An Appraisal of a Computer-Based Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Course for Nigerian English Teachers and Teacher-trainers

This chapter is a presentation of a continuing professional development (CPD) programme for English teachers and teacher-trainers in Nigeria using one of the states in Nigeria as a case study. It evaluates the effectiveness of the computer assisted programme, which was part sponsored by the British Council, and concludes that it did not achieve its desired objectives due to a number of reasons. For instance, it was observed that the course content was too loaded for a part-time course. Other reasons for the failure of the programme include absence of internet connectivity, low level of computer literacy, poor power supply and lack of commitment on the parts of both the trainees and the institutions they worked for. The chapter ends with suggestions on how the anomalies observed could be corrected so that computer resources could be used more effectively in the design and implementation of continuing professional development (CPD) programmes for English Language teachers and teacher-trainers in developing countries.

Students' Evaluation of a MOODLE Resource in the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria

This chapter presents an exploratory study on students’ evaluation of a MOODLE teaching and learning resource (the Wiki in this case) in the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. 85 students (11 female and 74 male) were guided in the use of a wiki website for language learning in a context of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Data on their opinions on the resource was collected through questionnaires and feedback on the wiki. T-test was employed in data analysis and the results revealed that in spite of the challenges encountered in using the website, the students’ attitude towards using it was positive as they were enthused about using the novel approach for research and learning purposes. The results also indicated that there was no significant difference between the opinions of male and female respondents. Challenges associated with the use of the resource are highlighted and recommendations presented.

An Integrated Approach to Interactions in Cyberplaces

Recently a change of perspective took place in online interaction research, shifting attention from technologies to what people actually do online. Therefore a new family of phenomena appeared: Psychology of Cyberspace was the first answer. Now the time has come to go further adopting an even more ‘social’ stance to study Cyberplaces giving birth to a Social Psychology of Cyberplaces. Combining three theoretical realms (objects, subjects, processes), three levels of analysis (local mediated interaction, everyday situation, social context) and two methodologies of data production (qualitative and quantitative), this chapter proposes an integrated approach to online interactions. An example of this is shown by discussing a research on Self Presentation in blogs.

Computational and Engineering Issues in Human Computer Interaction Systems for Supporting Communication in African Languages

The computational and engineering issues surrounding the development of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies for supporting African language discourse is the focus of this presentation. The thesis of this presentation is that, to obtain acceptable results, services for supporting CMC intended for use in African environment should exploit and implement language technologies developed around African languages and cultures. We discuss the key issues relevant to achieving this as well as the technicalities and strategies for its realisation. The aim of this presentation is to motivate and impel a robust, well articulated, research and development agenda on African language technologies relevant to CMC.

Virtual Research Communities

This chapter considers virtual research community as a socio-cultural phenomenon and a new type of social computer-mediated interactions that originates as a consequence of individual choices and research needs. It argues that the virtual research communities bring together perspectives from macro and micro-socio-cultural influences, traditional culture-based characters of communication of academics and researchers and experiences that are historically rooted in local history or way of development. Furthermore the authors hope that the history of Russian Communication Association institutionalization and development will not only help to explore controversies and problems of local virtual research communities, but will also assist in better understanding of how international patterns of virtual communities could be successfully implemented in local socio-cultural contexts.

Tracing the Non-Debatable Topic in Online Discussion

This chapter discusses a phenomenon frequently observed in online discussions: “hard-to-discuss” topics. Using Bakhtin’s concepts of monologue and dialogue along with his idea of the subject as shaping variable in discourse, the author offers a close discourse analysis highlighting the intertextual dynamics involved in the discussions under scrutiny. The latter are taken from a well established German-American discussion board and center on Moore’s film Bowling for Columbine. Bringing a rhetorical perspective to the debate, which seeks a connection between actual discussions and ongoing debates on the (inter)cultural level, this chapter offers insights affecting both theory and practice of participatory online communication: Conceptually, it complicates the position of the participant in online contexts by showing the limits of the much-vaunted concept of interactivity. On a practical level, it informs the work of all those involved in the creation, administration and moderation of online discussion venues.

A Pragmatic Approach to Analysing CMC Discourse

A co-operative learning task relies on the mutual interdependence of group members to achieve their task goal. Where the task involves conceptual learning, this also involves argumentation and the development of joint frames of understanding. The main aim of this research study was to understand how postgraduate students conveyed their meanings and how they managed their group interaction in asynchronous online conferencing. The chapter explains the development and use of an analytic framework, based on Conversational Analysis and neo-Gricean theories of conversational meaning, to examine, code and describe the discourse behaviours and discourse strategies of postgraduate students when engaged in co-operative learning tasks in an asynchronous and text-based, online conferencing environment. The analysis indicates systematic patterning in the ways participants compose their messages and in their use of specific discourse strategies to manage the interaction of the group process and of the discussion of the conceptual material.

Relational Work in Synchronous Text-Based CMC of Virtual Teams

Based on close examinations of instant message (IM) interactions, this chapter argues that an interactional sociolinguistic approach to computer-mediated language use could provide explanations for phenomena that previously could not be accounted for in computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA). Drawing on the theoretical framework of relational work (Locher, 2006), the analysis focuses on non-task oriented talk and its function in forming and establishing communication norms in the team, as well as micro-level phenomena, such as hesitation, backchannel signals and emoticons. The conclusions of this preliminary research suggest that the linguistic strategies used for substituting audio-visual signals are strategically used in discursive functions and have an important role in relational work.

New Directions in Understanding Cyberbullying

This chapter focuses cyberbullying, or bullying messages that are transmitted via electronic technologies. This chapter synthesizes research focusing on predictors and outcomes associated with cyberbullying into an overall conceptual message-based model that highlights both the role of messages as products of various influences, and the messages themselves as influences upon numerous affective, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes. The chapter provides (1) an initial review of how cyberbullying and related behaviors are termed and defined; (2) an overview of message factors that predict cyberbullying messages and tactics, and (3) a discussion of the outcomes of cyberbullying. The chapter concludes by offering potential solutions and recommendations to problems associated with cyberbullying.

Politeness as a Theoretical and Empirical Framework for Studying Relational Communication in Computer-mediated Contexts

This conceptual chapter draws on the sociolinguistic theory of politeness, showing how politeness provides a robust theoretical and empirical framework that can be usefully applied to the study of relational ties in computer-medicated-communication. The chapter first reviews politeness theory, and shows how politeness is operationalized relative to a definable set of linguistic indices that are used throughout everyday discourse to communicate respect and esteem for others’ face. The chapter then discusses how recognition of the central role of face-work in social interchange can enhance our understanding of why and where emotion-work might occur in CMC, how such emotion-work (in the form of politeness) can be reliably observed and quantitatively measured at a linguistic level of analysis, and how the distribution of politeness phenomena is systematically related to relational variables that are mainstays of CMC research – variables such as socioemotional versus task orientation, status, cohesion, impersonality, friendship, and communicative efficiency.