Writing in the Cyber-Classroom

The hosted chat room for ESOL learners is a new and novel place for students to improve their written and even spoken skills. It is a real-time text chat community on the Internet where students `chat` or write synchronously. Being a relatively new option in language learning, very little research has been done on the chat room. Therefore, I seek to bring together the current published literature related to this, and to discover student perceptions. Based on samples of text, I will describe some characteristics of the writing being produced there, which differ from those of traditional writing. I shall then make recommendations that will hopefully improve this tool.

Section 4 provides a review of the existing published literature on the ESOL chat room, and its connections with writing.

Section 5 details the research, explaining the purpose, instrumentation, limitations and data collection and analysis.

Section 6, the focuses on the findings of the research, taking into account the views of the students in the study and of the researcher/teacher.

Section 7 offers a summary of the findings, with recommendations for the hosted chat room, and for further research.

Background

In the Internet school where I did the research, the hosted room is open 24 hours a day, hosted by native-speaker teachers, working four-hour shifts from home. The rooms' aims are to provide a place for students to practise their fluency skills, and to provide qualified teachers who can answer the students' questions. After choosing a nickname, students enter the chat room and are automatically welcomed by the teacher. A maximum of twenty students are allowed to enter at one time. They stay from five minutes to ten hours, but it seems usually to be for about an hour at a time. The teacher initiates a chat, by asking questions or introducing a topic, such as: music; sport; idioms etc. The teacher may chat one-to-one with each student, but often many students are drawn into the same discussion, although they can choose how much they participate and with whom. Messages are read by everyone, and responses are usually instant. The teacher corrects if specifically asked to, or if there is a major, or consistent error. The teacher can also guide the students to different parts of the website, or even the Internet, if they have specific learning needs. The students come from all around the world, from Asian countries, especially China, to South America, and also learners living in an ESL context. They are both male and female, mostly in their twenties and thirties. They are students or employees who usually need English for work or study purposes, although some seem to enter just for pleasure and to make friends.

Review of literature on the language learning chat room, and writing in the chat room

The hosted chat room is becoming an increasingly popular tool for language learning. However, there has been little research done in this area. This section brings together the current published material on the advantages and limitations of integrating the chat room into the traditional classroom.

The traditional roles of the teacher and the student are dramatically changing in this world of ever-developing technology. Research has shown that students may reach a 'plateau` in their learning if they are not given further opportunities to interact with native speakers (Swain & Lapkin, 1986), and the computer can offer them a more authentic learning experience (Singhal, 1998). Students start and continue a conversation, agree and disagree, persuade, defend, interact in a group, try to get their point across, and improve their writing skills. Writing something for a genuine purpose and audience is, without a doubt, a more satisfying experience than filling in the gaps in a grammar exercise, or writing a composition (Uschi, 1998). Uschi explain that having a degree of control over what happens during the course of the chat, and being able to express one's personality and beliefs, adds to the authenticity of the chat room experience.

The role of the teacher in the chat room differs from the traditional one, in that in this learner-centred environment, the teacher can take on a less dominate role, being there to support, advise, guide, give information, and correct (Heimans, 1995).

It has been suggested that the chat room is an ideal learning space as an alternative to the traditional classroom. Frizler (1995) suggests that it is good for students who cannot physically get to a classroom, and for those who do not enjoy the classroom experience. Students who plan to study or work in an English speaking country can find it useful, and also those who do not want to lose their language skills. It can be valuable too for those students who cannot afford to study in an English speaking country, but desire the benefits of having a native-speaker teacher.

Computers may offer a more `dynamic and collaborative` environment, particularly when working on the skill of writing (Davidson and Tomic, 1994). Traditionally, the writer does not get instant feedback (Harmer, 1991), so the chat room is a unique and interactive way to develop one's written skills in a meaningful way, with an immediate result (Felix, 1998). It also gives students access to a wide variety of language models (Heimans 1995), which aids in reading comprehension and developing critical thinking skills (Kroonenburg, 1994/5). Kroonenberg also suggests that it can also improve listening and speaking skills outside the chat room.

There are calls for a more student-practice centred environment, which would enable learners to write in a variety of ways (Jenkins, 1993). Newson (1995) has observed that in the chat room a form of `speech writing` is used, quite distant from traditional writing, which may not help students learn to write better in the `real world`, but can help with spoken English. Hackett (1996) names this particular convention `netspeak`. Young (1994) describes the writing in a chat room as both written and spoken English blended into what could be a unique form of communication and expression, that is much more `cerebral` than speaking alone. Lundstrom (1995), however, disagrees, and believes that this kind of writing can be a disadvantage for learners when communicating with native speakers.

