Drawing on usage-based approaches to the study of language learning--including recent research on mobility in interaction, embodied approaches to cognition and communicative action, and innovations in place-based language learning in the wild--this article uses methods from ethnomethodological conversation analysis to investigate video recordings…

This study investigates the identities produced by three L2 teachers of different backgrounds and experiences in an intercultural telecollaborative project that integrated the use of mixed-reality technology. Content-analysis (Hoffman et al., 2011) and multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris, 2011) were employed to identify the identity elements…

In this microanalytical study, designed as part of an interdisciplinary and intercultural virtual exchange project for undergraduate students, the authors investigate the correlation between task design on the one hand and participant interaction during task performance on the other. The task created for this study consisted of 12 low-frequency…

Researchers have shown that mentoring has a positive impact on student teachers' professional learning during their practicum, but it can also be highly problematic due to the inherent power roles in mentor-mentee relationships. Via this study, I offer new insights by examining how we can leverage information technology to address the tensions…

Applications of locative media (e.g., place-based mobile augmented reality [AR]) are used in various educational content areas and have been shown to provide learners with valuable opportunities for investigation-based learning, location-situated social and collaborative interaction, and embodied experience of place (Squire, 2009; Thorne &…

With the integration of new technologies in the foreign language classroom, the practice of collaborative writing has gained renewed attention, although some questions still remain unanswered regarding the extent to which these tools help learners in their writing when compared to more traditional learning contexts (Elola & Oskoz, 2010). In…

Driven by interactionist theory and operationalized by task-based interaction, this study aims to investigate EFL learners' task-based negotiation in Second Life (SL), a 3D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). A group of adult EFL learners with diverse cultural/linguistic backgrounds in L1 participated in this task-based virtual class. Learners…

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) once meant principally text-based communication mediated by computers, but rapid technological advances in recent years have heralded an era of multimodal communication with a growing emphasis on audio and video synchronous interaction. As CMC, in all its variants (text chats, video chats, forums, blogs, SMS,…

This paper aims to explore teacher strategies for managing student participation in a complex Multi-user Virtual Environment. Data include transcribed recordings from a task-based EFL course in Second Life. Conversational Analysis is adopted to analyze the teacher's verbal language output in the transcript, and a student questionnaire is used to…

This paper examines how Chinese international students from a public land-grant university used online community to construct their cultural and ethnic identities. The author delves into the question of how online community enables these students to gain successful cultural assimilation. Extending on Baym's (2000) theoretical framework of online…

This paper reports on the task-based interaction of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in the 3D multiuser virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life. The discussion first explores research on the precursors of MUVEs, text-based 2D virtual worlds known as MOOs. This is followed by an examination of studies on the use of MUVEs in Computer…

This study analyzes the user chat logs and other artifacts of a virtual world, "Quest Atlantis" (QA), and proposes the concept of Negotiation for Action (NfA) to explain how interaction, specifically, avatar-embodied collaboration between native English speakers and nonnative English speakers, provided resources for English language acquisition.…

This paper reports on an exploratory case study that investigates the synchronous interaction of intermediate level EFL learners in the 3D virtual world "Second Life." The subjects took part in three seventy-minute chat sessions that involved the use of affordances provided by a purpose-built world within this environment. Analysis of the data…