Noticing and text-based chat

This study examined the capacity of text-based online chat to promote learners' noticing of their problematic language productions and of the interactional feedback from their interlocutors.In this study, twelve ESL learners formed six mixed-proficiency dyads.The same dyads worked on two spot-thedifference tasks, one via online chat and the other through face-to-face conversation.Stimulated recall sessions were held subsequently to identify instances of noticing.It was found that text-based online chat promotes noticing more than face-to-face conversations, especially in terms of learners' noticing of their own linguistic mistakes.This paper is organized as follows: First, we review the research literature on the Noticing Hypothesis and discuss the current trend of research in this field-the exploration of contextual factors that affect noticing.Based on existing arguments that suggest a link between text-based online chat and noticing in the CMC literature, text-based online chat is hypothesized as one of the conditions that may have an impact on noticing.Next, we describe our research context and procedures together with our coding schemes for both the negotiated interaction (self-correction, negotiation of meaning, and recast) and the noticing of these episodes.In the results section, we first compare the participants' noticing of their own errors (measured by the number of self-corrections), and then we compare their noticing of the two types of interactional feedback (negotiation of meaning and recast).Finally, we discuss the findings and limitations of this study and provide suggestions for future research. Noticing HypothesisSchmidt (1990) proposed the Noticing Hypothesis, according to which the emergence of new forms should be preceded by their being noticed in the input.In other words, the conscious noticing of a mismatch between one's language production and the target form is a necessary and sufficient condition