Artifacts and cultures-of-use in intercultural communication

“…that the process of becoming a competent member of one digitally mediated speech community may have demonstrable effects on presentation of self and the aesthetics of communicative performativity (e.g., Butler, 1993; Cameron, 2000) in another, quite dissimilar digitally mediated interaction.”

“Communicative activity articulates with and is a form of material culture (Bourdieu, 1991; Gee, 1990; Lemke, 1995; The New London Group, 1996).”

“"Participation" and language socialization, rather than "acquisition" of a rule, may be a more apt descriptor for the development of pragmatic competence (making reference to Sfard, 1998, in Belz & Kinginger, in press).”

“One early and quite robust line of CMC research describes the medium as "not rich enough" for many task-related needs (Daft & Lengel, 1984, in Walther, 1996, p. 3), nor is CMC effective for interpersonal exchanges as there is "scant social information" available (Dubrovsky, Kiesler, & Sethna, 1991,…”

“Research in computer-mediated communication and technology-oriented second language acquisition (SLA) has begun to illuminate many of the linguistic, interactional, and interpersonal dimensions to language-based interaction as they pertain to learning and development (e.g., Blake, 2000; Chun, 1994; Herring, 1996; Kern…”

“…and quite robust line of CMC research describes the medium as "not rich enough" for many task-related needs (Daft & Lengel, 1984, in Walther, 1996, p. 3), nor is CMC effective for interpersonal exchanges as there is "scant social information" available (Dubrovsky, Kiesler, & Sethna, 1991, p. 119).”

“The resulting inter-class e-mail exchanges were combative, perplexing, and for the American students, resulted in a general sense of disappointment (see also Belz, 2001, 2003, this issue; Kramsch & Thorne, 2002).”

“…is certainly made more rapid and convenient by global communication networks, but also that traditional understandings of communicative competence (e.g., Breen & Candlin, 1980; Savignon, 1972, 1983) and negotiation (Pica, 1995) may become something quite different when mediated by the Internet.”

“Without endorsing technological determinism -- the suggestion that technology determines human activity (an argument I counter in this article) -- the structural properties of Internet communication tools have an effect on turn-taking and exchange structures (e.g., Herring, 1999; Werry, 1996).”

“Of particular relevance to foreign language uses of "telecollaboration" (implying interaction mediated by Internet communication tools), I will include a critical discussion of recent Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) research (Walther, 1994, 1996, 1997) and will build on a theoretical framework that can broadly b…”

“Cultural-historical approaches to language education attempt to make explicit linkages between an individual's development and the social-material conditions of his or her everyday practice (e.g., Chaiklin, 2001; Engestrom, 1999; in second language research, Lantolf, 2000; Swain, 2000; Thorne, 2000b).”

“Walther builds on what is termed the SIDE model, or Social Identity/Deindividuation theory of group behavior ( Lea & Spears, 1992; Spears & Lea, 1992).”

“Research in computer-mediated communication and technology-oriented second language acquisition (SLA) has begun to illuminate many of the linguistic, interactional, and interpersonal dimensions to language-based interaction as they pertain to learning and development (e.g., Blake, 2000; Chun, 1994; Herring, 1996; Kern…”

“…read parallel texts, see the same films, and share personal biographies using e-mail and a form of synchronous chat (using the program NetMeeting; for other parallel class intercultural collaborations, see Furstenberg, Levet, English, & Maillet, 2001; Kinginger, Gouvès-Hayward, & Simpson, 1999).”

“Of particular relevance to foreign language uses of "telecollaboration" (implying interaction mediated by Internet communication tools), I will include a critical discussion of recent Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) research (Walther, 1994, 1996, 1997) and will build on a theoretical framework that can broadly b…”

“Self-regulation indexes an activity that an individual can accomplish with minimal or no external assistance (for SLA related applications of this approach, see Alm-Lequeux, 2001; Frawley & Lantolf, 1985; Schinke-Llano, 1993).”

