Chat room discourse consists of language that is much closer to oral discourse than to written (Sotillo 2000).
As we all know well, the discourse via chatting on the Internet is very limited. Do you think chat room English may create results we do not desire? What may be the role of a teacher in CMC to avoid the kind of language we don't want our students to use?
No matter how effective and fun chat rooms can be for learning a language, conversations in such environments may be lacking, if not undesirable. In terms of the input learners receive, we should be alert because the language used in chat rooms are naturally informal. So, learners are exposed to ill-formed sentences, misspelled words, etc. I do not mean that a teacher should also be a grammar police to prevent this. Instead, providing leaners with correct uses of a language by making comparisons between the two forms and even familiarizing them with the conventions of chat room writing would be a sensible step because wrong forms could also help develop the use of correct forms and such a leaning would prove effective for some learners.
ReplyDeleteIn this way, we could have the chance to get our students to notice the difference between two forms. They may focus on form through this kind of awareness.
ReplyDeleteI think chat rooms are effective SCMC tools to practice online communication skills, in terms of authenticity and learner autonomy. On the other hand, I also agree with Merve on that the language students face or use while chatting may be limited of imappropriate in many ways. However, a teacher who is willing to utilize such tools in lessons should be aware of and tolerant to such uses of language as they are the realities of the everyday communication, as well. As Ss won't always communicate with native speakers, or for the sake of learning languages, they need to get used to and cope with this kind of language. What teachers can do may be to balance the use of such kind of materials/tools with the ones that teaches the more appropriate, and correct language. Teachers can also use the chat sites designed for language learning pueposes which can help in minimizeing the problems mentioned. (e.g. http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/ or
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