Applying Windows Live Messenger® into English Teaching:
A Case Study of a Mixed-Level Class
Kuei-fen Tai (戴桂芬)
Chung Hua University
ABSTRACT
I
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nts reveal that many, if not most, of them are more proficient in
technology and Internet than in English. Realizing the facts, the author has tried to
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hn
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concentration on English learning. A series of English learning chatting sessions with
undergraduate students in Chung Hua University were conducted in 2005 (Tai, 2005).
The feedbacks were so positive that the author applies the method again to a mixed-level
class of two-year college English majors in Chung Hua University, trying to help to tackle
some learning obstacles. Generally, the subject students are working in the weekdays and
have classes on the weekends. They mostly have several years of working experiences
and their age range is from 22 to 45. Their levels of English proficiency vary. This study
aims to analyze features of English they use in chatting sessions and to find out how Instant
Messaging tools can help with teaching a mixed-level ESL/EFL class. The results are
hoped to provide references for both teachers who teach adult ESL learners and teachers
who teach mixed-level classes.
Keywords: Instant Messaging Tool; Alternative teaching tool; Internet-based English
Learning
INTRODUCTION
In Taiwan, 2-year college programs for adult learners are blossoming. The
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature in Chung Hua University began its
2-year college programs in 2004 and about eighty students with different backgrounds
get enrolled each school year. Almost all courses are given on the weekends, while
most students have a job during weekdays. The author became the advisor of one of
the classes in 2005 and has also served as the instructor of some courses. In the first
semester, most, if not all, students felt so frustrated that some just gave up. Their
frustration arose from the facts that most of them have not got in touch with English
for long and that it was the first time for most students to be learning courses in the
fields of literature, linguistics and English language skills. On the other hand, some
students work during weekdays as English teachers in kindergartens, elementary
schools or high schools. Such combination of students has caused a great challenge
for the author for this is the first time for her to teach a class of mixed-level students.
As their advisor and instructor of courses, the author has been looking for a way to
better teach them. Positive experiences of applying Windows Live Messenger into
teaching regular undergraduate students (Tai, 2005) prompt the author to apply the
method again.
Therefore, the author conducted chatting sessions for the students and
categorized some features of English used in chat sessions. The results turned out
that the communicative and pedagogical power of such an Instant Messaging tool as
Windows Live Messenger® can help ESL professionals teach a mixed-level class.
St
u
d
e
n
t
s
’r
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
sa
l
s
os
h
o
we
dt
h
a
tt
h
e
ywe
l
c
o
me
dt
h
i
sn
e
w wa
yo
fl
e
a
r
n
i
n
g
. This
paper first introduces the conducting procedures of the chat sessions and then
categorizes features of English the subjects used in chatting. Finally, how Windows
Live Messenger® can help teach mixed-level classes are suggested.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Grey has classified four educational functions of the Internet in 1999: (1) Search
for and receive (2) Publish and provide (3) Talk to and reply and (4) Collaborate and
l
e
a
r
n,a
mongwhi
c
h,“
Ta
l
kt
oa
ndr
e
pl
y
”ha
sbe
e
nt
hemos
t
l
yi
nt
e
r
e
s
t
e
dt
opi
cof
researchers (Liao, 1999; and Wu, 2002). Internet conversations (including email
e
xc
ha
nge
sa
nd s
y
nc
hr
onous on
l
i
ne c
ommuni
c
a
t
i
ons
)“
c
a
n be i
nt
e
ns
e
l
ys
oc
i
a
l
a
c
t
i
vi
t
i
e
s
”(
Ga
r
ne
ra
ndGi
l
l
i
ng
ha
m 1996,c
i
t
e
di
nLe
e2000)
,i
nwhi
c
ht
hepr
a
c
t
i
c
a
l
i
t
y
of making selves understood drives language users to use the language.
