Computer-assisted classroom discussion in french using networked computers

Abstract

This dissertation study examined the interaction of intermediate French students using a Local Area Network (LAN) for synchronous classroom discussion in French. The LAN was a real-time network in which students at individual terminals typed written messages concurrently to one another and to their teacher. The messages appeared immediately on all the individual computer monitors and students were then able to read and respond at will. This study included four such computer-assisted discussions in which the resulting written conversations were examined for patterns of discourse as well as for the quantity and quality of student messages. The objective of the study was to examine the nature of classroom discussion in a foreign language on a LAN. The research methodology was descriptive, with findings based on analyses of the researcher's field notes, on the activities and discourse in the regular classroom sections of two third semester French classes, on the printed transcript of four computer lab sessions conducted on the LAN, on student journals, attitude questionnaires, and follow-up, audio-taped interviews with student participants. The findings of these analyses revealed that this student-initiated and student-driven written conversation in French fulfilled many of the criteria for sound language learning pedagogy. The quantity and quality of discourse was found to be very high. The instances of code switching (speaking English as opposed to negotiating for meaning in the target language) were few. The need for teacher intervention to stimulate conversation was low, and student response to communicating on the network was unanimously positive. In sum: there seems to be much to be gained in terms of second language acquisition through the use of a synchronous, real-time local area network to encourage student written discussion in the target language. The LAN provided a motivating medium for student production of meaningful discourse in French, and as such could be an essential part of a curriculum whose goal it is to promote communicative competence in a foreign language.

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