“Without endorsing technological determinism -- the suggestion that technology determines human activity (an argument I counter in this article) -- the structural properties of Internet communication tools have an effect on turn-taking and exchange structures (e.g., Herring, 1999; Werry, 1996).”

“McDermott (1977) has remarked that people create environments for one another.”

“Genre as Kramsch and Thorne (2002) use it, and as it is employed in this paper, builds upon the following key insights:”

“Research in computer-mediated communication and technology-oriented second language acquisition (SLA) has begun to illuminate many of the linguistic, interactional, and interpersonal dimensions to language-based interaction as they pertain to learning and development (e.g., Blake, 2000; Chun, 1994; Herring, 1996; Kern…”

“(1978, p. 86; for a discussion of the ZPD in second language education, see Kinginger, 2002, and Dunn & Lantolf, 1998).”

“…study, they note that T/V usage is a destabilized and pragmatically complex issue for native speakers (making citations to Agar 1994; Delisle 1986; Morford, 1997; Wylie & Brière, 1995) and thus for foreign language students it is difficult to learn as a rule-governed behavior (despite the fact…”

“T/V use is embedded in a system of meaning potentials that are realized in particular social interactions (Belz & Kinginger, 2002, in press).”

“In this section, I outlined a theoretical framework describing artifact-mediated practices as, in essence, cultural practices (see also Cole, 1995).”

“…on the other hand, "takes the view that individuals from two societies or communities carry out their interactions (whether spoken or written) according to their own rules or norms, often resulting in a clash in expectations and, ultimately, misperceptions about the other group" (2002, p. 151).”

“This dialectical approach to the relation between agent and structure forms the conceptual foundation of this research and continues today to be at the core of related sociological and psychological inquiry (e.g., for theories of structuration, see Archer, 1995; Bourdieu, 1977; Giddens, 1984; Sawyer, 2002; for an appl…”

“Such over-attribution in dialogic communication creates an ascending feedback loop, the outcome of which might be termed hyper-intimacy (for academic and popular accounts of on-line relationship building and infatuation, see Cohen, 2001; Parks & Floyd, 1996; Scharlott & Christ, 1995).”

“The resulting inter-class e-mail exchanges were combative, perplexing, and for the American students, resulted in a general sense of disappointment (see also Belz, 2001, 2003, this issue; Kramsch & Thorne, 2002).”

“Addressing intercultural pragmatics in foreign language learning contexts, Boxer (2002) distinguishes between cross cultural and interlanguage pragmatics, saying that the latter focuses on the language learner's appropriation and/or acquisition of pragmatic norms represented in the host language…”

“, Bødker, 1997; Cole & Engestrom, 1993; Kapetlinin, 1996), including mediational artifacts such as Internet communication tools (Erickson, 2000; Herring, 1999; Kramsch & Thorne, 2002; Thorne, 1999, 2000a).”

“As illustrated in Case One, artifacts can form the nexus of diverse and heterodox activity (Bødker, 1997).”

“In relation to the education projects discussed here, these norms arise not only from local, extemporaneous activity, but from the wider cultural contexts of computing integral to many students' non-academic lives (Thorne, 2000a).”

“Self-regulation indexes an activity that an individual can accomplish with minimal or no external assistance (for SLA related applications of this approach, see Alm-Lequeux, 2001; Frawley & Lantolf, 1985; Schinke-Llano, 1993).”

“…most recent study, they note that T/V usage is a destabilized and pragmatically complex issue for native speakers (making citations to Agar 1994; Delisle 1986; Morford, 1997; Wylie & Brière, 1995) and thus for foreign language students it is difficult to learn as a rule-governed behavior…”

“Self-regulation indexes an activity that an individual can accomplish with minimal or no external assistance (for SLA related applications of this approach, see Alm-Lequeux, 2001; Frawley & Lantolf, 1985; Schinke-Llano, 1993).”

“…72, for the case of Jackie; Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003, pp. 75-84, for telecollaborative teachers; Furstenberg et al. 2001, p. 57; Kinginger, in press, for the case of Anita; Müller-Hartmann, 1999, p. 75, for the case of culture-specific irony; Thorne, 2003, this issue, for the case of Kirsten.)”

