The Webheads Community of Language Learners Online by Vance Stevens and Arif Altun Proceeds from a demonstration given November 7, 2001, 12:00-12:50 GMT http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/papers/t2t2001/proceeds.htm

Study Abstract Rationale Webheads The Study Conclusion

Methodology

This study is an interpretive case study. Case studies are considered to be very powerful when the researcher has no control over the environment and would like to focus on describing and interpreting the research from an exploratory perspective (Yin, 1994). The Webheads community is an open community for participants as there is no moderator to control the interaction between participants. In other words, the participants introduce themselves and join the practice on their own. Accordingly, the research focus for this study is to explore the perceptions of students joining the online community.

Content analysis as a component in case study is another powerful tool for exploring the patterns and themes emerging in the data (Patton, 1990). In order to examine the specific cases, a three-step process of case study, as suggested by Patton (1990) has been employed to analyze the data. According to the process of constructing case studies, the first step is to assemble the raw case data. In this step, the researchers organize all the available information collected about the participants and setting. In the second (optional) step, the researchers construct a case record. In the final step, a narrative is produced based on the case in question. The narrative can be either chronological or thematical, or both. In the present research, the case study method accommodates the research focus to explore the patterns emerging in students’ perceptions on joining an online community from a distance.

Subjects in the study

A college-level EFL class in Turkey was offered an elective computer-assisted language learning course. One of the aims in the course was to give the students practice in joining synchronous text-based chat environments. Since the students had no prior experience with such chat environments, some of them raised the question where to go for practice. Therefore, the class teacher invited them to participate voluntarily in the Webheads community, where language educators meet language learners in a friendly manner in a variety of synchronous text-based chat environments (augmented sometimes by voice and video as well). A total of 12 EFL students, eight girls and four males, showed an interest in joining the Webheads online community from a distance and in participating the study.

Data collection

Data were generated over the course of three meetings between the Turkish students and the Webheads community. The first meeting took place May 27, 2001, during one of the regular weekly online, virtual meetings of Writing for Webheads. In order to experience participation in CMC by participating in this regular weekly Webheads session the Turkish students had to make a special trip back to school on their weekend. The next meeting was arranged after Arif had agreed with his class to assist with the demonstration Webheads would give at the Teacher to Teacher conference in Abu Dhabi on November 7th of that year. This second meeting, October 31, was set at the exact time of day of the conference presentation one week later. What went on at these three meetings is summarized briefly below.

First meeting, May 27, 2001

The first encounter of the Turkish students with the Webheads community started with Arif gathering his education students together in his office in Turkey just prior to their first synchronous online session with Webheads. Arif then got in touch with Vance in Abu Dhabi in ICQ (a chat client that allows its users to 'see' when others are online). Having established initial contact we moved to a text chat client allowing multiple users. Two other Webheads teachers, John and Maggi, arrived from Puerto Rico and Germany, respectively, and having found each other online, all went to Tapped In for convenience in keeping logs (Tapped In is a MOO environment for educators that emails transcripts of sessions to members who go there). We were joined there by Ying Lan, a Webheads student from Taiwan. Arif's students were very interested in our method of teaching, and they took turns asking questions from Arif's laptop. We experimented with GroupBoard, a free chat client that allows multiple users to share graphics on the same 'whiteboard', and Arif's students sent pictures of themselves chatting, which we shared amongst the participants in the chat. Screen shots were made of web cam images during the event and a web page was set up with these images along with those of the students participating in Turkey (Stevens, 2001c)

Second meeting, October 31, 2001

The second meeting was a practice session for the live conference event scheduled one week later at the Teacher to Teacher conference in Abu Dhabi. In this session, Webheads managed to connect two classes half a world away from each other, as Arif's class of computer-assisted language learning students in Bolu, Turkey interacted with Yaodong's English language class in Liuzhou, China. During the session, both sides communicated via synchronous (live) multi-user voice and text chat, augmented with video web cams visible to all participants. Each side took photos depicting student interactants delighted with their first virtual encounters with peers from half a world away, and some of these and other records of the event were posted on the subsequent Webheads web page (Stevens, 2002d).

