This final section of the current chapter will first review the use of some of the most common technologies in network-based language and business communica-tion teaching. It will then introduce the theoretical framework chosen for the pur-poses of the study for classifying various ICTs as the media for communication.
4.4.1 Use of ICTs
In the current study, the notion of network-based teaching refers to teaching that utilizes various network-based ICTs—information and communication technolo-gies. ICTs commonly utilized in network-based language and business communi-cation teaching include e-mail, bulletin boards, computer conferencing, news-groups, chat, and videoconferencing. Of the various technologies, e-mail as a sim-ple and inexpensive one seems to be the technology most widely used in foreign language and business communication classrooms worldwide. When e-mail com-munication started burgeoning at the end of the 1980s, language teachers in par-ticular were quick to see its pedagogical value, as it enabled authentic communica-tion activities, for instance, with students in other parts of the world. Consequently, the myriad ways of using e-mail in language classrooms increased at an exponen-tial rate all through the 1990s. Within a single decade an innumerable number of innovative e-mail projects have been and are being carried out in language class-rooms throughout the world (cf. e.g., Vilmi 1994; Warschauer 1995a; 1995b; 1996;
Warschauer, Schetzer & Meloni 2000; O’Dowd 2003).
As for the pedagogical value of e-mail, Tella’s early study (1991; 1992a;
1992b) on introducing electronic mail into foreign language classrooms points out such features as authenticity, learner-centeredness and the increase in the share of both students’ independent work, and pairwork or teamwork. Gonglewski, Meloni and Brant (2001) further summarize the pedagogical benefits of e-mail in foreign language teaching by pointing out that the use of e-mail provides a context for real-world communication and authentic interaction, and it expands topics beyond classroom-based ones, promotes student-centered language learning, encourages equal opportunity participation and connects speakers quickly and cheaply. E-mail communication and other written forms of textual mediation such as computer conferencing and chat are commonly referred to as computer-mediated communi-cation (CMC).
The regular use of videoconferencing in language and business communica-tion classrooms has not seemed to gain ground at the same rate as CMC although
many language and intercultural communication projects have successfully utilized videoconferencing (Charles & Poncini 1999b; O’Dowd 2000; Furstenberg et al.
2001). High costs, time-consuming special arrangements involved, lack of appro-priate equipment, and incompatibility problems might be reasons why videoconfer-encing has not gained such widespread popularity yet. Instead, the use of the World Wide Web, also known as the WWW or the Web, has grown phenomenally since the mid-90s when it was first introduced to educational settings. Educators and trainers, especially the ones who already had had previous experience in the use of the electronic networks, rapidly recognized the value of this Internet-based com-munication system for sharing and searching for information and the multitude of opportunities the Web provided for educational uses both as a resource and a medi-ating tool (cf. e.g., Barson 1997).
In a large-scale study investigating the potential of the Web as a medium of language instruction both to complement face-to-face teaching and as a stand-alone course, Felix (2001) studied the learners’ perceptions regarding Web-based learn-ing. Reported advantages fell into the broad categories of time flexibility, reforced learning, privacy and wealth of information, while the disadvantages in-cluded distraction, absence of teacher and personal interaction, and lack of speak-ing practice. From the language teachspeak-ing perspective, Felix (2002, 3) writes, “The exciting promise of the Web is that it offers an environment in which a creative teacher can set up authentic learning tasks in which both processes and goals are stimulating and engaging, and which take individual student differences into ac-count.”
4.4.2 Direct and Mediated Communication
How then does the use of the communications11 media such as the ones referred to in the previous section impact the nature of communication in educational con-texts? Although searching answers to the question is not within the primary scope of the current study, raising the question is relevant, however, as the use of com-munications media needs to be considered within a specified framework catego-rizing the various modes of communication. One categorization includes making the distinction between synchronous and asynchronous communication. Conse-quently, synchronous communication would include such real-time communication modes as face-to-face communication and communication mediated by such tech-nologies as audiographics, chat and videoconferencing, while e-mail and computer conferencing would represent asynchronous communication modes. However, as
11In this study, the term ‘communications’ is used in the plural when the emphasis is on technology and the means of communicating, while ‘communication’ in the singular is used when the focus is on the process of communicating.
useful as such, this categorization seems limited when faced with a need to ac-commodate to the rapid technological advances and increasingly blended ways of utilizing them, which, for instance, provide various forms of group communication or mobile learning opportunities.
A comprehensive conceptual framework for positioning the available tech-nologies and contrasting computer-mediated human communication with human-to-human communication is presented by Tella and Mononen-Aaltonen (1998, 67–74). They provide a multi-dimensional model of communication that divides communication into direct communication and mediated communication. In Bak-htinian terms, they build their model on the notion of addressivity, which stresses the interdependency of the speaker and the addressee. Their model contrasts direct addressivity with mediated addressivity. Tella and Mononen-Aaltonen (1998, 71) define direct addressivity as a complement of direct face-to-face communication whose “role is to emphasize the reciprocating presence of the other(s), the interde-pendency between the persons involved in communication.”
Furthermore, Tella and Mononen-Aaltonen (1998, 72) divide addressivity into primary, secondary and tertiary addressivity. Primary and secondary addressivity refer to real time human-to-human communication, whereas tertiary addressivity is the layer in the model that is concerned with telematic media that enables mediated communication between human beings. They speculate that tertiary addressivity is gradually approaching primary addressivity along with the growing user-friendliness of telematic tools and services. They further point out that direct com-munication and mediated comcom-munication, in turn, approach each other as technol-ogy and communication merge.
As explicated by Tella and Mononen-Aaltonen (1998, 68–69), the model graphically depicted in Figure 3 below consists of the following dimensions or
“channels”:
(i) The primacy of communication, divided into direct communication and me-diated communication.
(i) The directness of addressivity, divided, on the one hand, into direct addres-sivity and mediated addresaddres-sivity, and, on the other, into primary addressiv-ity, secondary addressivity and tertiary addressivity.
(i) The directionality of communication, divided into unidirectionality, bidirec-tionality and multidirecbidirec-tionality.
(i) The dominance of voices, divided into monophony, stereophony and po-lyphony.
(i) The question of time and immediacy, i.e., synchrony (“on-line”) or asyn-chrony (“off-line”).
(i) The nature of communication, divided into human-to-human communication (HHC) and computer-mediated human communication (CMC).
The dimensions of direct and mediated communication and the three layers of ad-dressivity are illustrated in Figure 3 as follows:
Dimensions of Direct and
Figure 3. Dimensions of Direct and Mediated Communication (Tella, S. & Mononen-Aaltonen, M. 1998, 70).
The current study draws on this multidimensional model of communication as its theoretical backdrop for categorizing the communications media used in the actual implementation of the study.
5Social Presence
“As has been underlined many times, it is not the technology but the way it is used, which ultimately affects the learner. A good teacher has presence in any medium.”
(Mason 1994, 34)
ICTs have enabled the implementation of educational experiences that do not re-quire individual participants to be physically present (e.g. computer conferencing) or the participating groups to be in the same place (e.g. group-to-group videocon-ferencing). As a result, the issue of the participants’ presence in such mediated educational contexts has been gaining increasing attention. This current chapter will address the issue of presence in connection with such environments by re-viewing research particularly on the notions of social presence and the related con-cepts.