From chatting to confidence: a case study of the impact of online chatting on international teaching assistants' willingness to communicate, confidence level and fluency in oral communication

Abstract

Research question 3: Does the language experience of the chat actually transfer from the written mode into spoken language? Research question 4: Does chatting improve learners' fluency in oral communication? Statistical methods CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 63 Impact of chat on willingness to communicate (WTC) 63 Impact of chat on state commimicative self-confidence. 66 Impact of chat on state anxiety 70 Impact of chat on state self-perceived competence Transfer of language experience from written to spoken mode Impact of chat on fluency in oral communication 80 Number of words per minute Fluency from the perspective of a listener 83 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION Major findings Pedagogical implications^88 Limitations of this study Suggestions for fiiture research APPENDIX 1: SPEAK RATING GUIDE (4/98) APPENDIX 2: TEACH RATING CRITERIA AND DESCRIPTORS OF EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE

The Effects of Synchronous CMC on Speaking Proficiency and Anxiety: Text Versus Voice Chat

“…The study showed that there was a significant increase in the students' speaking proficiency for both of the experimental groups (voice and text chat). The results for the text chat group affirmed the results of previous studies that text chat improved speaking skills and that language transfer was possible from the written environment of the text chat to spoken language (Abrams, 2003; Beauvois, 1997; Compton, 2002; Fitze, 2006; Lai & Zhao, 2006; Payne & Ross, 2005). The speaking test results for the voice chat group are important in that they provide one of the few sets of data in the field on the use of synchronous oral communication in CMC and for their quantitative nature and the sample size.…”

“…As pair/group work is also argued to lower students' anxiety levels (Young, 1991), text chat, especially when carried out in pairs or groups, is likely to help learners break the “vicious circle” of reluctance to speak and low speaking competence as described by Compton (2002, p. 25).…”

“…Compton (2002) analyzed the participants' output in written SCMC practice discussions and following face‐to‐face discussions. The findings indicate not only transfer from the participants' own written text into speech but also transfer from their partners' written language output to their oral production.…”

English Language Learning and Technology

“…The third study that was focused on tasks investigated a text chat-based task as a means of increasing students' willingness to communicate through oral language in the classroom (Compton 2002). The construct of "willingness to communicate" (MacIntyre, Clément, Dörnyei, & Noels 1998) was developed from research on individual differences in SLA and is intended to account for the important observation that communicative competence alone does not mean that learners will be successful at using the target language.…”

“…First, an important aspect of Internet communication tasks in particular is what the topics are, how interesting they are, and how current. In Compton's (2002) research, one of the main conclusions was that the topics of the chat discussions needed to be considered more carefully because the ones chosen seemed to spark negative attitudes in some of the participants. In the research of Sauro (2001), for example, among the most important decisions to be made in developing the tasks was to decide from the enormous range of available materials, what should be used for the tasks.…”