*REFERENCES*

http://www.arabicacquisition.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ro49ZYhP6Q&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEHdYLssFX8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEHdYLssFX8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0w_WK7P6lk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ro49ZYhP6Q&feature=related

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocean_of_stars/3033387615/

http://kitaabun.com/shopping3/images/arabcalph.jpg

www.enashare.blogspot.com

http://www.childrenslibrary.org

http://www.kalamullah.com/learning-arabic

http://www.uni.edu/becker/arabic.html

LESSON PLAN (original)

Topic : Customer Complaint

Time : 10.00 a.m. – 10.40 a.m. (40 minutes)

Curriculum Specifications : 2.0 Language for Informational Use

2.1 To obtain, process and use information from various audiovisual and print sources and be able to present the information in spoken and written form.

Skill : Listening and Speaking

General Objective : To develop students’ ability to understand

conversation about customer complaint and identify the

main ideas.

Specific Learning Outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

Pre-Listening

Orally discuss the topics that can be related to the picture

about customer complaint within 5 minutes.

While-Listening

Listen to the conversation and choose the correct answers

based on the conversations within 15 minutes.

Post-Listening

Write a brief dialogue between a student and a Chief

librarian regarding the poor service offered by the

school library within 10 minutes.

Moral values : Co-operation, friendship, and organization.

Stage : Pre-listening

Time : 5 minutes

Aid : Slideshow presentation

1. Teacher starts the lesson by sharing about her dissatisfaction about the poor service at the cafeteria.

2.Students are instructed as follows:

• Watch the picture of customer complaint on the slideshow.
• Orally give their ideas about the main ideas of the picture.

3. Teacher asks the students if they understand the instructions.

4. Students give their feedback.

5. Teacher displays the slideshow to the students.

6. Students give their ideas about possible topic of the picture.

7. Teacher responds to the answers given by the students.

8. Teacher writes students’ answers in point form on the board.

9. Teacher relates the activity with what will be taught afterward.

Rationale:

To attract students’ attention towards the lesson.

To activate the right schemata.

Stage : While-listening

Time : 15 minutes

Aid : Software on listening

http://esl.about.com/library/listening/bllis_customer1.htm

1. Students are instructed as follows:

• Listen to a conversation in a classroom about a customer complaint

• Read all the questions on the website before listening to the conversation.

• The conversation from the software will be played twice.

1^st Time

Students are asked to listen to the conversation and answer the questions. If the students fail to answer any of the questions, leave the questions and move to the next question.

2^nd Time

Students listen to the conversation again and complete the tasks which they have skipped in the first listening.

2. Teacher asks the students whether they understand the instructions or not.

3. Students give their feedback.

4. Teacher provides several minutes for the students to read the questions from the site. (See appendix 1).

5. Teacher plays the conversation from the software.

6. Students try to answer the questions in a piece of paper.

7. Teacher plays the conversation from the software once again for second listening.

8. Students check their answers and complete the tasks which they have skipped.

9. Teacher sets the students into groups of 3 and asks them to discuss the answers.

10. Teacher selects the students randomly to read the answers.

11. Teacher teaches the students how to get the correct answers by using cue words.

12. Teacher discusses the answers with the whole class.

Rationale:

To permit students to understand the conversation.

To enable students to identify the important details.

Stage : Post-listening

Time : 10 minutes

Aid : Worksheet 1 (Appendix 1)

1. Students are instructed as follows:

• Get into pairs.

• Write a brief dialogue between a student and a School Chief Librarian regarding the poor services offered.

• They are given 10 minutes to complete the tasks.

2. Teacher asks the students if they understand the instructions.

3. Students give their feedback.

4. Teacher distributes the worksheet.

5. Students write the dialogue in pairs.

6. Teacher randomly asks several students to act out their dialogue in front of the class.

7. Teacher corrects serious errors made by the students, for example in pronunciation, sentence structure and word choice.

Rationale :

To enable students to use the correct forms and functions in order to express their dissatisfaction.

Appendix 1

Questions from the software

What did the woman receive as a gift?

What kind of gift was it?

Why does she not want it?

Why can’t she get her money back?

What can she do with it?

What would she like?

What kind of handbag would she like?

What kind of handbag is she looking for?

Where is the handbag that she likes?

What is the problem with the handbag she likes?