Third meeting, Nov 7, 2001

The third meeting was at the Webheads' presentation at the MLI's Teacher to Teacher Conference in Abu Dhabi on November 7, 2001. As the on-site demonstration was done in an auditorium at the conference facility in Abu Dhabi using conference computers working on an Internet connection installed only the day before, we had insufficient time to test at the conference venue all the software we had had available to us the week before, and we found during the presentation that some of our tools were not functioning. In particular, we were unable to get Yahoo Messenger working and therefore couldn't connect the two classes in the multiple user voice and video linkup we had had the week before. Instead we had to resort to Netmeeting which reduced the scope of our interaction to one-to-one presentations, with others in the chat unfortunately unable to either see or hear what was going on between the conference site and the remote participants. However, we were able to get some kind of presentation working under pressure, and as far as our face-to-face audience was concerned, they were at least able to observe us communicating with individuals in the various locations (Bolu, Turkey; and Wuhan and Liuzhou in China).

Under these circumstances, in his presentation to our audience, Arif pointed out that the demonstration had been worthwhile despite technical glitches, which should not cloud the thrust of what we are doing -- bringing global communities together for peaceful and scholarly purposes online. Arif gave some of his students the microphone and they introduced themselves via Netmeeting to our conference participants, and we also saw some of the Turkish students on Arif's web cam via Netmeeting. When the Chinese had their turn, An-Lian in Wuhan was able to explain eloquently to our audience via Netmeeting the importance of our collaboration from her perspective. A website with pictures all the participants including shots of the audience in Abu Dhabi was created and placed on the Web (Stevens, 2002e).

Portions of transcripts of these sessions were analyzed, and the students in Turkey were polled for their reactions to joining these sessions from a distance. Patterns in the discourse were discerned, and the qualitative results are presented below.

Findings

The findings of the study yielded insights on many issues in online interactions such as the role of prior expectations, interest raising, and simply having fun on the quality of the experience for its first-time interactants. Furthermore, it was found that the audio-visual capabilities of the interactive communications used by Webheads seemed to draw both the students’ and teachers’ interest into a desire for further communications. The students' concluding remarks pointed in an encouraging direction: they wanted to try it again.

Examples of patterns emerging from transcripts of the written discourse are presented in the following table:

Raising interest

The Webheads community offers to its members an environment where content is not predetermined; participants control and negotiate at any given moment what to talk about. As the Turkish EFL students entered the community for the first time from a distance one of their initial strategies was to explicitly attempt to acquaint themselves with the other members of the community. In the very early openings, one group of students (sitting around one computer) asked:

344 rf [guest] says, "what can we do"
345 Maggi [guest] says, "just talabout things that interest you"

Topic initiation was not limited to explicit statements. Some students also mentioned in their reflection journals that they had "tried to take attention to them" (Oncel, Reflection journal) and that they had wanted to "meet others by speaking English" (Yurdagul , Reflection journal). Generally, students showed an interest in talking about each other's hometowns; about their personal curiosities, and about how they could develop their language skills.

Hometowns

Talking about one’s hometown is a very common characteristic of computer mediated communication (Turkle, 1995). The following dialogues show evidence of topic initialization based on talking about hometowns.

285 hi [guest] says, "have you ever been to turkiye"
288 VanceS says, "I've been there a couple of times."
290 VanceS says, "Arif told me I drove through your city."
291 hi [guest] says, "why have you been in turkey"

In another dialogue, participants tended to initiate conversation talking about hometowns:

1174 FanL asks, "who is from Turkey?"
1175 LianA says, "rif"
1176 LianA says, "and rif's students"
1177 ssFromTr [guest] says, "I am from turkey"
1178 LianA says, "ssfromtr, hi how are you"
1179 VanceS says, "I have voices in turkish fillig the hall here"
1182 ssFromTr [guest] says, "I am one of rif's students."

Participants tended to greet each other by asking where and which part of the world they were from. Moreover, such endeavors helped maintain the discourse as in the following dialogue:

1215 FanL asks, "Hi, Rif. which part of Turkey are you from?"
1226 rif [guest] says, "Bolu, Northern Turkey"
1318 trss [guest] says, "hifrom turkey"
1331 VanceS says, "Thanks again. Let's meet again in Turkey."

1400 SusanneN says, "I live in Farum, north of Copenhagen, denmark. In our village we have
1401 many Turkish families"

1494 rif [guest] says, "where do you live in denmark"
1495 SusanneN says, "I live north of Copenhagen in a town called farum"
1497 SusanneN says, "Farum has 17 000 inhabitants, and many immigrants"
1498 ssfromtr2 [guest] says, "hi susanne where u from"

Interpersonal exchanges

Another implied characteristic of joining an online community from a distance was a tendency to engage in interpersonal information sharing. The participants, who of course could not see each other face-to-face, raised several personal questions to better know each other. In the very beginning of a conversation, the following dialogue is observed:

337 rf [guest] says, "who is maggi we wonder her"
338 Maggi [guest] says, "Maggi is the other teacher"
341 Maggi [guest] says, "I'm in Germany"

In another session, a similar conversation happened between the two participants:

1402 SusanneN says, "I have had many friends from Turkey but I never went to Turkey myself."
1404 rif [guest] says, "we are a full class here and can you introduce your self to us"

1469 rif [guest] says, "we wonder if you want to learn abaut our university" (Tapped In)
1470 YaodongC [to Simple]: "i am here,watching the presentation."
1472 SusanneN says, "But I would rather hear more about Rif's university"
1474 ssfromtr2 [guest] says, "really you're so beatiful."
1475 SusanneN smiles and elaves the talking stick to rif
1478 rif [guest] says, "thanks a lot"

In this conversation, the participants wanted to focus on a single person to initiate an interpersonal information exchange. It should be noted that hometowns and physical location are used to initiate conversation. In addition, pictures which had been posted on the web gave another impetus to maintaining the conversation.

Language skill development

One of the driving forces in joining an online community is the participants’ expectations of developing and/or practicing their language skills. Learners of English as a foreign language rarely find a chance to use the language they are learning in communicative environments. Such environments can be especially valuable if they provide the students a chance to practice spoken skills. This is of course possible on the Internet, but in the following example, the students exchanged information in writing on the topic.

342 rf [guest] says, "we are good at reading and writing but on the other hand we are not good at
343 speakig"
344 rf [guest] says, "what can we do"
346 rf [guest] says, "to improve our speaking skills"
347 VanceS says, "I just tried my telcopoint site, but we have no place where we can all meet and
348 speak that's private"
349 Maggi [guest] says, "oops...talk to each other"
350 VanceS says, "You could post messages on our voice board, though."
351 VanceS says, "There is a public speech forum, at englishtown.com"
352 Maggi [guest] says, "find tourists to talk to...there must be other speakers of English living
353 there"
354 VanceS says, "This is our voice forum"
355 VanceS says, "http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/wimba.htm"
356 rf [guest] says, "we have not opportunity to chat on internet"
357 Maggi [guest] says, "don't be afraid of making mistakes and don't try to be perfect"
358 JohnSte says, "If you can find movies in English, watch them. That will help you improve
359 your listening."

We see that in this case, the conversation was maintained through information exchange on developing language skills. The community welcomed the participants’ inquiries and provided information online to help them further explore on their own time.

In addition, suprasegmentals (i.e., accent) also initiated a conversation topic among the participants:

360 Maggi [guest] says, "an accent is very charming"
363 rf [guest] says, "thanks for your suggestions"
364 Maggi [guest] says, "if not talking to each other is next best"
365 VanceS asks, "Try Englishtown. Have you been there?"
366 rf [guest] says, "no we haven't been there"
367 Maggi [guest] says, "try eViews for interviews with people of different accents"
368 Maggi [guest] says, "read out loud"

Audio-visual excitement

Audio-visual components in online communications draw a lot of attention and generate excitement among first-time visitors to online chat rooms. When the community members initiated audio-visual enhanced CMC, the Turkish students showed an increased interest in being able to see and hear what was going on.

1368 YaodongC [helpdesk] feels delighted Vance will put on webcam now
1369 LianA [to David]: "good luck"
1370 YaodongC says, "ok"
1371 SusanneN says, "By seeing both Yaodong's class and rif's om the Webhead homepage, I got
1372 a clear impression you were connected :-)"
1373 FanL says, "i can read words, but no sound getting into my ears"
1374 LianA [happy] feels anxious about tardy invitation
1375 VanceS says, "ok Lian, let's try it."
1376 rif [guest] says, "but we could not see yours"

Since this was their first experience, they seemed very excited and eager to see and hear from a distance.

1424 rif [guest] says, "we are very excited since it is our first experience"
1425 SusanneN says, "We need these experiments to find the best way to do this."
1426 YaodongC [to Rif [guest]]: "can we hear your students.pls?"
1427 rif [guest] says, "we hope so"

Other participants also showed a similar reaction to being able to hear others in the chat. Yaodong, for example, is a participant from China and he is very interested in hearing ssfromtr2 (another student in Turkey). Yet, due to some technical incapability, students at the Turkish end could unfortunately not make their voices heard from the other side at this point during the session.