“Drawing from cultural historical activity theory (e.g., Engeström, 1987; Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006; Nardi, 1996), Thorne (2003, 2005, 2009) applied a variation of this argument to processes of Internet tool socialization and have described research illustrating that technologies mediate…”

“…to foster cross-cultural communication also need to consider how the different groups involved relate to the electronic medium as a cultural tool of communication, to better understand how social constraints and opportunities affect intercultural communication (Lam, 2003; Thorne, 2003).”

“, Canagarajah, 2000; Jenkins, 2003, also this issue; Kachru, 2001; Pennycook, 1998; Rampton, 1995); and explorations in the new kinds of discursive practices that language learners engage when using new technologies (see especially Gee, 2003; Kern, this issue; Lam, 2000; Thorne, 2003; and Warschauer, 1997).”

“As previously observed (Kramsch, A’Ness, & Lam, 2000; Kramsch & Thorne, 2002; Thorne, 2003), the electronic medium tends to blur genres that are usually kept separate in face-to-face interaction.”

“…offline contexts, has received significant attention in recent years (e.g., Belz, 2002, 2004; Belz & Thorne, in press; Byram, 1997; Furstenberg, Levet, English, & Maillet, 2001; Kinginger, 1998, 2004; Kramsch & Thorne, 2002; Müller-Hartmann, 2000; O’Dowd, 2003; Tudini, 2003; Thorne, 2003a, in press).”

“(This is a veiled reference to the zone of proximal development, e.g., Vygotsky, 1978; within applied linguistics, see Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; Thorne, 2003.)”

“This figure illustrates the unfamiliar and evolving nature of Web-based word processing and students' use of this space and shows how the tools communicators use and the way they use them often co-evolve (Thorne, 2003).”

“A focus on the social aspects of language use stems from the potential of telecollaboration to provide opportunities for students to see language and culture as two sides of the same coin (Belz, 2003; Furstenberg et al., 2001; Kern, 1996; Thorne, 2003, 2006; Ware & Kramsch, 2005).”

“discussion, and synchronous chat for communication and collaboration with a partner class abroad, while the second class serves as a control group, using the same electronic media for intraclass communication only (Thorne, 2003).”

“Recent studies have explored the role of social and cultural influences on learner interaction in CMC (Thorne, 2003; Ware, 2005; Warner, 2004) and have stressed the importance of these factors on language development.”

“In response to Prensky’s (2001) ‘digital natives’ hypothesis, Thorne (2003) offered a sociocultural theoretic interpretation of online behavior as reflective of contextually contingent ‘cultures of use’.”

“Mediating technologies and cultures-of-use reciprocally influence each other (Thorne, 2003), and communicative activity articulates as well as changes cultures (for the relationship between cognition and the communicative tools we use, see e.”

“…(a) social virtualities, such as Second Life or Active Worlds (Peterson, 2006, 2010); (b) commercial MMOs, such as World of Warcraft (Soares, 2010; Thorne, 2003); and (c) made-for-education synthetic immersive environments, such as Croquelandia (Sykes, 2011; Sykes, Oskoz, & Thorne, 2008).”

“She reasons that both of these computer-mediated affordances, that is, ‘‘that which is offered by the linguistic environment and perceived by the learner’’ (van Lier, 1996, p. 12), may contribute to the development of awareness and appropriate use of L2 address forms (see also Belz & Kinginger, 2002; Thorne, 2003, pp.…”

“Globalization and new technologies have opened dramatic new opportunities for language teaching and learning (Thorne, 2003).”

“The comments confirms those reported in previous studies of CMC indicating that the accessibility of the Internet becomes essential for network-based learning and further affects students’ motivation (Thorne, 2003; Ware, 2005).”

“Also on the interactional level is the cultures-of-use of particular tools which can lead to divergent communicative expectations and cause a breakdown in communication (Thorne, 2003).”