What can she have instead of a refund?

Who would she like to speak to?

What does the man think the manager will say?

Where has the manager been?

Appendix 2 (Post-Listening)

Worksheet 1

Imagine yourself as a student and your partner as a school Chief Librarian, and you are not satisfied with the services offered by the school library. Write a brief dialogue between you and the school Chief Librarian about the problem. How are you going to write the dialogue? Remember that you need to act it out J.

You may include these points in your dialogue :

• What are the problems faced in the school library?

• How does the schools’ Chief Librarian reacts to the problem

• How can the schools’ library improves its services?

LESSON PLAN (revised)

Topic : Customer Request

Time : 10.00 a.m. – 11.20 a.m. (80 minutes)


Curriculum Specifications : 2.0 Language for Informational Use

2.1 To obtain, process and use information from various

audiovisual and print sources and be able to present the

information in spoken and written form.

Skill : Listening and Speaking


General Objective : To develop students’ ability to understand
conversation about customer complaint and identify the
main ideas.

Specific Learning Outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

Pre-Listening
Orally discuss the topics that can be related to the picture
about customer complaint within 5 minutes.

While-Listening
Listen to the conversation and choose the correct answers
based on the conversations within 15 minutes.

Post-Listening
Write a brief dialogue between a student and a Chief
librarian regarding the poor service offered by the
school library within 10 minutes.

Moral values : Co-operation, friendship, and organization.


Stage : Pre-listening
Time : 20 minutes
Aid : Slideshow presentation


1. Teacher starts the lesson by sharing about her dissatisfaction about the poor service at the cafeteria.

2. Students are instructed as follows:

i. Watch the picture of customer complaint on the slideshow.

ii.Orally give their ideas about the main ideas of the picture.

3. Teacher asks the students if they understand the instructions.

4. Students give their feedback.

5. Teacher displays the slideshow to the students.

6. Students give their ideas about possible topic of the picture.

7. Teacher responds to the answers given by the students.

8. Teacher writes students’ answers in point form on the board.

9. Teacher relates the activity with what will be taught afterward.

Rationale:

1. To attract students’ attention towards the lesson.
2. To activate the right schemata.

Evaluation

Teacher displays another picture and asks the students to write about the main ideas of the picture, individually. The answers will be discussed in the next class.

Stage : While-listening
Time : 40 minutes
Aid : Software on listening

http://esl.about.com/library/listening/bllis_customer1.htm

1. Students are instructed as follows:

· Listen to a conversation in a classroom about a customer request.
· Read all the questions on the website before listening to the conversation.
· The conversation from the software will be played twice.

1st Time

Students are asked to listen to the conversation and answer the questions. If the students fail to answer any of the questions, leave the questions and move to the next question.

2nd Time

Students listen to the conversation again and complete the tasks which they have skipped in the first listening.

2. Teacher asks the students whether they understand the instructions or not.

3. Students give their feedback.

4. Teacher provides several minutes for the students to read the questions from the site. (See appendix 1).

5. Teacher plays the conversation from the software.

6. Students try to answer the questions in a piece of paper.

7. Teacher plays the conversation from the software once again for second listening.

8. Students check their answers and complete the tasks which they have skipped.

9. Teacher sets the students into groups of 3 and asks them to discuss the answers.

10. Teacher selects the students randomly to read the answers.

11. Teacher teaches the students how to get the correct answers by using cue words.

12. Teacher discusses the answers with the whole class.

Rationale:

1. To permit students to understand the conversation.
2. To enable students to identify the important details.
3. To enable students to identify words and expressions used in making complaints.

Evaluation

At this stage, students are required to answer the questions displayed from the software. All of the questions are based from the conversation in the software. If students manage to answer most of the questions correctly, it shows that students have grasped the main ideas from the conversation.



Stage : Post-listening
Time : 20 minutes
Aid : Worksheet 1 (Appendix 1)

1. Students are instructed as follows;

i. Get into pairs.

ii. Write a brief dialogue between a student and School Chief Librarian regarding the poor services offered .

iii. They are given 10 minutes to complete the tasks.

2. Teacher asks the students if they understand the instructions.

3. Students give their feedback.

4. Teacher distributes the worksheet.

5. Students write the dialogue in pairs.

6. Teacher randomly asks several students to act out their dialogue in front of the class.

7. Teacher corrects serious errors made by the students, for example in pronunciation, sentence structure and word choice.




