Description
Full Title: Using different languages online: Language alternation in a text-based language learning environment from a conversation analytic perspective
The world is continuously becoming more connected. As a result, many people are capable of using more than one language. The development of the worldwide web provided the basis for online interaction. Tandem interaction, the interaction between two interactants who aim to learn each other’s first language, has been brought to the text-based digital environment through the language learning application Tandem. It has been observed that learners frequently alternate between languages in text-based Tandem language interaction. Thus, it is crucial to understand how language learners make use of different languages available to them when learning languages.
Research on language learning has shown that it is beneficial to employ a microanalytic perspective such as (digital) conversation analysis. In conversation analysis the interaction is looked at from a message-by-message approach and the unfolding of the interaction can be examined in depth. In this study, 94 chat logs with different language combinations have been analyzed. In the analysis, the focus was on instances of language alternation in so-called “language learning sequences”. In those, learners displayed understanding of the language through statements such as “Now, I understood”.
In my presentation, I will show where and how learners alternated languages in language learning sequences in order to ensure mutual understanding or initiate in teaching/learning. Especially, when learners have noticed mistakes either made by themselves or by their language learning partner, they alternate languages to make sure that the partner can fully understand the correction. Language learners also alternate languages when indicating uncertainty about their produced utterance in the newly learnt language and inviting the language learning partner to correct them. Further, language learners used different means to illustrate the difference between the languages used.