Clarification and repair in emergency remote EFL classes

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.14.252

Keywords:

EMERGENCY REMOTE EDUCATION, CONVERSATION ANALYSIS, CLARIFICATION, REPAIR, EFL

Abstract

During the sudden shift in education onto digital platforms due to the Covid-19 emergency, teachers became streamers and experimented with new tools to involve their students in video-mediated, multi-floor, multiparticipant, and multimodal interactions. In turn, students experienced new ways to participate in lessons and interact with instructors. This study focuses on clarification and repair in videoconferencing as a strategy to address trouble in video-mediated communication and to re-establish mutual understanding. Through participant observation of online classes, the researcher collected data on classroom interactions, which are analyzed through conversation analysis. The findings show how the digital affordances of video-mediated conversation help teachers and students manage intersubjectivity and compensate for the lack of non-verbal cues typical in face-to-face interaction, such as facial expressions or tone of voice. Consequently, this article argues that the wisdom gained during the pandemic can help teachers and lecturers better deal with clarification and repair in digital conversations. Ultimately, it can increase their digital interactional competence, thus giving way to more interaction and learning in EFL classes, both online and in-person.

Author Biography

Antonella Giacosa, Università di Torino

Antonella Giacosa has been teaching English as a Second Language in Italian high schools for over 20 years. In 2019, she started a PhD in Digital Humanities at Università di Torino (Italy) on video-mediated classroom discourse. She is a member of the Internationalization-at-Home project (University of Turin, Humber College Toronto, University of Hong Kong), a member of the European Scientific Journal editorial board for Humanities, and reviewer for articles on distance learning. She has published several contributions on emergency remote education during the Covid-19 pandemic, currently available on social networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu and websites like publons.com and scopus.com.

Published

2021-11-30

How to Cite

Giacosa, A. (2021). Clarification and repair in emergency remote EFL classes. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages, 8(2), 161–184. https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.14.252

Issue

Section

Research Articles - Special Issue

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