Rationale :

To enable students to use the correct forms and functions in order to express their dissatisfaction.

Appendix 1

Questions from the software


1. What did the woman receive as a gift?
2. What kind of gift was it?
3. Why does she not want it?
4. Why can’t she get her money back?
5. What can she do with it?
6. What would she like?
7. What kind of handbag would she like?
8. What kind of handbag is she looking for?
9. Where is the handbag that she likes?
10. What is the problem with the handbag she likes?
11. What can she have instead of a refund?
12. Who would she like to speak to?
13. What does the man think the manager will say?
14. Where has the manager been?

Appendix 2 (Post-Listening)

Worksheet 1

Imagine yourself as a student and your partner as a school Chief Librarian, and you are not satisfied with the services offered by the school library. Write a brief dialogue between you and the school Chief Librarian about the problem. How are you going to write the dialogue? Remember that you need to act it out .


You may include these points in your dialogue :

· What are the problems faced in the school library?
· How does the schools’ Chief Librarian reacts to the problem
· How can the school library improves its services?



COMMENTS


First of all, Dr. Rozina has commented that there are some grammatical errors in our original lesson plan. The time allocated for the whole lesson plan is said to be too short, which is 40 minutes. Thus, we have doubled the time to 80 minutes in the revised lesson plan. We have changed the topic of the lesson plan from “Customer Complaint” to “Customer Request”. This is because, the whole conversation in the software is about requesting something, instead of complaining. Other than that, the evaluation part is missing. We have divided our original lesson plan into three stages or activities but it is only at the 3rd stage, which is the post-listening stage that we provide the students with exercises. In the improvised version of the lesson plan, we have added two more exercises at the end of each activity, which is in the first activity, the pre-listening and the second activity, the while-listening. Besides the evaluation part, our original lesson plan is too detail that in the while-listening stage, the instructions given are redundant and confusing. For the improvement, we have edited and paraphrase the instructions.

LESSON PLAN REFLECTION

REFLECTION

This assignment has given us insights on how a lesson or a skill should be taught and how a classroom should actually be conducted. We as BENL students have not been exposed to the teaching skills as much as the ones learnt by the TESL students. The preparation of this lesson plan has somehow enlightened us on the most fundamental procedure that should be done before a real teaching is actually conducted. Lesson plan does not only lay out all the activities that are taking place but also prepares the teachers for better flow of teaching.

In completing this assignment, we have gained better exposure to the technologies, specifically on how to use certain software as teaching and learning tools. Many have been so religiously accustomed to the traditional way of teaching yet not gained so much of positive outcomes from their lesson teaching. We have seen that the role of multimedia has become significant in today’s everyone’s daily routine. Thus, the use of anything computer-driven in teaching should bring more positive outcome as it suits the interest of many people specifically the students.

This assignment also provides us with preparations in facing the real teaching scenario and in dealing with the academic community. We have learnt that teaching is not just a matter of conveying what you have to teach in class but also an event that needs to be planned well for the purpose of accomplishment of needs for both teachers and students. In planning the lesson, teachers do not only consider what they want to do, but also what the students should need from the lesson.

Apart from gaining practical knowledge of this assignment, it also teaches us how to synthesize different ideas from different group members. Every group member seems to come up with a lot of ideas although the other group member might have the total opposites. Gratefully, tolerance has made this assignment completed with success since every idea produced is considered with thorough and careful thought.

STUDENTS' REFLECTION

The target students in this lesson plan will also benefit well. They will gain better exposure to the use of computer in their language learning, specifically English. Students will be better equipped with the use of technologies such as online learning, and the use of audio-visual. These technologies assist them in acquiring language skills, specifically listening skill.

The teaching method is very interactive, allowing both the students and the teacher to exchange information and experience. Most of the activities involve two-way communication that helps the students to improve their understanding of the subject. Other than that, it polishes up their level of confidence especially in expressing their thoughts.

In the process of acquiring the skills, students develop their abilities in critical and analytical thinking. The activities require students not to just merely listen to the conversation played, but they have to think of the correct answers and grasp the main ideas of the conversation at the same time. Given the tasks, students will be more participative and active in class rather than just receiving the information and input.

