The Use of Video-conferencing as a Communication Tool for Language Learning

Abstract

Videoconferencing is a relatively new medium within British higher education and even more so in the secondary and primary sector. This is due mainly to financial and technical constraints. Within my own institution I had been using computer-mediated communication with students for about three years, and had noted the effects of the text-based medium on communication, notably the potential for cross-cultural effects (Coverdale-Jones, 1998). Within this context, and having seen one or two demonstrations of videoconferencing at conferences, I was interested in seeing how this medium also could affect communicative language learning activities. Thus the aim of the two pilot studies which I shall describe here was to note the effects on communication and to consider how these could be overcome or, alternatively, utilised to good effect.