Computer-mediated communication can not only improve the learners' language ability, but also increase their knowledge of worldwide issues (Singhal, 1998). Students appreciate the variety of opinions given on a particular topic, and enjoy interaction with the native-speakers. This, along with improved linguistic ability, can be a great motivator to learners, even shy (Etchells, 1999). Dudfield (1998), however, expresses concern about these mute students. If they do not chat, they are not interacting. But she explains that by not being able to use physical cues, like eye contact and gesticulations, students make a special effort to be more sociable, and they try to describe how they are feeling, for example, by using chat room abbreviations, like :-) which indicates that the student is smiling. It should be noted, however, that students are given no guidelines on how to write in the chat room (Pincas, 1999), but their intuitive creativity can often get them through the initial stages of confusion. Their anonymity also gives them the opportunity to create a new personality, more willing to take risks with the language. The student is in total control of what others see of him or her (Young, 1994).

Technical errors can be a frustration, as noted by Singhal (1998). Another annoyance can be when a number of conversations are going on at the same time, creating a `noise`, making it difficult, especially for new students, to know what is going on (Dudfield, 1998), and it is unlikely that they can keep up with the fast pace of the chat, resulting in uneven participation (Pincas, 1999).

What is actually learnt in the chat room is open to debate, according to Heimans (1995), who acknowledges that it does give the learner the opportunity to practise spoken and written fluency.

What are the generic forms of the linguistic interaction made possible by internet chat sites?

How might these be useful in terms of applicability to spoken, and other forms of written language development, or to the second language learning process in general?

What is the nature of the hypertextual reading and writing process and how might the use of hypertext affect the acquisition of these skills?

Dudfield (1998) suggests that it is the responsibility of the teacher to show students not only how to read and write traditional texts, but also hypertext, and how to learn and relearn techniques in these constant times of change. Students also need to be shown ways to interact successfully, and to work as a team to achieve one's goals. Pincas (1999) suggests, for example, structured interactions, rather than free chatting.

In conclusion, the chat room is a place where students use a distinct form of communication to meaningfully interact in an authentic situation, practising their reading, writing (Singhal, 1998) and possibly speaking skills. Uschi (1998) and other researchers, who are generally positive about this tool, agree that it is not going to replace the traditional classroom but, instead, should be seen as a supplementary means to enhance the language learning experience.

to examine the writing conventions in the chat room, and compare them to traditional writing conventions.

to observe strategies students use to be able to communicate in the context of the chat room.

b. Instrumentation

I conducted the survey with students to discover their opinions on the chat room as a source for writing practice, and also to discover their attitudes on their writing ability and levels of confidence in general, and how the chat room may have affected this. Twenty students were selected from a variety of ESL/EFL situations around the world.

Observations

I observed and analysed these students' written contributions in the room, copying relevant dialogues and making notes.

This was an exploratory study, and that given its modest scope, the conditions did not exist for a random sampling or collection of complete sets of chats over longer periods.

Data was collected in the form of students' responses to the interview, samples of their written conversations, and observations.

The interview responses were read and organised into tables for each question, and percentages were calculated, so that patterns could be noticed, in addition to new ideas that had not previously been thought about. This was a particularly useful part of the research process, as it focused on the perceived impact of the chat room on students' writing ability and confidence.

The writing samples and observation notes were taken periodically, especially when a new situation or writing convention presented itself. This was beneficial as it gave the opportunity to examine writing conventions in the room, and how they differed from traditional ones.

Students have their own personal needs, learning styles and perceptions about writing. However, a number of patterns could be found in the data.

The students, on the whole, feel more confident when writing in a less traditional situation, like in the chat room and writing emails. Easter explains her experience in the room:

It must be now when I have spoken and written so much English with ESL teachers who don't give me a grade

When writing formal letters, preparing job applications and writing tests, many respondents said they lose confidence. In contrast, only one student felt that he lacked confidence in the chat room.