CMC SUMMARY: mimi

INTRODUCTION

The title for the article is, “Affect in Computer-Mediated Communication: An Experiment in Synchronous Terminal-to-Terminal Discussion. Time and again, computer is believed to be the significant technological development and it seems sensible to study the underlying psychological and social implications of this development. This is because; modern computing technologies do have major effects on patterns of social contact.

Three types of affects can be distinguished in social situations in which people communicate and they are; physiological arousal, subjective emotions or affective feelings and expressive behaviour. This study investigates whether computer-mediated-communication influences one or more of these three forms of affect and the patterns of language used. It is noted that the nature of computer-mediated-communication of synchronous mode is instantaneous and it relies on the text per se, which reduces to a minimum nonverbal feedback and social context information.

METHODOLOGY

This study was designed to address one question that actually raised by the researcher which is, does computer-mediated communication change individuals’ feelings and does this feelings affect the patterns of language used? This study was a qualitative study. The basic design of the research was a comparison physiological arousal, subjective self-reports of feelings, attributions, evaluations and interpersonal behavior in two communication settings, one with two people met and talked with each other for the first time face-to-face and the other in which two people met and talked with each other via on-line computer conversation.

In conducting the research, eighty male and female undergraduate students from Carnegie-Mellon University were paid to participate in a study of communication. Subjects did not know each other before the experiment and they were randomly paired for the experiment. There were 11 female-female pairs, 12 male-male pairs, and 17 mixed-sex pairs, roughly divided among conditions. All the participants already had experience using computers and computer terminals.

Throughout the experiment, students were asked to discuss as many questions as possible with the partner, to follow questions from the guide and to wait until both partners had answered each question before going to the next one. Questions discussed ranging from factual questions about the other person’s background and life to questions about opinions, feelings and evaluations. The examples of the questions are; “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”, “Are you an active member any organization?”, “Name three important aspects of your ideal boyfriend/girlfriend?”, “what do you usually do at a party?” and “Are you often willing to take risks?”

The pair of subjects had been assigned to the low-evaluation anxiety and high-evaluation anxiety. In the low-evaluation anxiety condition, subjects were told to not to be concerned about what was said during the conversation because the researchers are only interested in the patterns of discussion. However, in the high evaluation anxiety, the subjects were told to use their best social skills because each of them is going to meet his or her partner in person (computer mediated communication) and again, in person (face to face communication). They subjects will compete with other pairs of subjects to see which pair is most socially adept in situations which involve interactions between new people.

The subjects were given 20 minutes in the both face to face communication and computer mediated communication to answer and asked question from the discussion guide. In computer mediated communication condition, subjects were using interactive software program for online synchronous communication known as converse.

DATA ANALYSIS

The expressive behaviour and communication processes of the subjects were evaluated using analyses of the content of the discussions between the subjects. The discussions in computer mediated communication between each pairs of subjects were recorded directly in the computer files and the face to face discussions tape recordings were transcribed into computer files. The content of the conversation was not being altered at all. The efficiency and difficulty of the communication is measured by counting the number of the questions guide that the subjects were able to complete.

FINDINGS

All of the subject pairs interacted successfully for twenty minutes. The result has shown that face-to-face pairs said 9 times as many words as did the computer-conversing pairs. They also made 6 times the number of remarks. The interchanges of conversation in both conditions can be regarded as positive. Both conditions of pairs begin their sessions by telling ordinary things about themselves but later disclosed quite a lot about themselves.

Even though face-to-face pairs said many words as compared to computer mediated communication pairs, these CMC pairs were more engaged in a highly personal exchange. On several cases, the pairs seemed to have found reason to interact further.

Other than that, males were more likely to swear in the conversation and mixed-sex pairs like each other more than same sex-pairs. A very high self-disclosure can be seen in the mixed-sex, computer mediated condition relative to the other conditions. This finding has confirmed about the role of computer in reducing initial shyness and promoting romantic attachments.

REACTION TO THE FINDING

This research is unreliable in measuring the conversation patterns between speakers especially in the face to face communication. The time allocated for both conditions was very short. 20 minutes is too short a time to measure the progression of the conversation in face-to-face condition. 20 minutes time will only provide the participants with the opportunity to get to know each others, thus, their interaction will only centre on typical and mundane questions and it is unacceptable if face-to-face pairs are said to have answered and asked many questions compared to another pairs condition. Another reason that makes the research and finding unreliable is all the participants were given the guide questions in advance. These questions will make them less expressive in their communicative behaviour and even more talkative when they are actually not.

