Back cover text dissertation Rose van der Zwaard
The digital platforms that are now available within most educational contexts in many parts of the world facilitate communication and collaboration beyond institutional constraints and national boundaries and provide educators with the possibility to create digital communication environments and forums. Linking up students from different parts of the globe, which used to be an expensive and time-consuming effort involving plane trips and youth hostels has, technically speaking, become a matter of acquiring the right equipment and downloading the appropriate software: interactive computer-mediated communication technologies in the second language classroom give language learners the opportunity to collaborate with native speakers of the target language without leaving their classrooms.
This thesis investigates emerging patterns of digital interaction between dyads of native and non-native speakers during synchronous computer-mediated communication with a particular focus on negotiation of meaning (or lack thereof). The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between negotiation configurations and the type of synchronous mode of computer-mediated communication, i.e. to investigate if and how the digital mode of real-life communication affects the ongoing interaction in a language learning environment; whether any consistent patterns can be observed for each mode of communication, and what causes these occurring patterns.
This study contributes to an understanding of processes related to second language acquisition in a telecollaboration environment.
