SOCIAL NETWORKING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING Informal Online Interactions DOCTORAL THESIS Maria Luisa Malerba Candilio Barcelona, 2015 Information and Knowledge Society Doctoral Programme Open University of Catalonia DOCTORAL THESIS SOCIAL NETWORKING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING Informal Online Interactions Discussed by: Maria Luisa Malerba Candilio Directed by: Dr. Christine Appel Barcelona, 2015 To my family “Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Summary Previous research has identified some problems in relation to online communities. Firstly, in online communities for Second Language (L2) learning there seems to be a disparity between the initial engagement of L2 learners and the gradual decrease of their level of commitment over time, so that active members often turn into less committed learners. From this, it is possible to suppose that these online communities are not suit- able for meeting long-term learning outcomes. Secondly, as previous research has shown, the main tendency of general social networks such as Facebook is to strengthen social ties among people who often are already connected in their offline lives. In con- trast, one of the purposes of online communities for L2 learning is to encourage learners to intertwine new online social bonds which can be weak and fragmentary. Moreover, in previous research it is not clear whether in these online communities learners’ primary goal is social interaction or language learning. More research is needed to assess what environmental features of these communities foster or impede opportunities for the use of the target language with the other networkers. Similarly, it is essential to shed more light on the dynamics of these platforms, and on its affordances and constraints. Finally, more investigation is needed to understand under what conditions the interactions oc- curring in these online communities cement the relationship between the language part- ners over time, what types of bonds learners create over time, what learning outcomes are generated from learners’ online interactions and what strategies they enact during the interactions to create opportunities for L2 use. The objectives of this thesis are: (1) to analyse the potential effectiveness of these com- munities for long-term learning outcomes; (2) to examine learners’ construction of op- portunities for L2 use in these environments; (3) to explore affordances and constraints of online communities. To this end, a longitudinal multiple ethnographic case study approach was used under the theoretical framework of Socio-Cultural Theory and Activity Theory (AT). The methodology is mainly qualitative and it consists of 6 phases: (1) contextualization, dur- ing which the two online communities of the investigation were identified, Livemocha and SOCIAL NETWORKING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING v Informal Online Interactions Busuu; (2) fieldwork, to observe learners’ learning experience in the two online communi- ties selected for the study; (3) online survey, submitted to learners to find out about their language experience; (4) semi-structured interviews to elicit more information about learners’ subjective experience and perceptions of these communities; (5) case studies and a micro-analysis of their online interactions to identify the ways in which they create opportunities for L2 use; (6) recall interviews to trace knowledge of their learning experi- ence over time. The findings empirically confirmed that there is a decrease in learners’ engagement with the platform over time due to intrinsic contradictions in the structure of these communi- ties, which has important pedagogical and social implications. In addition, the results delineated the presence of different profiles of learners to which correspond different actions and ways of interacting in these platforms. The results, in general, showed evi- dence of different forms of peer-assistance among learners and their ability to maintain both the social and the learning trajectory during their interactions. The research concludes with a critical reflection on the role of learner autonomy as a pre-requirement for an effective learning experience to take root in these environments, as this study clearly demonstrates. Moreover, the study translates the findings obtained (affordances and constraints of these online communities) into a set of pedagogical rec- ommendations for platform developers, learners and teachers, of use for maximising the advantages of L2 learning in online communities as well as having possible applications to formal learning settings. SOCIAL NETWORKING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING vi Informal Online Interactions Acknowledgements During the challenging and productive years it took me to conduct this study and to complete this thesis, a great number of people have accompanied and supported me. They deserve my heartfelt gratitude. To begin with, my deepest thanks go to my supervi- sor from the Open University of Catalonia, Christine Appel. Without her endless pa- tience, precious guidance, constant encouragement, constructive critics on my work and invaluable presence, it would be impossible to tell this story. What I learned from her will shape my career forever. I own a huge debt of gratitude to Derrick de Kerckhove for his unfailing support and for making this important life experience possible. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to pursue my interest in investigation and for opening up the way to the academia. I wish to thank Matteo Ciastellardi for the stimulating ad productive discussions and for endur- ing my thesis mood-swings. A big thanks also to Cristina Miranda de Almeida and Bruce William Powe for understanding so well what I was going through and for their caring presence. A huge thanks to the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and to my colleagues who shared with me the ups and down of PhD life. Our interconnectedness both inside and outside of the institutional walls has been a great source of insights throughout these years. Thank you in particular to Sarah Wagner and Ian Freeman for the English revi- sions of some chapters. Thank you to the whole staff of the IN3, the UOC and the eLearnCenter for their kind help in many occasions. Thank you to Jessica, Ivan, Luca and Isidoro for being my natural mood enhancers especially in the final phase. Thank you to Mike Levy for having a couple of meetings with me for thesis discussion and for his precious suggestions. Thank you also to Vincenza Tudini for her aid before writing chapter 4 in occasion of a couple of meetings in Barcelona and León. My sincere gratitude goes to my participants, who generously co-operated with this re- search project, who shared their time and ideas during the data collection period and who, expressing their genuine interest and curiosity about the outcome of the study, SOCIAL NETWORKING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING vii Informal Online Interactions encouraged and gave me strength in the writing phase. I am grateful to my students of Italian even though they were not involved in this project. Thank you also to all the col- leagues involved in the SpeakApps and TandemMOOC project. You have been a big source of inspiration and I have learned a lot from you for this thesis. Special thanks go to Livemocha Company for their collaboration with the online survey submission and for answering all my emails. Special thanks to Morena Ragone for her aid with legal terminology when redacting the informed consent for the participants of this study. I am also greatly indebted to all the people and colleagues met at conferences, seminars, workshops and on the cyberspace who did not hesitate having productive discussions and sharing materials and bits of knowledge with me. Thank you to Bruno M. for always being there and for his loving, caring and attentive presence, especially in the phase of the final effort. I am forever grateful to my friends here in Barcelona for sharing with me unforgettable moments in these years, for their enthusiasm and for believing in my work. Thank you also to my flat-mates for contribut- ing to create a harmonic and creative atmosphere in the house and for encouraging me to continue working. My gratitude also goes to my beloved and wonderful family in Italy, for surrounding me in a supportive and peaceful environment during all the period I have been carrying out this work and for never giving up encouraging me to finish. I would also like to thank my Italian friends for their support and understanding in a moment of difficult decisions and steps I have taken in life. I would like to thank from the deepest of my heart my best friend since our early childhood, Valeria B., for helping me and for her constant presence and encouragement in the good and bad times alike. Thank you also to those who used to be friends and accompanied me for a while and to those who sent me their energy and strength from the other part of the globe. SOCIAL NETWORKING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING viii Informal Online Interactions Table of Contents Summary............................................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ vii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................. ix List of Tables