Looking at the current situation, students do favour online chat or synchronous mode of computer mediated communication in talking to strangers. This mode of communication can lessen their anxiety and they can freely express their thoughts without worrying about what other people might think of them. On the other hand, interlocutors in the face-to-face communication are somehow concerned about other people’s impression thus; they will be more reserved in initiating talk with strangers.

Since students are very comfortable with online chat, teachers may consider using this method in teaching the second language. Teachers can let the students have a short online chat at the beginning of the class let them apply their knowledge of the second language in real-life situations. This method of teaching has been used in other countries but schools in Malaysia have not emulated this technique yet. Yes, using computers in teaching languages is very costly and time-consuming; however, this technology can build up students’ confidence as they will have the chance to talk with native speakers of the language via online chat.

CMC REFLECTION: mimi

CMC’s assignment is perhaps the hardest assignment in this course. Even though I am very familiar in searching for the articles and journals, looking for the right article for CMC’s assignment was very tough especially when our section have to find a synchronous-related article. Unlike lesson plan and blog, I never thought that this assignment could give me migraine and sleepless nights, let alone bad dreams.

However, looking at the bright side, Dr. Rozina has asked us to do this assignment for our own good. Throughout the journey of completing this assignment, I have become proficient in differentiating between excellent and average articles. To summarise the whole article was very challenging and demanding but now I am more able to evaluate the difference between main points and elaboration of an article, which is of course, not an easy task. All this knowledge or skills can be applied for different courses as well for example for this coming EAP’s final exam.

Another challenging part of the assignment was to find the sample data for synchronous chat. Most of the online chat involves “naughty” or inappropriate conversation. I have to monitor and regulate the conversation for several times before deciding to use it in my assignment. The analysis of the chat was the most interesting part. I have analysed the data in terms of the use of turn-takings. I have learned about turn-takings in other courses, however, thanks to Dr. Rozina, it is only in this course that I have the opportunity to really apply the knowledge that I have about turn-takings in great detail. However, I believe that the analysis would be better if the data is a bit longer.

All in all, I do expect toughest assignments from this course since it is a fourth year BENL subject. All of the assignments are total aliens that required me to put extra time, thoughts, and effort. This course has provided me with new skills and knowledge as well as transformed me into a more considerate person.

CMC SUMMARY: mastura

The title of the journal:Peer Feedback in Synchronous Writing Environments: A Case Study in French. Heift, T. and Caws, C. (2000). Peer Fedback in Synchronous Writing Environments: A case Study in French. Educational technology & Society. Vol 3 (3). http://www.ifets.info/journals/3_3c01.pdf

Introduction
As its title suggests, this journal focuses on synchronous Computer- Mediated Communication which looks into the patterns of interaction among participants in a synchronous writing environment. The concentrated aspect of the interaction patterns in computer-networked writing environment is on the peer feedback, either it appears in the form of social or cognitive acknowledgement. This writing environment provided by Local Area Network (LAN) technology allows learners of the second language to participate anonymously in group discussions and increases collaboraboration among the learners.


Methodology
Feedback is significant to learning in any setting. In a face-to-face learning environment, the instructor plays an active role as she/he is the one who gives feedback, and the one who leads the discussion. However, in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) the instructor remains distant and only acts as a facilitator to the learning process. Thus, the questions that extend this research are:
· Do some students take on the role of the instructor in providing feedback to the peers and leading the discussion?
· Are students with a higher than average command of the second language frequent contributors?
· Finally, how do the relative language skills of each learner influence the overall group dynamic?



The study has been done on twelve students of French as a foreign language class who, for one semester, spend one hour of class instruction using Aspects, a synchronous writing environment for the Macintosh. All of the participants are female and English native speakers except for one student being a francophone who left Quebec at ten-year old age. She has an excellent oral skills and an above-average written skills.


