Introduction
The title of the journal chosen is “Distance Language Learning via Synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (SSMC): Eight Factors Affecting NS-NNS Chat Interaction”. The research is done by, Yoshiko Okuyama. The journal is taken from The JALT CALL Journal, 2005, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.3-20. The main objective and purpose of the study is to see whether adopting a new technology of interpersonal communication improves the effectiveness of distance language education, in this case using chat. Besides that, it is to help teachers to know which learning process suitable for students. Indeed, the purpose of the study is to describe some factors crucially affecting SCMC. The significance of the journal is to confirm that advance technology may assist students in language learning.
Methodologies
Research question:
The research question in this journal is to see whether technology of interpersonal communication improves the effectiveness of language learning. In this case, it is about how technology assists non native speakers (NNS) of Japanese to acquire Japanese language through engaging in chatting programme. It is also to decide what materials and activities suitable to provide for students in order to help them in acquiring the target language. It offers guidelines for teachers as the main source in assisting students in grasping entire knowledge on language.
Sample:
The sample or population of this study is 11 NNS of Japanese. They are native speakers of English with varying sub levels of intermediate Japanese. The youngest NNS is 19 years old, while the ages of the rest of NNS ranged from about 20 to 60. Three native speakers (NS) of Japanese also participate as interlocutors in NS-NNS chat conversations.
Duration:
Participation in chat conversations is assign via the website as part of the 18 module coursework of this distance language course. The duration of this study is 20 hours of chat conversation. The Japanese language course is in four weeks.
Method:
The method of the study is in qualitative manner. The analyzing involves chatting transcript and interviews. It is conducted as an action research investigation which is typically carried out by language instructors on their classroom practices. Teacher involvement is intended for re-seeing learners, the learning process, and the teaching process and is aimed at improving practice. During the first two days, the chatting task is mainly getting to know each other by exchanging greetings and interviewing the NS guest. After that there is a new task for students in chatting, which involves a game type activity. This is to increase each student’s CMC participation. Chatting texts is the main source for the study as it is used for analyzing. 20 hours of chat conversation from 25 chat sessions module has been used.
Data Analysis:
Student’s background survey is administer to all the NNS subjects via WebCT on the first day of the course, and their online class performance (e.g., number and duration of logging in to the course website) is recorded daily in WebCT’s student tracking records. The learners’ chat conversations are store in WebCT’s chat scripts for later retrieval. NS interlocutors participate in twenty-five chat sessions with the NNS subjects conducted on seven separate days via the website across the four week course. Short follow up interviews will be conducted with some participants to assist the interpretation of the chat data. The use of student’s tracking data, the background survey responses, and comments from the interviews provides valuable information for the research analysis. The units of analysis used to describe SCMC participation patterns are turns or lines. These turns is automatically recorded in WebCT’s chat logs. There is a big total of 2,848 turns taken in chat base tasks. Besides that, to ensure the subjects’ anonymity, their names have been changed to two-to-three-letter acronyms (e.g., JA, BOK). Although WebCT does not provide the numbering of turns to indicate different lines, that information is added for the convenience of discussing the transcripts. The analysis of the conversation covers turn taking sequences, greetings, closings and other utterances, as well as the use or non-use of paralinguistic devices which is emoticons.
