Chapters authored
Metamorphosis of English Language Learners’ Behaviours in a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP): From the Perspective of Online Knowledge Construction
Advances in educational technologies have brought into being a variety of virtual community-oriented spaces to facilitate interactive language learning. Drawing upon data collected from discussion exchanges on a mobile social network application and focus-group interviews, this case study aims to identify and map any changes in the behaviours of a group of English language learners as a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) develops. Results indicated that a VCoP was well established through topic-based discussion for English language learning purposes on a mobile social network application beyond the classroom. In a total of four discussion sessions, a great number of ‘questions’, ‘replies’ and ‘other’ social statements were observed at an early stage, and ‘clarification’ consistently accounted for a relatively larger percentage throughout all sessions. The proportions of ‘consensus building’, ‘judgement’ and ‘reflection’ statements increased as the discussion proceeded, marking the changes in these English language learners’ awareness and initiation in exercising higher-order thinking. However, ‘conflict’ and ‘assertion’ statements remained low throughout the discussion sessions, implying the role that culture might have played in impacting on learners’ knowledge contribution behaviours.
Part of the book: Interdisciplinary Themes of Sociolinguistic Studies