The study employs the chat box provided by Aspects. Aspects fits nicely for students to brainstorm on a particular topic or to discuss a document in small groups. The procedure for data collection is before the on-line writing session, students have to read four articles which are Censorship, The Role of Women and Children in Western Society, Values of the Canadian Familyin the 1990s, and Destruction of Nature over Time. During the on-line writing session, they have to discuss the points raised by each article through argumentative writing. Then, the class is divided into four groups (A, B, C, D) with each student logs in using an anonymous name. Each group has to choose three out of four topics to be discussed in the on-line writing session.


Data analysis
This research is both quantitative and qualitative studies of synchronous writing environment. The data are analysed in three steps. Firstly, the total number of contributions for each student and group during the on-line writing session is counted. Secondly, the messages are classified with respect to patterns of interaction among four main categories: 1) peer feedback (cognitive and social acknowledgement), 2) comments on content, 3) comments on task, and 4) off-topic. Finally, the messages sent by the instructor to each group are counted. For the quantitative analysis, number of words per message for each student and group is counted. For the pattern of interaction analysis, the number of sentences is counted, not the number of messages. This is essential because the data contain messages with multiple sentences, some belong to different class of interaction.


Quantitative analysis shows that students write an average of 55 messages during the one hour session. Pattern of interaction analysis shows the average number of sentences for peer feedback is 19.3%. Students exhibit a tendency to provide more feedback in cognitive than social acknowledgement. In addition to that, the data show that students who provide the most feedback also write the highest number of total messages in each group. Futhermore, they are the ones who lead the discussion. Those “discussion leaders” provided the comments on three areas: content, comments on the task, and social/cognitive acknowlegdement and they write the fewest off-topic messages. Whereas, other students write solely on content, or content and off-topic, or content and social/cognitive acknowledgement only. There are students from group A and D who do not provide any peer feedback. This suggest that the dynamics in group B and C differed from those A and D.


Findings
The analysis suggests that in groups having variying degrees of second language knowledge, that is, groups where less knowledgeable students are coupled with more knowledgeable students such as in group A, produces fewest or none off-topic messages. The group also get the fewest intervention by the instructor. In equally knowledgeable groups such as group B and C, peer feedback is more balanced among the group members and the instructor intervenes more in the discussion. While in group A, the francophone who is the group’s “discussion leader” had the highest language skills but this was not confirmed with the other three discussion leaders, suggesting that language skill alone does not determine the relative frequency of peer feedback.
This findings show that students do provide cognitive and social acknowledgement to their peers in synchronous writing environment. It has been found that students who provide the most social and cognitive acknowledgement are also the highest contributors, although their second language skills are not necessarily superior. It is also an advantage when less knowledgeable students are grouped with more knowledgeable ones, because they influence the pattern of interaction in the groups and less off-topic messages are produced and less instructor’s messages are sent.

CMC REFLECTION: mastura

Computer Application, CMC and lesson plan really transformed me into a very disorganized person towards the end of the semester. Before this, whenever I felt like going out, I’d just go. No time constraints and nothing to think about. BUT working on CMC, I didn’t feel easy. At that time, all assignments were due. I am doing 21.5 credit hours this semester so imagine seven assignments due within the same week! However, that not the CMC’s fault or Dr. Rozina’s fault and not my fault either. After this I’m going to advise my juniors not to take more than 16 credit hours per sem because I’ve had the lessons.

There was a long story in completing this CMC assignment. As Dr. Rozina was very busy, I only got to show her my article a week before submission date. The first time I saw her and she had looked at my article, she rejected it. The time was seven 0’ clock in the evening. I went down to the ITD searching for the new article. Deep in my heart, I really hated this assignment because it made me such a clumsy person. But then I realized, Dr. Rozina waited for me with patient until Maghrib. She didn’t complain or scold me for getting her stayed back late in her office. I saw her yawning and I felt kind of guilty for bothering her at that particular hour. For this, I really salute her. I’d say that she is the most committed lecturer I have ever had...

Back to the assignment, I found it really a tough one. It was like working on 3 in 1- assignment where we had to do summary, react to the finding, and analysis at one time. Sitting in front of pc nearly the whole day didn’t guarantee the assignment done. Instead, I got a bad headache. I’m so thankful that finally I got this assignment submitted on time. But I’m extremely nervous to know the result.

Working on this assignment had opened my eyes that communication through computer is divided into types. I never knew the term until this assignment introduced me with synchronous and asynchronous. In the class, when sister Amirah was teaching about this, I was confused and couldn’t really differentiate between synchronous and asynchrouns. Now after completing this assignment, I can easily identify between those two types of computer- mediated communication and their advantages as well as disadvantages.

