Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication Tools : Introduced by Snea Thinsan

Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication:
A User's Experiences

By Snea Thinsan
Language Education, School of Education,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405

CMC (Computer-Mediate Communication) is becoming more and more popular for language instruction. CMC can be divided into two different modes of communication: Synchronous communication and Asynchronous communication. Below I will share my experiences with Asynchronous CMC.

Part I: What are they?

I will try to categorize and describe the asynchronous computer-mediated communication tools and offer an example of a lesson for EFL students.

After exploring them, I see the tools that are available on the Internet as two groups: web-based, threaded discussion tools and email-based communication tools.

1. Web-based, threaded discussion tools

These tools include Newsgroup or Usenet, and Webboard (also called Bulletin board, or web forum, or Message board).

A newsgroup is an electronic discussion group comprised of huge collections of related postings, or articles, on a particular topic that are posted to a news server which then distributes them to other participating servers. There are thousands of newsgroups covering a wide range of subjects. To participate, we must subscribe to a newsgroup. Luckily, the subscription to a newsgroup is free. Among the newsgroups, Usenet is a popular name for the collection of newsgroups which are distributed around the world on the Internet and other networks. Each newsgroup acts as a public discussion forum and may be read by anyone at any Usenet site worldwide using a newsreader. When a user posts an article to a newsgroup the article is distributed around the Usenet network to those sites carrying the particular newsgroup. Thus, in a short time, ranging from ten minutes to a few days, the article will reach an audience of many thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of people.

From my experience, Usenet groups do not have very nice interfaces. Some are simply texts; you can't even make links linkable. Its advantage is it is a source of everything, any topic you can think of, and the ideas are shared by people from all over the world. In addition, the fact that everything is stored makes it truly useful for language learning. The teacher and the students can use the archive in different ways, as part of the in-class activities, homework, and evaluation.

Webboards, Message board, Bulletin Board, or Electronic forums, all these different names refer to the tools in which members post messages and replies to other messages. The software will connect the replies in threads, like the newsgroup Usenet. That way, other users who come in later can easily follow the conversation by following the thread of their interest.

I have set up two webboard forums for a research purpose, and found that it was very easy to set up one. What I like very much about webboard is its more attractive, configurable features. You can change the looks, add HTML codes, watch and filter bad words, remove inappropriate postings, and even block naughty users. Programmers can make the forum even more interactive linking it with databases so that the members can vote for the threads to be archived and report abuses.

Having set up two webboard forums that discuss the prostitution problem in Thailand, I have come across a few other every good ones which discuss the same issues. See the two forums that I have set up at:

http://php.indiana.edu/~sthinsan/indexviews.htm and at http://www.thaimisc.com/freewebboard/php/vboard.php?user=sthinsan.
While looking out for what people say about prostitution, I found a very active forum on the same issue at the site of the Bangkok Post (an English newspaper in Thailand). I am now an active member there: http://matrix.bangkokpost.co.th/forums/forum.php?Forum_ID=12 .

Essentially, I see a lot of potential of using webboard for EFL classes for several reasons. First, it can encourage actual conversation on topics of interests of the students, which should add motivation among EFL learners. Once the student is involved in a thread, he or she becomes curious about what others say or write in response to what he or she has written, and the conversation can go on and on, thus helping to practice the students' reading and writing skills, too. Second, it allows the students to obtain multiple perspectives from outsiders. Multiple perspectives are useful in helping the students become more critical thinkers. Third, among the participants, there might be experts or highly knowledgeable individuals of the field with which the issues are concerned. These people can help a great deal with knowledge construction, being good resources of knowledge or facts. This therefore makes the forum a great source of knowledge. Fourth, by nature of the threaded discussion, the students will read about different views and find their position on the issue, and thus learn to be critical consumers of the information because they will realize that not all that they have read are equally valid. Lastly, like Usenet, webboards, or Message boards, save the threaded discussions on the server for later viewing, so the contents can be used for several instructional uses. The language can be analyzed for both language learning and evaluation. The teacher can also design classroom activities based on the threads. As said earlier, the contents of the discussions can be a great stimulus for critical thinking. The students can also use the diverse perspectives to inform themselves while finding their position on the issue and then practice writing paragraphs to support their position(s). This will be elaborated in the application section of this report.

2. Email-based: Email, E-pal or Key Pal, Mailing list, ListServ

Electronic Mail, or email, is arguably the most common communication tool in today's world, probably overtaking the traditional snail mail and telephone. Not surprisingly, pen palling, which used to rely on snail mail, is becoming a very popular instructional tool worldwide under new names (e-pal or Key-pal), because teachers and students can connect much easier and more effectively via email. What I like about email, apart from all the points you mention in your book, is that it allows the students some sort of privacy, not being monitored by the teacher or friends all the time. I think sometimes language learners need that personal space. The teacher can ask the students to blind carbon copy (bcc) to him to her when the students are willing to or have to in certain situation. However, using email and e-pal is not easy as you discuss in Chapter 7 of your book. Apart from difficulty in compromising with the classroom at the other end of the world, the question about the validity of using grammatically poor inputs from non-native speaking students could be a concern EFL teachers in my country have. Many studies claim that, given more time to think and write, the students' language is refined. Other studies found that the language used in email and that used in other means of communication (i.e. telephone, fax) are not different. Despite the need for further research to confirm all these speculations, I see a lot of its potential.

