation and sharing of meanings to solve problems at hand in groups or within organizations with the help of modern information and communication technology [1,2], markedly enhanced learning opportunities for non-native speakers [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
These overall advantages of CSCL were variously explained from different theoretical perspectives: computer-supported collaboration functions on the basis of “groupware” providing individuals with a higher level of information sharing, coordinating and navigating; social connectivity was enhanced through equal participation that was facilitated in the CSCL environment; and especially the socially distributed process of inquiry in CSCL has been underscored for building collective intelligence in such a technologically sophisticated collaborative language-learning environment
Given the alleged interactive feature and social presence, there is no guarantee in the literature for the recognition and acknowledgement of language-related episodes of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in normal classroom discourse and for the consistency between task-as-workplan and task-as-process that results in successful learner outcomes

Summary

Introduction

Previous meta-analyses have reported that computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), where individuals are encouraged or required in negotiation and sharing of meanings to solve problems at hand in groups or within organizations with the help of modern information and communication technology [1,2], markedly enhanced learning opportunities for non-native speakers [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] These overall advantages of CSCL were variously explained from different theoretical perspectives: computer-supported collaboration functions on the basis of “groupware” providing individuals with a higher level of information sharing, coordinating and navigating; social connectivity was enhanced through equal participation that was facilitated in the CSCL environment; and especially the socially distributed process of inquiry in CSCL has been underscored for building collective intelligence in such a technologically sophisticated collaborative language-learning environment. In view of Litterwood’s [11] category of communicative competence, this review coins linguistic and discourse competence as “organizational competence” (p. 243), underscores the most pertinent variables as learner proficiency, modality, interactional pattern and learning context to examine groupware and intersubjective learning, and mainly investigates the quality of language output and learning experience through this groupware technology

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion