Language Learner Behaviour in a Virtual Environment - A Reflective Summary

Roed (2003) investigated the behaviour of university students of Danish while they were engaged in a communicative language task within a synchronous virtual learning environment (i.e. chat room). She found that the task resulted in changes in behaviour; students who were normally very quiet in class, for example, behaved differently in the chat room, playing a considerably more active role. She observes that this kind of environment helps to reduce language anxiety and attributes this to the fact that computer-mediated communication (CMC) creates a rather anonymous environment where the computer serves as a shield from being onstage. The benefit of CMC, she notes, is its ability to function as scaffolding: 'gradually giving anxious students more confidence to embark on conversation in the target language'.

The author also stresses the fact that when operating in virtual environments, not only does learners' behaviour changes, but also the perception of learners' behaviour. Thus, it is possible for normally reserved students, for example, to appear to behave in a brash manner in the eyes of other chat room users. Online language learning certainly has its fair share of disadvantages as well as advantages.

Roed's findings do seem to support the view that online chatting facilitates language learners to communicate as a result of lowered self awareness while engaging in public discourse. However, in my own teaching context (Chinese ESL students, many of whom are shy, passive learners with low English proficiency - in a small primary school in the New Territories) a significant number of students would have to face the double handicap of having only limited vocabularies and limited keyboard skills. I would imagine that such students would go off task easily. Therefore, if I were to set up an online communicative task for my students to complete, in a similar manner to that described in Roed's (2003) article, it would have to be well-planned with clear and achievable goals laid out. Appropriate scaffolding according to my students' linguistic and technical needs would also be necessary. Yet, despite taking these measures, I would still need to address the issue of catering for learner diversity. How, as a teacher, would I be able to keep students of a wide range of abilities happy and ensure that they participate in equal amounts without constantly intervening and interfering? I suppose that for the latter I could always tell my students at the beginning of the task that every one of them has to at least post a certain number of posts (either questions, answers or comments) to their peers. But in terms of keeping everybody happy, no matter what the lag time is between hitting the enter key and the appearance of text on the screen, there will always be those students who become easily frustrated by a sluggish system or the failure of others to respond promptly to their posts. On the other hand, there will be other students who become overwhelmed by the pace of it all.

Nevertheless, I do think that, given their greater linguistic and technical experience, my older students (say at P6 level) would gain more from the experience of being immersed in virtual environments than the younger ones. I would certainly not rule out the possibility of trying out online chatting in English with my older students now that I am aware of some of the drawbacks of the approach. [Update: for a different slant on the issue of using online communication tasks with primary students, click here.]