Mailing lists
Listserv, a very well-known name of a mailing list service, uses very famous software that handles the subscribers' mail automatically. Members of a mailing list may simply read the messages and not join the discussions, or take an active role by posting messages to the list. However, the users must be aware of the difference between the list server address where you send messages to subscribe and unsubscribe, and the list address to which you send messages to all the members of the list.

I have tried quite a few mailing lists. CALICO discussion lists, called CALICO-L Digest, provides email discussion service which sends email with links to the latest postings by its "Automatic digest processor"; so, each email is very small in size. It provides archives of the previous postings at http://listserv.modlang.swt.edu/archives/calico-l.html. You can also (un)subscribe and post new messages at this page; so, it's very convenient. (Some mailing lists only give information about unsubscribing and how to participate in the discussion only once and the users have to be responsible for referring to such information. I have joined a mailing list based in Europe at linguanet-forum@mailbase.ac.uk. The messages do not include the unsubscribing information, so during the past few weeks, a lot of people have sent the messages to whole groups, asking the moderator to 'unsubscribe' their emails.

I am also joining the Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum of Dartmouth University. I receive an average of 5 to 15 messages every day. It is not moderated or digested. Emails on the same issue can be traced only when people quote the previous messages with their responses. However, it keeps me updated on CALL issues.

Last but not least at all, I have joined the TESL-L: Teachers of English as a Second Language List < TESL-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>. This list offers digest service, which accumulates messages and attach them to one email. Sometimes, I get an email with 10 attached files. What I do is separate each file and line them as single messages in Outlook. Then, when I want to read them, I ask Outlook to "arrange the messages by Subject" or "Group messages by subject". This way, I can read messages on the same issue more easily.

Majordomo is the name of a popular free mailing list processor which runs under Unix operating system. I set up a course mailing list for my students last term at IU, but I didn't like the interface very much. So, this term I am using Yahoo's mailing list instead. It is much easier to configure the Yahoo mailing list (Yahoogroups) because the interface is very intuitive for any moderator. Recently, I set up a mailing list for the Fulbright group, who met an enrichment seminar and would like to keep in touch. The list is very active now.

3. Netiquette, or rules/manners for interacting courteously with others online, is another issue I find interesting. Computer-Mediated Communication is not new, given the over a decade of its worldwide uses. However, the more people are involved, the more problems arise. Therefore, I think we need some sort of code of conduct that governs what is generally considered to be the acceptable way for users to interact with one another online. I have bookmarked quite a few sites that address this issue at http://php.indiana.edu/~sthinsan/cmc2.htm.

In the classroom, I think we can have a lesson or a workshop on this issue. For instance, the students can use search engines to look for a few best guidelines. Then, a whole class can discuss, list the most important ones, and design a final version as a contract among them.

PART TWO: Applications

An example of email use for EFL/ESL lessons

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Course: Fundamental English I (First semester, Undergraduate Students)
Unit: Politics
Rationale:
EFL students in Thailand traditionally are quiet and passive in their English class. Their participation in the classroom activities is also restricted by a large class size and the limited class time (3 hours/ week). All these contribute to low achievement. An email project, as a supplement to in-class activities, will be used to increase their exposure to real English and to help them practice speaking and writing in English.

Procedure

1. Divide the students into groups of 4. Each group is responsible for orally presenting and writing 3-5 pages of the summary of the group's email discussions on one of the following five political issues:

            - The war between Iraq and the U.S.
            - The conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia after the riot in which Cambodian furious mobs burned down the Thai Embassy and Thai flag.
            - The conflicts between the Palestine and Israeli.
            - The role of the U.S. in Afghanistan after the 9-11 incident

The groups will start thinking about the specific questions they wish to explore by themselves. The teacher facilitates or checks progress as needed.

2. Each group sets up a mailing list at Yahoo. One person acts as a moderator. (The teacher demonstrates how to set up one in class.) The teacher must be included into all the lists so that he or she can check the progress and jump in to help when appropriate.

3. Each member participates in the discussions by asking questions and answering the questions raised by other members. Each group members must share among themselves the resources (e.g. online news, articles, magazines, books) that can be quoted in their reports and oral presentation. (Note: For the students to track and follow up on each issue, the students will be told to use the meaningful subjects and change the subject line when they want to start a new topic or issue. The moderator can get rid of some older messages that have been replied to by moving them to a new folder, so that the group can use the latest email on each issue to add more responses. This essentially resembles webboard, but for this assignment that requires the use of email, I am adapting email for similar purposes.

4. Each group must email at least three people who can be good informants on the issues of their choice. The proof of their contacts must accompany the final report.

5. A total of 100 points will be awarded to each individual: 50 points for the group written report and presentation; 50 points for individual contribution to the group email discussion. (Rubrics for evaluation may be developed to facilitate the process.)

Contact: Snea Thinsan
Language Education Department,
School of Education, Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
Home Page: http://php.indiana.edu/~sthinsan/