Negotiated interactions in cross-cultural video-mediated virtual exchanges

Abstract

Motivated by the increasing popularity of service-provider virtual exchanges (SPVEs), in which native speakers (NS) are trained, supervised, and paid by a third-party company to converse about cultural topics with second language (L2) learners, this study examines the potential of L2-NS videoconferencing conversations to foster negotiation of meaning and form-focused interactions. Students enrolled in fourth-semester Spanish classes (n = 20) were tasked with completing four SPVEs using TalkAbroad. Videoconferencing recordings from 40 thirty-minute conversations were transcribed and turns involving negotiated interaction were identified and coded according to who initiated the negotiation (L2 or NS), the negotiation type (i.e. general, cultural, lexical, or grammatical) its success (i.e., successfully or unsuccessfully resolved), and whether there was uptake or not. A Logistic regression was used to identify the factors that predict each type of negotiation and mixed effects model analysis was carried out to determine differences over time. Results indicate that the main factors predicting negotiation in SPVEs are length of negotiation and conversation recurrence. Length of negotiation was found to have a negative impact on the amount of negotiation, negotiation of form, success, and uptake. Conversation recurrence has a detrimental effect on the amount of negotiation and uptake. Familiarity with the interlocutor has a positive impact on grammatical negotiations. These results offer insights into the nature of L2-NS videoconferencing exchanges and provide leads on how to implement this type of virtual exchanges to maximize their effectiveness.