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Summary on "A study of negotiation of meaning in Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication Between Non-native Speakers of Japanese and Korean" by Hera Chu.

This article by Hera Chu entitled A study of negotiation of meaning in Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication Between Non-native Speakers of Japanese and Korean, retrieved on March 12, from http://www.paaljapan.org/resources/proceedings/PAAL8/pdf/pdf008.pdf
explores the types of interactional modifications that the Japanese and Korean students used during chatting online as the interactional modifications have been claimed to improve interlanguage development and language acquisition.
The objective of the study is to analyze the discourse of the Japanese and Korean University students’ in terms of the use of interactional modifications during synchronous-online chat. The study will explore the potential benefits that this new form of communication brings for language learning.

The study is done based on the three research questions. The first question is what typical interaction modification are used in the Cross Cultural Distance Learning (CCDL) chatting is different from face-to-face communication? Second question is what factors affect the degree of use of those features imposed by CCDL setting? The last question is what pedagogical implications do the findings of the research have?

The subjects in this study were 8 Japanese and 8 Korean students from Waseda University of Japan and University of Korea. The subjects have participated in the Korea-Waseda Cross-Cultural Distance Learning (KWCCDL) and knew each other. The proficiency level of their English is between intermediate and high-intermediate. In the program, they were inquired to chat online in pairs with their assigned partners from different nationalities.

The students have to complete five chatting sessions that were conducted for 30 minutes to one hour. The chatting program used was CUSeeMe which is a videoconferencing program developed by Cornell University in 1993. All the participants were provided with the visual aid through camera attached to the computer but not with an audio aid. The participants were free to talk about anything as this chatting was designed to help to increase cross cultural understanding without any restrictions. The analysis was done from the chatting texts, selected from two out of five of the chatting sessions. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of the total number of negotiation, the frequencies of selected modification devices and the nature of negotiation in order to examine the learners’ use of interactional modification produced in CCDL chatting.

The study has produced four findings. The first finding is on the types of modificational devices used and their frequencies. The result shows that the participants used interactional modification devices such as punctuation, onomatopoeia, framing, emoticons and a lot more. Out of 1605 turns, 595 turns demonstrated the occurrences of interactional modification devices, which is 37% of all turns.

The second finding is the use of paralinguistic features by the participants. According to the result, the punctuation ( i.e !!!,~,…), onomatopoeia (i.e. Um,hmm,zzz,haha), framing and emoticons (i.e. smiley, frown face) are mostly used devices by the participant. It implies that 20% of the total turns were expressed with paralinguistic modification devices which mean that the participants did not ignore in expressing their emotions and physical interaction while using the written medium to communicate with others. By doing so, the participants need to put an efforts and use the correct and suitable paralinguistic modification devices in expressing their ideas and actions into words.

The third finding is the use of framing in order to end the old topics and to start the new topics and also to confirm their feedbacks and responses to their respective partners. Framing is important as it revealed how many topics were discussed by the participants in a chat session. The examples of framing device are well then, by the way and now then. This device was used frequently by the participants due to the lack of visual and aural support, and turn overlapping.

The final finding from this study is the differences of face-to-face interaction with CMC. The first difference is the discovery of the use of clarification and confirmation and comprehension checks are most likely to happen in face-to-face interaction. In addition, the lack of the usage of comprehension checks and confirmation check in CCDL is because the participants relied totally on their partners to notify if they did not understand them. Secondly, the absence of repetitions in CCDL interaction due to the fact that CCDL is writing-based thus it is possible for the participants can observe what they write compared to face-to-face interaction where the repetitions is needed to rectify the inaccurate pronunciation that will never occur in CCDL. Thirdly, participant always think of chatting as a medium to develop international relationship and do not have any specific goal to be achieved, unlike the task-based conversation. In CMC, the participants focus more in exchanging ideas than correcting linguistic mistakes such as grammar or syntax. The negotiations of meanings were made either by content meaning or by vocabulary.


REACTION
I do believe that Malaysian is also not excluded from being affected by the usage of computer as the medium to interact with the people around the world as the Internet is widely use by the Malaysian. As been proven that CMC does help in enhancing the Second Language Acquisition, I also believe that one of the way where the Malaysian acquires their second language especially English is by chatting. This is because chatting offers the experience to have direct communication and interaction with the Native Speakers.

