Focus-on-form Through Collaborative Scafolding In Expert-to-novice Online Interaction

Language Learning & Technology seeks to disseminate research to foreign and second language educators in the US and around the world on issues related to technology and language education.

Check out this article below, appears in Vol. 12, Number 3, 2008 edition of Language Learning & Technology.

FOCUS-ON-FORM THROUGH COLLABORATIVE SCAFFOLDING IN EXPERT-TO-NOVICE ONLINE INTERACTION

By Lina Lee

University of New Hampshire

Synchronous Computer-mediated communication (CMC) creates affordable learning conditions to support both meaning-oriented communication and focus-on-form reflection that play an essential role in the development of language competence.

Lina Lee reports on how corrective feedback was negotiated through expert-to-novice collaborative scaffolding with subjects working on three different tasks – jigsaw, spot-the-differences, and open-ended questions.
Her findings suggest that text chats supported the focus-on-form procedure through collaborative engagement. The study concludes that it is not easy to provide corrective feedback while attending to linguistic errors in a timely manner during meaning-based interactions.
The author suggests that the long-term effect of focus-on-form procedures in CMC should be explored in future studies.

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Source: Language Learning & Technology