“Basharina drew upon the cultures-of-use framework (Thorne, 2003), in particular the proposition that historically sedimented qualities accrue to Internet”

“AT can help illuminate challenges related to cultures of use of tools (see Thorne, 2003) occurring when students “approach [a] new task with old habits” (Blin, 2004, p. 167).”

“In this case, the technological tools helped mediate communication (Thorne, 2003) in a way that paper-based writing or standard word processing software could not have done.”

“Hauck (2010) further argues that MCC, the ‘cultures-of-use’ of the tools used (Thorne, 2003), and gains in intercultural competence (Byram, 1997) are the least interrelated, if not interdependent.”

“To conclude, the development of learners ’ intercultural competence should be the core of L2 instruction in the age of globalization (Thorne, 2003).”

“Based on three case studies, Thorne (2003) concludes that the tools are not neutral media.”

“In ecological terms, the properties of the technology stand in a dialogic relation to the activities of users, giving rise to dynamic affordances (Thorne, 2003; Van Lier, 2000).”

“It follows that pedagogy should be designed in a way that keeps the communication flowing without fatal breakdowns caused by conflicting activity systems among participants (Russell, 2001; Thorne, 2003).”

“Thorne suggests that the use (“cultures-of-use”) of online communication tools “differs interculturally just as communicative genre, pragmatics, and institutional context would be expected to differ interculturally” ( Thorne, 2003”

“As is clear in a number of the studies discussed below, this is especially the case with the use of vernacular, or noneducationally designed, media and social-networking sites (SNSs) that students may have long histories with outside of academic settings (Thorne, 2003).”

“Researchers have pointed out the beneficial use of telecollaborative and other computermediated projects for acquiring greater language skills as well as intercultural competence (Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2002; Belz & Thorne, 2006; Blake, 2008; Furstenberg, Levet, English, & Maillet, 2001; Gonglewski, Meloni, & Brant,…”

“…the viability of telecollaboration for providing motivating language practice and developing intercultural awareness, some studies show that intercultural contact does not necessarily lead to cultural understanding (Belz, 2002, 2003; Coleman, 1998; O’Dowd, 2003, 2006; Thorne, 2003; Ware, 2005).”

“CALL research and development that explicitly draw on SLA as a basis for design and evaluation even though CALL can be studied from a variety of perspectives (Egbert & Petrie, 2005; Levy & Stockwell, 2006; Thorne, 2003; Warschauer, 1998).”

“Thorne (2003) and Wertsch, Minick, and Arns (1984) showed how the same task is implemented differently by means of available tools across different socio-cultural contexts.”

“In a previous study (Thorne, 2003),22 I focused on Kirsten, a university student in a fourth-semester French grammar course who participated in an Internet-mediated intercultural communication exchange with a university in France.”

“This includes learners’ varying ability to use the appropriate second person pronoun in German (Belz & Kinginger, 2002), French (Lamy, 2004; Thorne, 2003), and Italian (Tudini, 2007).”

“…to help students navigate effectively through complex recent global developments, language education systems strive to equip them with the necessary skills to engage effectively in global communication networks and (intercultural) communicative language practices (Alptekin, 2002; Thorne, 2003).”

“As a literacy practice, SNS use is built around existing and emerging communities of practice; in their online equivalents, unique cultures of use (Thorne, 2003) have developed around the use of particular sets of tools by communities of users.”

“19 Belz and Kinginger (2003) and Thorne (2003) found that noticing resulted in the acquisition of pragmatic distinctions between formal and informal forms of address, and Fiori (2005) found that students who received implicit corrective feedback in chat sessions performed with greater grammatical…”

“When using Facebook, each of the participants was unknowingly using different cultural artifacts, as Facebook is embedded in different individual cultures-ofuse (Thorne, 2003).”

“…communication with positive developmental results, including in the areas of vocabulary, morphology, and oral and pragmatic skills (Belz, 2001; Belz & Kinginger, 2002; Blake, 2005, 2008; Hampel, 2006; Kern, 2006; Payne & Ross, 2005; Salaberry, 2000a, 2000b, 2001; Thorne, 2003; Warschauer, 2004).”