Findings
The crucial findings of the study are greetings and closings, ease with SCMC in Japanese, spelling errors, interactional modifications and negotiating for meaning, and students’ enjoyment using SCMC. For greetings and closings both NS and NNS tend to use fixed formulaic expressions, such as ‘ohayoo gozaimasu’ (Good morning). After several rehearsal sessions, they start to use more variety of words. The comments from the transcripts of various sessions indicate that some NS and NNS participants felt anxious about chatting in SCMC even in communicating in the target language. Chatters say that they are nervous and it is difficult to use Japanese language in chatting. Indeed, there are vast usages of English smileys through out the chat session. This is to indicate feelings and expressions from learners. Both NS and NNS users of SCMC also make numerous spelling errors in Japanese. One NNS commented on difficulty in transcribing oral Japanese in the alphabet during the chat session, this is because the chat program of WebCT does not support Japanese fonts. All of the participants use Romaji a transcription of Japanese using the Roman alphabet. Besides that, due to the reflective nature of text based SCMC, the NNS participants often make errors in previous messages and correct them in the next turn. Although depending on the individuals, the NNS participants frequently made comprehension or confirmation checks by requesting the NS interlocutor to supply English translation for an unknown word. Toward the end of the course, many of the participants, including the apprentice chatters, express enjoyment in speaking Japanese via SCMC. Upon completing the game, several NNS participants verbalized their excitement in Japanese.
Context of Language Learning in Malaysia
We live in the world of language. To understand each other, one must understand the nature of language. Undeniably, English has been regarded as universal language throughout the world. Therefore it is essential for every individual to acquire and perhaps master the language. Without a doubt, severe problems might occur to non-native speaker to learn this language. The government of Malaysia has come out with standard teaching guidelines for all English teachers whereby it focuses more on acquiring grammar in learning English. This has caused confusion and worsens the young learners’ condition. Grammar somehow is important in learning English but it will not help young learner to grasp the knowledge on English language entirely. With complicated structure of English, learners might lose interest in acquiring it therefore takes English slightly in life.
From the findings of the journal, non native speakers of Japanese, enjoy using the chatting programme to acquire their target language. Most of them improve a lot during each and every session during four weeks of language course. The technology using Internet based has changed the way we communicate and learn over the past three decades. Today’s college students have never known a world without computers. For them to communicate electronically is natural. If we want to apply chatting programme in order to acquire English language several factors have to be taken into account. The cost for providing computers and internet for each students in public school may cost a lot. We may take a big risk if we apply this advance way of language learning to students. Perhaps Malaysia should maintain their traditional way by adding more reading, listening and social interaction activities for students to follow.
Link :
The title of the journal chosen is “Distance Language Learning via Synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (SSMC): Eight Factors Affecting NS-NNS Chat Interaction”. The research is done by, Yoshiko Okuyama. The journal is taken from The JALT CALL Journal, 2005, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.3-20. The main objective and purpose of the study is to see whether adopting a new technology of interpersonal communication improves the effectiveness of distance language education, in this case using chat. Besides that, it is to help teachers to know which learning process suitable for students. Indeed, the purpose of the study is to describe some factors crucially affecting SCMC. The significance of the journal is to confirm that advance technology may assist students in language learning.
Methodologies
Research question:
The research question in this journal is to see whether technology of interpersonal communication improves the effectiveness of language learning. In this case, it is about how technology assists non native speakers (NNS) of Japanese to acquire Japanese language through engaging in chatting programme. It is also to decide what materials and activities suitable to provide for students in order to help them in acquiring the target language. It offers guidelines for teachers as the main source in assisting students in grasping entire knowledge on language.
Sample:
The sample or population of this study is 11 NNS of Japanese. They are native speakers of English with varying sub levels of intermediate Japanese. The youngest NNS is 19 years old, while the ages of the rest of NNS ranged from about 20 to 60. Three native speakers (NS) of Japanese also participate as interlocutors in NS-NNS chat conversations.
Duration:
Participation in chat conversations is assign via the website as part of the 18 module coursework of this distance language course. The duration of this study is 20 hours of chat conversation. The Japanese language course is in four weeks.
Method:
The method of the study is in qualitative manner. The analyzing involves chatting transcript and interviews. It is conducted as an action research investigation which is typically carried out by language instructors on their classroom practices. Teacher involvement is intended for re-seeing learners, the learning process, and the teaching process and is aimed at improving practice. During the first two days, the chatting task is mainly getting to know each other by exchanging greetings and interviewing the NS guest. After that there is a new task for students in chatting, which involves a game type activity. This is to increase each student’s CMC participation. Chatting texts is the main source for the study as it is used for analyzing. 20 hours of chat conversation from 25 chat sessions module has been used.
