Bilingual Negotiation via E-mail: An International Project

Abstract

This article examines selective results of an international email project between twenty four students studying law with German (in England) and English (in Germany). i It refers to outcomes as manifested in the students' written reports and oral assessments, but concentrates on samples of bilingual negotiation between partners as expressed in their emails. The article focuses on the design of the project and the socio-cultural environment in which it is situated. Taking into account the relevant research in computer-mediated communication, the design of the project follows two primary objectives: the acquisition of (1) language and (2) content as part of a task-based email exchange. CONTEXT OF PROJECT 1.Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)The framework of this project was influenced by recent research in computer-mediated communication in general and email in particular. The following represents a short overview of CMC research.Several studies about computer-mediated communication have been conducted, often focusing on beginners or intermediate learners of a foreign language -e.g., Beauvois (1998), Chun (1998), St. John and Cash (1995a+ 1995b, Sullivan (1998), Tella (1991, 1992a, 1992b, Ortega (1997), Warschauer (1999), Vilmi (1995) -or on learners who were not matched according to language proficiency. The international email tandem project, for instance, is based on random tandem partnerships (Little and Brammerts, 1996).Computer-mediated communication in the form of a computer-assisted class discussion can improve communicative language proficiency. Chun (1998) reports on a twosemester study of students studying first-year German. Her findings point at a noticeable increase in student contributions overall, with lesser teacher input necessary than in traditionally taught classes. Sullivan's study (1998), based on a computer-assisted writing summer course for high school leavers newly enrolled at university, suggested similar results. During the entire computer-mediated communication sessions (5 weeks), students produced over 90% of the exchanges while the teacher's input averaged 7%. Chun's findings include a marked shift of students' utterances from answers to teacher's questions, as predominantly found in traditionally taught classes, to asking questions of other fellow students and submitting statements to the group. The latter two forms of contribution to the electronic discussion outweigh the volunteered answers to questions from all. In other words, students seem to exhibit quite different behaviour from oral classroom discussions. More students contribute actively, initiate and respond to Leahy, C. 'Biligual Negotiation …' 1 statements, and negotiate meaning. The length of statements varied from one sentence to one paragraph.Sullivan's study (1998) seems to confirm that computer-assisted class discussion can serve as an empowering tool which can help to overcome social differences and personal characteristics such as shyness or the dominance of individual students.Tella (1991) also refers to...

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