Synchronous electronic discussions in an EFL reading class

This paper describes a project involving EFL learners in synchronous electronic discussions. The output of the students' interactions was analyzed qualitatively to uncover the main linguistic and interactional features. It was observed that the students’ discussions contained a large number of spelling, usage, and grammatical errors, an almost exclusive use of English, the use of Chinese sentence-ending characters, and the presence of expressions frequently used in computer-mediated interactions. The behaviors that affected the interaction positively included initiating and managing discourse, specifying to whom a question or statement was directed, self-correcting one’s errors, returning to the task after a digression, and encouraging each other to participate. The results of the study allowed for the formulation of recommendations for classroom implementations of synchronous electronic discussions.