Data Analysis:
Student’s background survey is administer to all the NNS subjects via WebCT on the first day of the course, and their online class performance (e.g., number and duration of logging in to the course website) is recorded daily in WebCT’s student tracking records. The learners’ chat conversations are store in WebCT’s chat scripts for later retrieval. NS interlocutors participate in twenty-five chat sessions with the NNS subjects conducted on seven separate days via the website across the four week course. Short follow up interviews will be conducted with some participants to assist the interpretation of the chat data. The use of student’s tracking data, the background survey responses, and comments from the interviews provides valuable information for the research analysis. The units of analysis used to describe SCMC participation patterns are turns or lines. These turns is automatically recorded in WebCT’s chat logs. There is a big total of 2,848 turns taken in chat base tasks. Besides that, to ensure the subjects’ anonymity, their names have been changed to two-to-three-letter acronyms (e.g., JA, BOK). Although WebCT does not provide the numbering of turns to indicate different lines, that information is added for the convenience of discussing the transcripts. The analysis of the conversation covers turn taking sequences, greetings, closings and other utterances, as well as the use or non-use of paralinguistic devices which is emoticons.
Findings
The crucial findings of the study are greetings and closings, ease with SCMC in Japanese, spelling errors, interactional modifications and negotiating for meaning, and students’ enjoyment using SCMC. For greetings and closings both NS and NNS tend to use fixed formulaic expressions, such as ‘ohayoo gozaimasu’ (Good morning). After several rehearsal sessions, they start to use more variety of words. The comments from the transcripts of various sessions indicate that some NS and NNS participants felt anxious about chatting in SCMC even in communicating in the target language. Chatters say that they are nervous and it is difficult to use Japanese language in chatting. Indeed, there are vast usages of English smileys through out the chat session. This is to indicate feelings and expressions from learners. Both NS and NNS users of SCMC also make numerous spelling errors in Japanese. One NNS commented on difficulty in transcribing oral Japanese in the alphabet during the chat session, this is because the chat program of WebCT does not support Japanese fonts. All of the participants use Romaji a transcription of Japanese using the Roman alphabet. Besides that, due to the reflective nature of text based SCMC, the NNS participants often make errors in previous messages and correct them in the next turn. Although depending on the individuals, the NNS participants frequently made comprehension or confirmation checks by requesting the NS interlocutor to supply English translation for an unknown word. Toward the end of the course, many of the participants, including the apprentice chatters, express enjoyment in speaking Japanese via SCMC. Upon completing the game, several NNS participants verbalized their excitement in Japanese.
Context of Language Learning in Malaysia
We live in the world of language. To understand each other, one must understand the nature of language. Undeniably, English has been regarded as universal language throughout the world. Therefore it is essential for every individual to acquire and perhaps master the language. Without a doubt, severe problems might occur to non-native speaker to learn this language. The government of Malaysia has come out with standard teaching guidelines for all English teachers whereby it focuses more on acquiring grammar in learning English. This has caused confusion and worsens the young learners’ condition. Grammar somehow is important in learning English but it will not help young learner to grasp the knowledge on English language entirely. With complicated structure of English, learners might lose interest in acquiring it therefore takes English slightly in life.
From the findings of the journal, non native speakers of Japanese, enjoy using the chatting programme to acquire their target language. Most of them improve a lot during each and every session during four weeks of language course. The technology using Internet based has changed the way we communicate and learn over the past three decades. Today’s college students have never known a world without computers. For them to communicate electronically is natural. If we want to apply chatting programme in order to acquire English language several factors have to be taken into account. The cost for providing computers and internet for each students in public school may cost a lot. We may take a big risk if we apply this advance way of language learning to students. Perhaps Malaysia should maintain their traditional way by adding more reading, listening and social interaction activities for students to follow.
Link :
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