The Malaysian also uses the interactional modifications such onomatopoeia, emoticons and lot more during chatting online in order to express their emotions. The interactional modifications devices as been mentioned by the article are also have been used in Malaysian chatting environment. Besides using all the interactional modifications devices in the chatting environment, the youngsters and people in Malaysia have adopted the attitude when sending the message or Short Messaging System also known as SMS, through their hand phones. They will use the emoticons and so on. Moreover, nowadays, most hand phones come with cute, colored emoticons. It shows that the usage of interactional modifications devices in Malaysia is not only use in the chatting environment but also in the SMS-ing environment. All these interactional modifications devices will help to make the conversations become livelier and real although it can never be compared with the face-to-face environment but it helps in order to show the expressions of the person and improve their understanding the feelings of the person that they are interacting with.


SYNCHRONOUS CMC : ANALYSIS ON TURN-TAKING.

The chatting transcript will be analyzed on turn taking. Turn taking is important in conversations as it will guarantee the conversations to move on smoothly. The most important rules in conversation are only one person should do the taking at a time and cannot be a silence moment in the conversation. The flow of the conversation must go on smoothly without break. The concept of turn taking in face-to-face conversation and not face-to-face conversation is different. This paper will refer to the concept of turn taking not face-to-face conversation as chatting is not a face-to-face conversation but similar to phone conversation because the people involve in the conversation cannot see each other face while communicating.

The chatting transcript involved five chatters. The turn taking based from the transcript shows it is inconsistent as there is some chatter that took more than one turns at a time. As the example below, in turn nine to 11 where only Robin Bradshaw did the chatting. As the matter of fact, in the first page of the transcript we can see that Robin Bradshaw was the one who conquered the chatting.

Mary Fagan : This is my first time, but looks easy enough.
Robin Bradshaw : No, nothing specific. I think you all have all figured it out.
Robim Bradshaw : We will wait a couple of minutes to see who else shows up, then we’ll
get started.
Robin Bradshaw : I know Sarah said she would be late if she made it. Her mom did go to
the hospital.
Amy H : So is Yolanda gone from the room?

Moreover, because of more than two people were chatting at the same time, the chatters will mention the name in order to get the respond from that particular person. Another reason why the name will be mentioned was to respond back to the previous topic mentioned by that person. As the example from the transcript,

Robin Bradshaw : Refresh my memory, and because I left my cheatsheet at work, what
state are you in, Rebecca?
Rebecca Russo : We have mandatory certification, also, in Michigan, but when
reporters can pass the CSR, they take the CER, and then they are
using their machines to make the record when they aren’t certified to
use their machines, see what I mean? We seem to have big problem
with that here in Michigan.

The example above shows the usage of name in order to get the response from that particular person so that the people in the chatting session do not get confused. The example below is to show the mentioning of name in order to response back to that person’s previous statement.

Amy H : Well, we have a former governor here in Illinois who employed, and for the
price I’m sure he could do any number of thing legislatively for you guys in
other states…………..[Emotion=emwink.gif]
Rebecca Russo : Yes, indeed. It’s not hard to prove, as people see them in court using, their
machines when they know they are not a licensed CSR, but enforcement
is the issue.
Robin Bradshaw : LOL!
Mary Fagan : BIG LOL
Rebecca Russo : LOVE IT
Robin Bradshaw : Do the judges have an idea that they are not licensed CSR?Rebecca Russo : At lease you have a sense of humor about it, Amy! Yikes!!

Through the conversation, we can see that there is no question or statement that is not being answered or responded. Every statement and question by the people in the chat session are being responded and answered. At one time, a statement or a question will receive the answer and statement from more than one person. It shows that all the people in the chat session were alert and much participated in every discussion.

Despite the inconsistency of the turn taking in the chatting, there is no interruption found during the chatting. All of them managed to finish up their sentences without being interrupted by others.



Reflection
When completing the summary and analysis on the synchronous online chat communication, it gave me more understanding on synchronous CMC. For example, how does synchronous online chat plays the roles in assisting the users in language acquisition, what are the main focuses when communicating online. Although this task only enquired me to summarize the article and analyze the chatting transcript, it took me days to actually complete it because I have to complete other tasks as well. It was quite challenging as I have to learn to be a multi-tasker (as I am not and yeah, I have learned that I am a very bad multi-tasker). Alhamdulillah, finally I managed to complete the task.