The room has helped with students' writing ability and confidence. 50% stated that being corrected and given models made them better writers. 25% felt that they became better writers in general, and 20% noted that it had helped them to write faster. Respondents also mentioned richer vocabulary and expressions, and one respondent noted that the room enabled her to write `real-life English`. Many respondents stated that the chat room not only improves their writing skills, but also their speaking skills, and often wrote about `talking` and `speaking` in the chat room. Yeli wrote:

Many people does not like even to try to speak English because they feel shy doing it. And the chat helps you in this way.

In addition, the respondents gave varied reasons for the room giving them confidence. Just being there and chatting frequently can build confidence, especially when being corrected. It can be motivating too, making the English experience easier and more enjoyable.

The majority of respondents recognised that in the hosted chat room they can write more informally:

Differences	No. of Students	%
More informal, less structured/organised/accurate	14	70
No different	2	10
Particular to the chat room	2	10
Feels easier than normal	2	10
Like speaking	1	5
Have not written in the `real world` yet	1	5

I think the writing style in chat room almosts like spoken style in the real world. The different is in here you often see some style only used in chatroom. For instance, lol, a/s/l, how r u and so on. The purpose use this kind style is for improve uploading speed of sentence. No body want to wait a long time for anwering. Another different is faces often use in chatroom such as ^-^^-* :-) :0 :( and so on) the reason for that is we can't see each other in the internet, but we want to know the expression each other.

There is evidence that students perceive that chat room writing is more informal with less structure (Rita, Easter). Manna suggests that it is not a place for structure and grammatical accuracy, which can be learnt in the traditional ways, but is a way for students to practise their `everyday` English.

The respondents do not come to the room only to practise their written English. The table below shows that they also come for the social experience, for cultural input, to improve their English in general, and so on.

Reason	No. of Students	%
Meet people/make friends	15	75
Improve/practise English in general	9	45
Chat about interesting topics	4	20
Improve spoken/`real-life` English	4	20
Cultural input	4	20
Learn vocabulary	3	15
Relax and have fun	3	15
Ask teacher specific questions	2	10
Read chats only and learn from them	2	10
Be corrected	2	10
Wholesome/friendly environment	2	10
Improve writing	2	10
Keep English up-to-date	1	5
Learn from teacher AND other students	1	5
Practise typing	1	5
Improve reading	1	5

The role of the teacher, as perceived by the respondents, is to get them to chat, by introducing interesting topics (50%), including current affairs (20%), culture (10%) and controversial topics (5%). They want to play grammar games (55%), and a third want to chat accurately. Sibon explained:

I would have a conversation as we have and I would correct them as you do. I thinkthat's the main point of the chat room.

Overall, the students seemed to be positive about the room, and appreciated the quality of and the encouragement from the teachers.

There is a unique writing convention in the chat room, `cyber-chat`. The users, particularly the regulars and the intermediate and above students, tend to write in a very informal way, almost as if they were speaking, with some notable differences:

The students sometimes use abbreviations and symbols. These are a kind of `shorthand` used to express certain thoughts and emotions without wasting valuable time typing them out.

Abbreviations can be found frequently, and are used by students who regularly come to the room, and who have been exposed to these abbreviations. Examples are:

Emoticons are a clever use of standard punctuation marks to express human emotions. For example:

There are certain rules about writing in the chat room that beginner users may not be aware of, and the teacher or other students may gently tell them if and when they make a blunder.

The use of block capitals is seen as shouting, and is considered rude. The teacher might privately point this out to the offending student, or a fellow student may mention it. For example:

Alex: Sibon, First of all, don't write with capital letters, it's hard to read what you write.

When students write to a specific person, they must write that person's name in the sentence. Otherwise, this can lead to confusion, especially in a busy room. Examples are:

If the student's name is written in lower case, then you should refer to that person as such, even though in reality names start with a capital letter. Here they are just user-names, and lower-case is acceptable. If the user-name is long, it may be shortened to save time.

Students can only send private messages to the teacher. This is allowed at the beginning of a chat if the student is particularly shy, and also if the student is divulging private information. However, lengthy private one-to-one conversations are discouraged, as this can be very demanding on the teacher, and because other students should be able to join in any conversations that interest them.

Swearing or being impolite is not allowed, and the teacher has the ability to `kick a student out` if he or she is causing distress. In the interviews, several students commented on the wholesome environment of the chat room. Studentsimon explained that if he wants to learn swear words, he can go to another chat room. Generally, the students are polite and friendly with each other.

