Learn through Instant Messaging

   Dear friends, we have gone through lot information regarding yahoo messenger (YM) services in the previous posts. By the way, in very beginning YM only used for social entertainment purposes but now YM also used for academic purposes in order to support student’s learning. Few days ago, I have read a case study regarding instant messenger which supports student learning process. The title of the study is ‘Using Instant Messaging for Collaborative Learning: A Case Study’ by Susana M. Sotillo.

     This study stress on implicit and explicit correlative feedback in communication tasks used in English as Second Language (ESL) classrooms. The objective of this study is to examine the specific occurrences of error correction episodes and to determine the types of negative correlative feedback such as implicit or explicit provided to second language (L2) learners during instant messaging (IM). This study carry out a small scale exploratory study of negotiate interaction and error correction episodes in Computer Mediated communication (CMC) environments. There are 14 respondents whom are age 24 to 32 have participate in this study. In order to guide the respondents, the researcher has selected five tutors whom are the fluent English speaker. The researcher used YM webcam video chat as a medium for the respondents and the tutor for the language learning activities. They are asked to work collaboratively on activities using YM, chat log and audio-recorded data to gather information regarding to the study.

       The result of the findings shows that ESL learners received more indirect or implicit feedback than direct or explicit feedbacks. Besides that, the result also indicate that non-native speaker (NNSs) provide more direct or explicit corrective feedback such as grammatical explanation or correct linguistic forms to ESL learners if compare to native speakers (NSs). Overall in findings, the author stated that IM such as YM have the potential in bringing benefits for the language learning purpose.

        In my opinion, I think the use of YM in learning purpose is bringing benefits to the students. If we refer to the author’s statement, YM being as a medium to the students for improve their language through the learning activities in YM. So, we can make point that YM is not only for social and entertainment purpose but now it also plays an important role to make the learning process become more effective and easy.