“As initially outlined in “Artifacts and cultures-of-use in intercultural communication” (Thorne, 2003), these practices emerge within distinctive cultures-of-use— that is, in the articulation between the immediate contextual aspects of the communicative event at hand and the historically sedimented associations, purpo…”

“The intercultural model re fl ects the trend of attaching importance to intercultural and sociocultural aspects of foreign language teaching in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Thorne, 2003, 2010).”

“Other CMC benefits, whether from SCMC or ACMC, of a more controversial nature include claims that these modalities level hierarchical differences originating from ethnicity, age, gender, and shyness (Thorne, 2003).”

“Although a focus on multiculturalism (e.g., Banks, 2004) and intercultural competence (cf. Thorne, 2003; Ware & Kramsch, 2005) has helped attune educators to issues of difference and diversity, these approaches primarily have addressed intra national differences between cultures within the…”

“Although a number of studies have appeared that do take a longitudinal approach (e.g., Bardovi-Harlig & Hartford, 2005; Barron, 2003; Hoffman-Hicks, 2000; Ohta, 2001; Schauer, 2006; Schmidt, 1983), they do not rely heavily on either CM or CMC.”

“Thus, these students readily co-opted this home activity into their institutionalized learning of German in order to correspond outside of class time with their new German keypals (see Thorne 2003: 54–6 for the similar case of Oliver and Kirsten).”

“In this sense, Thorne (2003: 48) has reported that students preferred a chat tool over e-mail for “authentic interpersonal relationship building”.”

“Thorne ( 2003 ) terms this kind of partnership Internet mediated intercultural foreign language education (ICFLE) and Thorne (2006) categorizes it into four models: telecollaboration; eTandem; partnerships between local expert speakers and foreign language students; and learners' participation in online communities.”

“Such was the case, for instance, in Thorne's (2003) study of cross-cultural partnerships for language learning.”

“The collaborative and communicative practices within SNSs are therefore tightly connected with the medium and the context, but they are not seen as determined by the medium itself (Thorne 2003).”

“Many studies have been influenced by sociocultural theory (Belz, 2002; Thorne, 2003; Ware, 2005).”

“The forums in this online intercultural learning environment therefore served as a timely ‘third space’ for the two groups of students across the Pacific Ocean (Kramsch, 1993; Thorne, 2003).”

“USE – that is, in interaction with immediate contextual conditions, ‘the historically sedimented characteristics that accrue to a [computer-mediated-communication] tool from its everyday use’ (Thorne 2003: 40; see also Thorne & Black 2008).”

“The comments confi rm those reported in previous studies of CMC indicating that the accessibility of networking becomes essential for network-based learning and further affects students’ motivation (Thorne, 2003; Ware, 2005).”

“…on the work of Walther (1992, 1996), Herring (1996) and other communication theorists (e.g. Hancock & Dunham, 2001; Sullivan et al ., 2004) in their investigations of the development of IC or awareness among ‘zero history’ keypals in telecollaborative exchanges (see, however, Thorne, 2003).”

“…researchers (Belz 2002, 2003; Belz & Thorne, 2006; Byram, 1997; Darhower, 2007; Kern et al., 2004; Lomicka, 2006; O’Dowd, 2003, 2005, 2006; Thorne, 2003; Ware & Kramsch, 2005; Warschauer, 2004; Wildner-Bassett, 2005) disfavors the purely interactionist SCMC paradigm because it portrays…”

“Ess (1998) recognizes that theories of culture elaborated by Hofstede, Hall, Geertz (1973; see especially, Abdelnour-Nocera, 1998, 2002 ), and Carey (1989) are used frequently by intercultural educators, but asks,”

“Given that the selection and use of tools are not neutral actions, they can shape the mediation process between the actor and the object that is acted upon (Kuutti, 1996; Wertsch, 1991) and can have an impact on language development (Hampel & Hauck, 2006; Thorne, 2003).”

