Languaging in cyberspace: a case study of the effects of peer-peer collaborative dialogue on the acquisition of English idioms in task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication

Abstract

I dedicated this dissertation to my father Jiuwu Teng and my mother Tiantian Huang, whose love, support, and encouragement have kept me moving forward in my doctoral study. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .

The Effect of Peer-Collaborative Dialogue on Saudi EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

“…Certainly, it means that EFL students are aware of the beneficial co-construction of the passage comprehension with reliable peers. This result matches the findings of Al-Roomy (2013) and Teng (2015). Additionally, the results indicated that the students elevated their confidence and readiness level by expressing and sharing their ideas freely with their peers within the SCMC environment (Statements 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6).…”

“…Additionally, the results indicated that the students elevated their confidence and readiness level by expressing and sharing their ideas freely with their peers within the SCMC environment (Statements 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6). Similar results are reported in Al-Jadoa (2016), Nejad and Keshavarzi (2015) and Teng (2015), who suggest that collaboration with peers within SCMC reduces nervousness and boosts self-esteem, which in turn, is reflected in greater reading performance. Lastly, the students favored the collaborative dialogue in text-based SCMC over face-to-face communication, as they found it beneficial to accomplish better reading performance.…”

“…Lastly, the students favored the collaborative dialogue in text-based SCMC over face-to-face communication, as they found it beneficial to accomplish better reading performance. This finding is confirmed by Rama et al (2018) and Teng (2015).…”

“…The way L2 learners use and learn the language collaboratively to solve problems and build linguistic knowledge is restricted to face-to-face communication while the SCMC context is ignored (Yu & Zeng, 2011;Zeng & Takatsuka, 2009). Furthermore, peer-collaborative dialogue has not only been devoted to face-to-face communication, but it has also been limited to grammar, vocabulary, speaking and writing skills (Al-Waleedi, 2017;Dobao, 2012;Nguyen, 2013;Teng, 2015). Since collaborative dialogic interaction helps to elevate student gains in different linguistic aspects, empirical studies are needed to shed light on how L2 students interact with each other in collaborative dialogue to comprehend the text.…”

“…Hence, language acquisition happens during gradual internalizations of language knowledge only after the learner becomes independent to use what is originally co-constructed with others (Dobao, 2012;Swain & Lapkin, 1998). According to Swain, collaborative dialogue and SLA are firmly bounded by the learners' output, which is comprised of their speaking or writing (Teng, 2015), such a written output is employed in current study in a form of text-based dialogues in SCMC.…”