Now, I do realizie that chatting plays an important role in language learning process and it somehow does improve one’s language skill. It can be an effective medium of teaching language as the Internet is becoming a lifestyle for today’s generation.

CMC SUMMARY: muna

Introduction

The article was taken from CALICO Journal, 19 (2) by Mark Darhower entitled Interactional features of synchronous Computer- Mediated Communication in the intermediate L2 class: A sociocultural case study. This article was designed to study about the interactional features of synchronous CMC, chat. The study was specifically examined the features of intersubjectivity, off-task discussion, greetings and leave-takings, exploration of identity and role play, humor and sarcasm, and the use of L1 which is English. The study cited the sociocultural theoretical framework of Vygotsky and utilized discourse analysis in describing and explaining outstanding features of chat room communication.

Methodology

The study was conducted in the Spanish classes of two intact fourth-semester students (33) and class teacher. The learners were engaged in an interactive activities accompanied with specific communicative goals and the class was delivered using the integrated-skills language instruction which include listening, speaking, reading and writing. This study was designed using the qualitative method in which it involves observation, recording data, and it is based predominantly on no-numerical data. The participants of this study will be observed through the chat activities. Research question for this study is what are some outstanding interactional features in chat among learners and teacher?

Findings

From the study conducted through the nine-week period of study, it is found that intersubjectivity; off-task discussion; social cohesiveness; including greetings and leave-takings; the use of humor, and sarcasm/insults; role plays; and the use of L1 were the interactional features of interest emerged from the data collected. It is found that it was tough to establish intersubjectivity of communication in the chat room environment. This is because the nonverbal communication does not exist as the interlocutors did not see each other while chatting. Off-task discussion occurs when the learners choose to discard the topic given and choose their own. Social cohesiveness occurred when the chatters involved in extensive electronic discourse that require them to collaborate each other to establish and maintain consistent discussion. The use of learners’ L1 only occurred when they were to express unknown lexical item in Spanish. It is also used to explain the utterances that are not clear in Spanish.

CMC REFLECTION: muna

Reflection

CMC assignment is one of the toughest assignments after the creation of blog. As I am not the IT savvy, I have some difficulties in searching the suitable and reliable journal article for this assignment. I thanked my Communication friend, Diana who introduced me the easy way to search for journal article on CMC. I just need to search using search engine, Google by key-in CMc. However, it is quite tough for me as our section was assigned to analyze on Synchronous CMC article. I am quite disappointed at first when I looked at the topic.

However, I’ve changed my perception towards this assignment as I realized that Dr. Rozina did this for our good. I faced difficulty at first when I cannot distinguish between the reliable and unreliable sources from the Internet. But this does not stop me from searching for the articles. I got migraine and sleepless night in a way to complete the assignment.

After the article was approved by Dr. Rozina, here comes the headache! I don’t really know where to start. I could not understand the article after second reading. I gave up after third reading and decided to sleep. I thought that I can forget all the miseries but it becomes worst. I wake up and start reading it all over again. This is not an easy task as I need to summarized the 29 pages article and makes it into 3 pages long! It struck me the most as I am not expert in summarizing the article.

The second part of the assignment is a BIG challenge for me. I need to find a chatting transcript of 3 pages long and have to analyze it into 1 page. It was tough to find a reliable chatting transcript as many of the transcripts I found were talking about unnecessary things like sex, porn, and using so many harsh words. However, I managed to find one transcript which talk about something that I like, which is sports. I decided to analyze the transcript as it uses many register or jargon that are aliens to the readers.

In brief, this assignment has provided me with extra knowledge and information about computers and technology. There were so many alien terms occurred throughout my journey of completing this assignment. This assignment and this course has teach me to be more patience and considerate. It also exposed me with a new information about communication via computer.

CMC SUMMARY: liyana

Researchers being interested in the use of computer-mediated communication in language learning have long acknowledged the effectiveness of using MOOs in facilitating language learners to improve their language skills. MOO is a form of real time communication in which interaction taking place is within a theme-based virtual world that provides a frame for the interaction. The article “Non-native Speaker Interaction Management Strategies in a Network-based Virtual Environment” from the Journal of Interactive Learning Research by Mark Peterson, therefore, attempted to find out if this was the case in the interaction of two groups of ESL learners based in Japan.

