Using MSN Messenger in College Students EFL Learning: A Case Study

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Using MSN Messenger in College Students EFL
Learning A Case Study

• Kuei-fen Tai
• Department of Foreign Languages
• Chung Hua University
• Hsinchu, Taiwan

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INTRODUCTION

• College students are early adopters and heavy
  users of the Internet and college Internet
  users are twice likely to use instant messaging
  on any given day compared to the average Internet
  user. (Jones 2002)

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INTRODUCTION

• The author supposed that the chat room may serve
  as a good learning environment because the author
  believed that using an innovative and trendy tool
  in teaching English can increase students
  motivation to use the language.
• MSN Messenger

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INTRODUCTION

• The author conducted chatting sessions for the
  students and then analyzed errors produced by
  subject students and categorized some features of
  English used in chat sessions.

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Research Questions

• (1) What types of errors are found in the chat
  logs?
• (2) What are features of English the subjects use
  in chat sessions?

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METHODOLOGY

• Subjects
• 20 senior year students from the Chung Hua
  University
• Instruments
• Microsoft MSN messenger and the text chat
  logs generated from the chatting processes
• Procedures
• In spring and summer 2005, the author
  conducted several one-hour English chatting
  sessions for students.

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Results to Q (1) What error types are found in
  the chat logs?

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Brown indicated in 1994 that sources of errors of
  interlanguage were (1) interlingual transfer (2)
  intralingual transfer (3) context of learning and
  (4) communication strategies (Brown 1994 pp.
  213-217).

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Interlingual Transfer
• yogin1227_at_hotmail.com ? i
• fell my english word know too few
• ???????? ? Let go see a movie ba!

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Intralingual Transfer
• ???? H O W A R D ????? It 's a pleasant to
  me.
• Context of Learning
• ???? H O W A R D ????? Good morning, sir.

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Communication Strategies
• ttyying_at_hotmail.com ? first chicken with ?? ?
  together .
• ttyying_at_hotmail.com ? then ??? and ??? put
  together .
• ttyying_at_hotmail.com ? then put them in the
  hot water ?? and ??? put in is ok.
• ttyying_at_hotmail.com ? teacher, how to say
  those words?

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Results of Q (2) What features do the chatters
  reveal in English they use?

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Instant Language repair
• liang691206_at_hotmail.com ? see oy.
• liang691206_at_hotmail.com ? see you.
• Uses of Emoticons and Animated Graphics
• ttyying_at_hotmail.com ? Teacher thats ok
  .
• yogin1227_at_hotmail.com ????????????

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Questions about English and Teacher's Immediate
  Feedback and ahead-of-time explanation
• ????? H O W A R D ????? ? What is
  "ice-breakers"?
• English Class ? ?????

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DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

• Closer Teacher-Student Relationship

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LIMITATIONS AND SUGGUESTED SOLUTIONS

• Drawback of Messengers in General
• Technical Support

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LIMITATIONS AND SUGGUESTED SOLUTIONS

• Time-Consuming
• Students Various English and Computer/Internet
  Proficiency

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IMPLICATIONS CONCLUSION

• This project has helped the author not only know
  of students interlanguage development from the
  errors, but also develop closer teacher-student
  relationships with them.

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IMPLICATIONS CONCLUSION

• This project deals with text-only chatting
  sessions. Microphones, earphones and webcams can
  be added to expand written/visual communication
  to audio and oral ones.

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IMPLICATIONS CONCLUSION

• With the far and wide power of instant messaging
  tools, it can be hoped that college students from
  both sides of the Taiwan Strait can communicate
  on line.
• Future cooperation is highly expected!

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Just In!

• Yahoo and Microsoft are going to link their
  instant messaging tools sometime before mid-2006.
  This means that 267.1 (185m for MSN messenger
  and 82.1m for Yahoo messenger) millions of global
  users will be able to contact each other!

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Thank you very much for your listening!