| Recent developments in online communication and collaboration have dramatically changed every aspect of human life. Thus, many language teachers are naturally harnessing online communication tools and resources to facilitate language instruction and learning. One specific Internet tool, text chat, has drawn more and more attention recently. Text chat refers to "synchronous (i.e. real time) communication between two or more people, using the keyboard as the means of communication" (Dudeney, 2007, p. 130). Internet tools and resources can tremendously benefit EFL students who live in countries such as Chile and China where English is taught as a foreign language and who do not usually have immediate access to native English speakers and fluent non-native English speakers on a daily basis.;This thesis project investigates a telecollaboration EFL teaching project in which Chilean and Chinese college students chatted with prospective Californian ESL teachers. Using a qualitative analysis and a quantitative study, this research illustrates how online text chat sessions facilitated productive informal group discussions and intercultural communication among the participants of this project.;Specifically, this study contributes to the current literature by adding a microlevel study of chat classroom sessions and provides further insights into how the teacher's role, teaching pedagogy, and student participation work together in achieving effective negotiation of meaning and dynamic intercultural communication. From the communicative and pedagogical perspectives, this study contributes quantitative and qualitative evidence to the current literature which shows how a "guide on the side" teacher's role (either a chat facilitator or a receptive audience) and two different, yet successful teaching approaches (informal group discussions and narrations), work in tandem with chat to facilitate informal discussion as well as speedy, spontaneous and comprehensive communication. From the intercultural perspective, this study contributes linguistic evidence to current literature about intercultural communication from EFL learners in Chile at beginning-low to intermediate low levels -- a rarely studied group. This thesis concludes by drawing implications for teaching pedagogy and research practice when incorporating text chat in language classrooms. |
