Recent research shows that negotiation of meaning in online task-oriented interactions can be a catalyst for L2 (second/foreign/additional language) development. However, how learners undertake such negotiation work and what kind of an impact it has on interactional development in an L2 are still largely unknown mainly due to a lack of focus on task engagement processes. A conversation analytic investigation into negotiation of meaning (NoM) in task-oriented interactions can bring evidence to such development, as conversation analysis (CA), given its analytic tools, allows us to see how participant orientations in interaction evolve over time. Based on an examination of screen-recorded multiparty online task-oriented interactions, this study aimed to describe how users (n=8) of an L2 (1) negotiate and co-construct language and task rules and (2) later show orientations to these rules both in the short term (50 minutes) and in the long term (8 weeks). The findings showed that in addition to negotiating existing rules, the learners co-constructed new rules around an action called policing, which occurred when the learners attended to the breach of language and task rules. Furthermore, even after the negotiation work was completed, they oriented to negotiated rules through policing their own utterances (i.e. self-policing). Overall, this interactional continuum (from other-repairs to self-repairs) brought longitudinal evidence to bear on the role of NoM in the development of L2 interactional competence. These findings bring new insights into NoM, technology-mediated task-based language teaching (TBLT), and CA for second language acquisition (SLA).

This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of metacognitive instruction through dialogic interaction in a joint activity on advanced Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ multimedia listening and their metacognitive awareness in listening comprehension. The data were collected through (N=180) male and female Iranian advanced learners ranging from 16 to 24 years of age in three groups. The first two groups were experimental (n=60), trained through a structured intervention program focusing on metacognitive instruction through dialogic interaction (MIDI) and metacognitive instruction (MI) for 10 sessions. The learners in the experimental group were involved in 60 minutes of practice twice a week. The third group was a control group (n=60), trained through regular classroom listening activities without receiving the structured intervention program. Multimedia listening tests and the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) were used to track the advanced learners’ multimedia listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness. The results showed that metacognitive instruction through dialogic interaction did improve both the advanced learners’ multimedia listening comprehension and their metacognitive awareness in listening.

Discussion lists have gained a significant popularity in professional development research over the past few decades for the opportunity they provide for asynchronous interaction. This article presents findings from a small-scale case study that aimed at exploring the nature of teachers’ asynchronous exchanges in a discussion list. The data comprised the archived log of the messages in a Yahoo Group discussion list by five in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers who volunteered to take part in a hybrid computer-assisted language learning (CALL) teacher education course in a state university in Iran. The discussion list was incorporated into the course to engage participants in professional dialogue on topics related to technology/CALL. During the initial data analysis, participants’ asynchronous exchanges were grouped as suggestions, questions, unclassified, answers, and delivery, drawing upon Oriogun and Cave’s (2008) SQUAD categorization, following the constant comparative method of analysis. Through a follow-up computer-mediated discourse analysis, cognitive, social, and teaching presence functional moves were identified in the data. Participants used the space not only for socializing and peer instruction but also for constructing knowledge. Despite an uneven pattern of contribution, asynchronous exchanges provided opportunities for knowledge construction at different levels of cognitive presence on topics ranging from technology tools and their affordances/constraints to computer-assisted language testing, materials development, and classroom management. The findings provide CALL teacher education researchers and course designers insights into the potential of asynchronous interaction for online and blended language teacher education.