Communication-oriented L2 classes typically comprise a range of interactional configurations, some spoken and some written:
- whole-class discussions
- teacher input with student feedback
- one-on-one conversations
- teacher-fronted input in the form of commentary or explanation
- writing on the board
- student responses to textual / audio / video input
- student writing — from dictation to creative production
Interactions of the first kind — between the instructor and the entire group — are an opportunity for supporting social presence and fostering a deeper sense of community.
“As teachers, we can harness our virtual presence to connect authentically with our students by (a) being present, (b) being authentic, and (c) interacting with language learners.”
Anderson, p. 309
From the L2 learner’s perspective, whole-class discussions that put the teacher front and center are critically important. Recent research in the UK shows that students in in remote learning contexts consider the teacher’s subject matter expertise, pedagogical expertise, commitment and approachability — the very things that inform and shape whole-class discussion — to be the most important factors in successful online teaching (Murphy, 2015).
Some practical aspects to consider when engaging the whole group in either spoken or written interaction:
Spoken Interaction (Main Session)
- Instruct students to mute their microphones when not speaking, to avoid feedback and local distractions.
- Zoom picks up what it assumes is the speaker's voice and cuts out the sound from others, which means that a free-for-all discussion involving multiple speakers can become very disjointed — and very dispiriting for students who aren’t comfortable jumping into a lively or aggressive discussion.
- As an alternative, have students indicate that they want to speak by raising a hand physically, i.e., visibly on the screen; or by clicking on “raised hand” in the “Participants” window (above the Chat window).
F2F teaching environments are implicitly "inclusive" in the sense that everyone is in the same room. Students can remain silent while listening to other students speak and yet still feel part of the conversation by virtue of their physical proximity. But in a remotely taught class, even students who are “there” may feel isolated and alone. This makes it all the more important for instructors to speak directly with each student at some point during each class meeting, either in whole-group settings or in the Breakout Rooms. (For research on this effect in blended synchronous L2 courses, see the research cited below by Popov and by Rogers et al).
Written Interaction (Chat / Whiteboard / Google Doc)
You can use Chat, the Zoom Whiteboard, or a shared Google Doc during the class as an alternative to whole-group oral discussion. Encourage everyone to join in for a few minutes — asking questions in writing, making comments, perhaps following cues that you introduce:
- “Ask someone a question about … !”
- “Find out something new about someone in the group!”
- “Tell us in one or two sentences the plot of a movie without mentioning the title, and see who can write the title first!”
- "Write a famous quote — translated as best you can into the L2 — and see who can tell us first who said it."
References & Resources
Lomicka, L. (2020). Creating and sustaining virtual language communities. Foreign Language Annals, 53, 306-313.
Murphy, L. (2015). Online language teaching: The learner’s perspective. In Hampel, R. and Stickler, U., Developing Online Language Teaching. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 45-62.
Popov, O. (2009). Teachers’ and students’ experiences of simultaneous teaching in an international distance and on-campus Master’s programme in Engineering. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 10(3), 1-17.
Rogers, P., Graham, C., Rasmussen, R., and Campbell, O. (2003). Blending face-to-face and distance learners in a synchronous class: Instructor and learner experiences. Quarterly Review of Distance Education 4(3), 245-51.
Seedhouse, P. (2019). L2 classroom context: Deviance, confusion, grappling and flouting. Classroom Discourse, 10(1), 10-28.