1435 VanceS says, "the presentation is on now"
1436 VanceS says, "(to Yaodong, who asked)"
1437 YaodongC [to VanceS]: "it is a;pity we cannot hear it."
1438 VanceS says, "Lian's English is very good, Jim is impressed"

1476 YaodongC [to Rif [guest]]: "could u possssssibly invite us so that we can hear u/ur
1477 students?"
1480 ssfromtr2 [guest] says, "hi yaodong weare here"
1487 YaodongC [helpdesk] has disconnected.

1542 YaodongC [to Rif [guest]]: "we wish to hear u voice"
1546 YaodongC [to Ssfromtr2 [guest]]: "how can u hear him?"

However, this breakdown did not cut the conversation short. The participants showed an understanding toward each other's technical problems. They expressed their wishes for the next time.

1557 rif [guest] says, "next time our teacher will arrange it so that you can hear us"
1563 YaodongC [to Rif [guest]]: "how come we never heard yr voiice?"
1564 LianA says, "i hear rif's voice this afternoon."
1565 LianA [to YaodongC]: "you can hear his voice later"

On reflection, two of Arif's students summed up their experiences this way:

The important thing was we succeeded to communicate and it was the first time for us. On that time, Anil came near us and said she had a chance to speak to Vance. Therefore, Eda and I decided to try to communicate with him again" (Sema, personal reflection)

This experience was useful for us because we talked them in English, so it was useful for our English" (Emel, personal reflection)

Leave taking

Concluding a conversation in computer mediated conversation shows quite a wide variety of forms due to the very nature of connections and non-face to face communication (Rintel & Pittam, 1997). However, for the first-time participants in the Webheads online community, this was not the case. There was a unique and single pattern in concluding remarks. Students showed an interest in repeating this event again to meet online. In the following lines, for example, it is the students who mention to meet again:

1528 rif [guest] says, "we want to meet again later if you want"
1539 SusanneN [to Rif [guest]]: "and his students Fine! just tell me when we can meet again?"

In their reflection papers, the students showed a similar pattern of desire to repeat this event later. In her personal paper, Sema wrote: "I want to join this kind of communication again. In my opinion, it is useful for us and we are more active". Instead of feeling as foreigners in the community, they seemed to find something in common to further carry on the conversation. In another entry, Oncel wrote: "What I was impressed most is that I talked to an English speaking person without having difficulties. I really had a joyful time while talking. I would like to do this again". From these examples, we find that the Webheads online community, communicating in English, provided a purposeful environment for EFL students to join in and be part of the community.

Unmet expectations

The Turkish students entered the community with pre-conceived notions. Before each meeting, we asked the students to prepare some questions about the EFL profession so that the community would provide responses. These questions were meant to guide the initial stages of conversation. For example, one of the students starts at the very outset of her joining the group with the following question:

428 rf [guest] says, "what are u thinking about question3"
430 VanceS asks, "What was question 3? Can you remind us?" (MSN Messenger)

As the above example shows, the students expected the remote teacher to be focused on the questions they had prepared in advance, but in reality, the remote teacher has his hands full juggling all the remote inputs to the session. The result was that some participant interactions got lost in a flurry of multiple threads which disappeared as the text scrolled off screen. This is a characteristic of synchronous text-based communications that takes some getting used to (even for the native speakers in the chat). In a reflection paper, one of the students wrote:

We asked some questions but some of them were not answered and the others were answered late. I felt a bit angry …if I need to be honest, I was not satisfied wit this conversation because I couldn"t do anything that I thought or imagined in my mind before. (Anonymous Student, Reflection)

It is clear that students carry their expectations to the setting and use them to initiate and continue the conversation. If they do not see their needs met, they feel angry and aimless. However, this was not the case for others who had joined the community earlier. Although they carried expectations with them, they tended to enjoy the sessions for what they were rather than being angry about not achieving all their goals. In an email correspondence, Susanne, a relatively experienced member of the Webheads community, mentions that she is still not sure what to expect, but that it is an enjoyable experience for her to encounter surprises:

"I was happy that you shared the correspondence from last week with rif as I got a better understanding of the situation where I did feel a bit confused - I still never know what to expect, just that I usually enjoy surprises, too." (Susanne, email correspondence)

Vance Stevens (MLI) Arif Altun (Nigde University)

Use the navigation at the top of this page or your browser's BACK button to return to a previous page For comments, suggestions, or further information on this page contact Vance Stevens, CALL Coordinator, MLI, v.stevens@mli.ac.ae Last updated: November 9, 2002 in Hot Metal Pro 6.0