Three research questions had been attempted by Peterson which are; 1) Does negotiation of meaning occur during Non-native Speaker interaction in a MOO?, 2) What are the interaction management strategies adopted by two groups of learners during task-based interaction in a MOO environment?, and 3) In what ways are the strategies identified quantitatively and qualitatively different from those reported in other studies of learner interaction in task-based real time CMC and what are the possible causes of these differences?. Being well-known for its reliability and efficiency, the Schmooze University MOO based at New York University was selected as the platform of this 13-week long study.

The participants for this research consisted of 14 second and third undergraduates majoring in English from two universities both in western and central Tokyo. They ranged in age from 19 to 27 years old, 11 were native speakers of Japanese, 2 being native speakers of Thai and 1 was a native speaker of Chinese. Four task types had been introduced to students to utilize which were opinion-exchange, information-gap, jigsaw and decision-making. In opinion-exchange, students were asked to exchange views on the best ways to learn English, Japan’s economic crisis, education reform in Japan and their ideal university. Information-gap required learners to exchange information in order to complete the tasks given to them. Students worked in pair and were asked to develop a personality profile of their partner. In the other task, students had to guess the meaning of two different sets of words (while receiving hints from their partner) and then switch roles. Jigsaw made it possible for the students to utilize their current knowledge of English while requiring them to share information in order to reach a single outcome. In decision-making, students were asked to express their views regarding advantages and disadvantages of studying in the MOO.

In conducting the project which involved two phases, learners, in the first phase were given insights on the use of MOO in order to familiarize them that later enabled them to become proficient users of MOO. In the second phase, participants worked in dyads on a specific task for 60 minutes. Participants in each group were located in separate areas in the same computer room. The learners accessed the Schmooze MOO and later their text-output was displayed on-screen in the order it was produced. All data produced by them then was saved to a log file and emailed to the instructor. Several data received was later selected for analysis.

From the data analyzed, Peterson identified interaction management strategies that have been described in the literature of non-native speaker interaction in both face-to-face and real time online interaction. The strategies were definition request (43% of total strategies), clarification requests (16%), confirmation (9%) and comprehension checks (8%). There were also self-correction and non-response strategies. The definition request which marked the most frequently used strategy reflects the fact that the subjects were intermediate level and therefore had gaps in their vocabulary knowledge. When a problem occurred, learners usually resorted to this strategy to maintain the discourse. Confirmation and comprehension checks were less frequent due to the fact that the online text-based nature of the interaction in the MOO gave the participants few other means to indicate that a communication problem had arisen.

The jigsaw tasks had resulted in a lot of negotiations among the learners. However, there was infrequency of negotiated turns in the data compared to other studies done by other researchers. The causes might be the nature of real time online medium where interaction occurs via typed-text that on occasions when messages were scrolling rapidly, learners tended to deploy the strategies in order to keep up with the discourse. Another possible cause is socio-cultural factor where subjects in this study were from a culture where avoiding threats to face is very important. So, learners tended to be reluctant of using some negotiation strategies to avoid embarrassment that later led them to non-response. The overall results of the study suggest the fact that non-native speaker interaction management in real time text-based CMC is a complex phenomenon influenced by a number of variables including the nature of the online environment under utilization, proficiency levels, task configuration, affective, sociolinguistic and cultural factors.

CMC REFLECTION : liyana

I benefited a lot from the CMC assignment particularly from the third task which was the conversation analysis. The third task allowed me to do my own analysis on synchronous communication and it led me to question why certain elements were used in the conversation I analysed and why certain elements were not.

I did my analysis on the formality and frequency of the words used in the conversation I took from a chat transcript on the net. Since the cenversation involved a group of celebrities and their fans, the conversation took place in quite a laid-back manner. Words used are not very formal and easy to understand.

Besides that, the article summary and implication in Malaysian setting also had something for me to benefit from. The article exposed me to how CMC-type research was done and the means used to conduct the research. I learned why Japanese undergraduates learning English tended to use certain strategies in synchronous CMC instead of others. I could also see what would happen if the same research were to be conducted among Malaysian undergraduates since Japan and Malaysia share almost the same cultural background.