This study investigates the different learning opportunities enabled by text-based and video-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) from an interactionist perspective. Six Chinese-speaking learners of English and six English-speaking learners of Chinese were paired up as tandem (reciprocal) learning dyads. Each dyad participated…

In order to answer the question as to what can be done with video that cannot be done with sound-only recordings, the role of the visual channel of communication in interaction is examined. This examination is based on the experience of foreign language teachers who have been using video in the classroom for five years. The point is made that in…