Chatting with Your Peers across Modalities: Effects of Performing Increasingly Complex Written Computer-Mediated Tasks on Oral L2 Development

Abstract

This study investigates whether peer interaction in a second language (L2) using written computer-mediated communication (CMC or text chat) may function as a bridge into oral performance. By designing and sequencing tasks according to the SSARC model of task complexity (we also examine its effects on L2 development. Finally, we explore the role of learners’ affective variables for L2 performance and development. Fifteen low–intermediate adolescent refugee learners of L2 English in the Netherlands participated in the study. Using a within-subject pre-test post-test design, we examined their language performance in both text-based CMC and face-to-face (F2F) tasks before and after a task-based classroom intervention. Results show that the intervention had a significant and strong effect on most of the linguistic measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Similar gains in text chat and oral interaction provide evidence that a direct transfer of language experiences across modalities can occur. Together with the fact that most participants valued the use of written CMC in the classroom, our findings indicate that increasingly complex text chat tasks can be an effective way to promote the oral skills of language learners. We discuss our findings in light of how the design of written CMC tasks can afford L2 development across modalities.