Investigating the Impact of Online Synchronous Text-Based Interaction on the Students’ English Language Awareness

Abstract

This 4-week interpretive study explored the impact of online teacher’s corrective feedback (OTCF) on L2 students’ English language awareness during teacher-student synchronous text-based chats so as to improve the students’ communicative skills. The sample consisted of the researcher as a teacher and three intermediate English learners majoring in business at a university in Bahrain. The data collection method used was the saved electronic chats between the researcher and the students on the MSN messenger. Interpretation of the data employed aspects of discourse analysis to describe and analyze the OTCF’s impact on the students’ communication. The analysis revealed that the OTCF helped the learners to notice and correct their written grammatical and lexical errors in an unthreatening and welcoming environment. However, based on the evidence that the research provided, the CMC did not necessarily support the development of the students’ oral skill. The CMC’s potential for wider dissemination and insights for future research were also addressed.