“These include adapting authentic material, devising meaningful purposes for interaction and choosing the right tool for the job, a tool that fits in with the task and the learners’ cultures-of-use (Thorne 2003).”

“With the creation of the World Wide Web, it has become possible and feasible for language teachers to make effective use of instructional materials, especially in teaching language and culture (e.g., Belz, 2003; Johnson & Brine, 1999; Kramsch, A’Ness, & Lam, 2000; O’Dowd, 2003; Thorne, 2003).”

“…deal, perhaps even the majority, of research in this area suggests that cultural miscommunication and open conflict should Q8 ER56528_C015.indd 428 6/6/07 11:19:09 AM be expected (e.g., Kramsch & Thorne, 2002; Schneider & von der Emde, 2003, 2006; Thorne, 2003; Ware, 2005; Ware & Kramsch, 2005).”

“Kötter (2003), O’Dowd (2003), Thorne (2003), Aitsiselmi (1999) and Appel (1999) supported the use of telecollaboration or e-mail exchange in the development of linguistic and metalinguistic abilities, intercultural communicative competence and French grammar.”

“The literature on learner text-based interaction in real time CMC suggests that a degree of caution should be exercised when seeking to generalize the findings of research conducted in this area, as the findings of individual studies may vary depending on the interplay of the variables outlined above (Hudson & Bruckma…”

“…and intercultural bring about a richness in telecollaborative communication which Thorne classifies as “compelling, problematic and surprising” (Thorne, 2003, p. 38) In telecollaborative chat rooms, there is a great potential for activation of language awareness via linguistic affordances.”

“…and generally the subjects’ resistance to using the tool represented another important contradiction between the participant groups’ uneven ‘‘cultures-of-use’’ (Thorne, 2003) in relation to SL. Thorne terms as cultures-of-use the historically constructed forms of activity correlated with the use…”

“The reality that the choice of media or tool is not neutral has been widely discussed in the context of telecollaborative tools (Thorne, 2003) and is all the more relevant for mashups and augmented reality, which explicitly seek to modify existing materials.”

“A number of recent studies have attempted to describe L2 learning in computer-mediated environments from a broader perspective by incorporating a sociocultural approach (e.g., Belz, 2002; Goodfellow & Lamy, 1999; Lee, 2004; Thorne, 2003; Warschauer, 2000).”

“In recent years, many research projects have been launched to investigate the application of networking technologies to language acquisition and intercultural learning through building telecollaboration between foreign language learners and native speakers (NSs) of the target culture (e.g., Belz, 2002; Belz & Müller-H…”

“As Thorne (2003) explains: [c]ultural artifacts such as global communication technologies are produced by and productive of socio-historically located subjects.”

“Recent research (Thorne, 2003b) on American students learning French and being required to use e-mail with a French keypal found that for some learners, e-mail was not a mode of choice for developing interpersonal relations with age-peers, which had been the purpose for the teacher assigning the…”

“This notion of ‘ fit ’ is also consistent with Thorne ’ s (2003) ‘ cultures of use, ’ which refers to the way learners currently select and employ digital devices and apps for personal and social purposes.”

“From a socio-cultural perspective, human tools (e.g. email) mediate and define social processes (e.g. communication; Thorne, 2003).”

“Therefore, a combination of data collection methods (Thorne, 2003) seems most promising for providing a fuller picture of language learning in an online environment (Hubbard, 2005).”

“Not only does telecollaboration allow students to learn from native speakers and receive feedback, which allows students to grow in pragmatic awareness (Thorne, 2003), but also L2 learners learn about cultures other than their own and make connections with their coursework and between their own culture and that of the…”

“In this study differences in genres of writing were catalyzed by the differences in cultures-of-use of computer technologies (Thorne, 2003; Basharina, 2005) in Canada, Mexico, and Russia.”

“Thus, for example, Thorne (2003) found that for undergraduate students in Penn State University, instant messenger (IM) systems afford the building of age-peer relationships in a manner that e-mail cannot (the ecological perspective); but this, he argues, is due in the first place not to inherent…”