The native speaker teachers are American, British and Australian, and so provide a variety of models for the students. As the students have to react so quickly, they often make errors, and so are exposed to each other's poor writing. Students seem to be aware that they all make mistakes, but the teacher cannot correct every mistake made, and the students may not be able to differentiate between correct English and poorly written English. However, this can also be the case when students watch TV, listen to songs etc.

The room is not structured in that is has set topics to chat about or lessons as such. It is down to the teacher's discretion to select topics of interest. Many students who enter the room ask what the topic is, because they need some kind of focus. Some students ask for grammar explanations or games. A problem can be that some students demand grammar, and others just want to chat. It cam be a challenge for the teacher to keep these two different chats going on simultaneously.

From observations, and experience of teaching in the chat room, the following advantages and disadvantages could be found:

Advantages

Purpose and Audience - The chat room gives the students a purpose and an audience for writing.

Authenticity - Students have the opportunity to practise reading and writing in an authentic setting, which can be highly motivating.

Extra Practice - The room gives students a place to practise their English outside the classroom.

Native Speaker Teacher - Students can chat with a native speaker, who exposes them to correct models of English.

Anonymity - Typically shy students can open up in the chat room, as they can take on a different personality. Students can take risks with their English, due to their anonymity.

Error Correction - The teacher can correct the student's errors, or not, if the student indicates so.

Critical Thinking - The user learns to critically think and respond quickly in English.

Responsibility and Flexibility - The student chooses when to come to the room and for how long, thus giving them more responsibility for their learning.

Choice - Students can choose who they communicate with, and what topic they want to chat about.

Alternative - If the student does not enjoy the traditional classroom setting, then the chat room gives them another option.

Linguistic Change - Students can practise an increasingly popular computer metalanguage (Newton, 2000), and use textual representations of personal expression, for example, using `Emoticons`.

Motivation- Students can be highly motivated, for a variety of reasons, including the novelty value of the room.

Exposure to Incorrect English - The students may be exposed to poorly written English from other students.

Technical Problems - The types of problems can vary from `Chat Error: Server Not Responding`, to the slow posting of messages, to the temporary freezing of the screen, to being disconnected.

Lack of Structure - There may be an under-emphasis on language input and structure to the chat.

Linguistic Change - For the beginner, the cyber-English can be a little confusing and overwhelming.

The hosted chat room is a new and novel tool for learners to practise writing in English in an authentic environment, in addition to in a traditional classroom and, according to Singhal (1998), develop their communication skills.

This cyber-chat writing convention is quite unique and, as the use of the Internet grows, will become a more acceptable dialect. As Frizler (1995) notes, English is a constantly changing language, and what is considered acceptable English today, will be old English in the future. Research has shown that students do understand that there is a difference in the way that they write on the computer, compared with more traditional methods (Davidson and Tomic, 1994). At the moment, though, students need to be made aware that it is not yet acceptable in traditional writing, and therefore should keep the `Emoticons`, the abbreviations and other peculiarities to the chat room or email. For beginner users, chat room instruction would be useful prior to entering for the first time, so that they are aware of this new way of writing in English. The teacher in the traditional classroom could prepare these students or, for the lone learner, there could be a web page available for them to refer to. Regarding exposure to poorly written English, the respondents to the survey seemed to be aware that they see other students' mistakes, and that the only person who can guarantee a correct paradigm is the teacher. Just because they are exposed to these errors, does not mean that students should not enter the room. In every day life, students are exposed to incorrect English by native speakers, for example, on television, in songs and on the Internet. This disadvantage is far outweighed by the advantages.

Students with no keyboard experience may find it difficult to communicate effectively in the room. Therefore, it would be recommended that they acquire some basic typing skills beforehand.

As for structured interactions in the chat room, I would recommend loosely structured time periods, for example, one hour of chatting about music, one hour about idioms, one hour about today's news, another hour about cultural differences, and so on. This would give the students a degree of structure, and the opportunity to select what they want to discuss and learn. A timetable could be posted on the home page of the Internet school.

The hosted chat room is here to stay, and many students have this exciting opportunity to write with a clear purpose and audience, in an authentic setting, while making friends and learning about different cultures. They need to react quickly, so can improve their speed of not only reading and writing in English, but also their critical thinking skills.

There is still very little research published on this new tool, and I would recommend that other chat hosts undertake additional exploratory studies to establish standards for this unique way of language learning.

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