Effectiveness of teaching a part of a foreign language course through computer-mediated communication as perceived by the students of Texas A&M University and military reservists: A case study

Earlier research has been quite limited in describing what processes students go through while taking an e-mail course of a foreign language. A case study of teaching Russian using computer-mediated communication is described in the present dissertation. The study involved three university undergraduate students and three military students. The participants' experiences and ideas related to the CMC course were recorded and reconstructed using naturalistic inquiry. The students' insights were analyzed and compared. Some recommendations to foreign language teachers are given concerning the use of CMC in teaching foreign languages.; The history and the current state of computer-assisted language teaching and learning is described as well as relevant theories of language learning to provide the scientific context for the study.; The major conclusion of the study is that the CMC course was effective for those students who were extrinsically and intrinsically motivated; the computer per se was a motivational factor for these students; e-mailed assignments required self-directed studying and discipline; on the contrary, those students who were not motivated enough were likely to have computer-related problems; they lacked self-discipline in working on e-mailed assignments and were unprepared for self-directed studying.