Chat rooms in Learning
Chat rooms, in particular, can serve as good learning tool for college students in
t
ha
tt
he
ya
r
epe
r
f
e
c
tma
t
c
he
st
ot
h
e‘
Se
ve
nPr
i
nc
i
pl
e
sf
orGoodUnde
r
g
r
a
dua
t
e
Educ
a
t
i
on’ofChi
c
ke
r
i
nga
ndGa
ms
on(
1987)
:(
1)Enc
our
a
ge
sc
ont
act between
students and faculty, (2) Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students, (3)
Encourages active learning, (4) Gives prompt feedback, (5) Emphasizes time on task,
(6) Communicates high expectations and (7) Respects diverse talents and ways of
learning. In Table 1 below, matches of these seven principles and online chatting are
depicted
Table 1. Matching Online Chatting to Seven Principles for Better
Undergraduate Education
Seven Principles for Better Undergraduate
Education
Online Chatting
1. Encourage contacts of faculty and students
YES
2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among
students
YES
3. Encourages active learning
YES
4. Gives prompt feedback,
YES
5. Emphasizes time on task
YES
6. Communicates high expectations
YES
7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning
YES
Other than these seven principles, chatting online also allows real-time
c
ommu
ni
c
a
t
i
on.I
tt
he
r
e
f
or
ec
a
l
l
sf
orpa
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t
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i
pa
nt
s
’s
pont
a
ne
i
t
ya
nda
l
t
e
r
a
t
i
on.
Another good thing for applying c
ha
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oSLAc
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a
s
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r
oomsi
st
ha
tt
e
a
c
he
r
s
’r
ol
e
is played down, students can be encouraged, if not forced, to undertake autonomous
learning.
Achieving Communicative Competence through Online Chatting
Though Error Analysis has been criticized but errors still remain great sources to
unde
r
s
t
a
nds
t
ude
nt
s
’i
nt
e
r
l
a
ng
ua
g
ede
ve
l
opme
ntdur
i
ngpr
oc
e
s
sofSLA. Af
t
e
rt
he
i
nt
r
odu
c
t
i
onoft
hec
onc
e
ptof“
c
o
mmuni
c
a
t
i
vec
ompe
t
e
nc
e
”byHy
me
si
n1971,
numerous discussion and redefinitions are made. Generally speaking, there are eight
aspects of communicative competence and online chatting are good helpers to achieve
all these.
Errors and features found in the chat logs have covered all these eight aspects.
Teachers can gain pedagogical and linguistic insights from the saved data to adjust
their instruction to help students achieve better communicative competence in
English.
To understand more about L2 users' use of the target language during the
learning process, language teachers need to find out/fight out how students use both
their native languages and English to realize their learning strategies, the role of
translation, and transfer of skills. SLA Research in learning process, and the
acquisition of communicative competence, will assist teachers to be more helpful for
s
t
ude
nt
s
’l
e
a
r
ni
nge
f
f
i
c
a
c
y
.
Research Questions
The purposes of this study are (1) categorizing the errors the subjects made and
features of English they use in chat sessions and (2) finding out how Instant Messaging
Tools can help teach mixed-level classes.
METHODOLOGY
Subjects
The subjects of this study were thirty two-year college English majors from the
Chung Hua University located in Hsinchu City.
Instruments
The instruments used in the projects were Microsoft Windows Live Messenger®
and the text chat logs generated from the chatting processes. E-mails are also used
for the subjects to be able to ask questions and share their reflections about chatting
online.
Procedures
Dor
ny
e
is
t
a
t
e
di
n2001t
ha
t“
t
e
a
c
he
rs
ki
l
l
si
nmot
i
va
t
i
ngl
e
a
rners should be seen
a
sc
e
nt
r
a
lt
ot
e
a
c
hi
nge
f
f
e
c
t
i
ve
ne
s
s
”
. Thea
ut
horbe
l
i
e
ve
st
ha
tus
i
ngt
ool
ss
t
ude
nt
s
r
e
g
a
r
da
s“
c
ool
”i
nl
e
a
r
ni
ngpr
oc
e
s
smot
i
va
t
e
sl
a
ng
ua
gel
e
a
r
ni
ng
. In spring and
summer 2006, the author conducted several one-hour English chatting sessions for her
two-year program students. The author first divided students into 6 groups with 5 or
6 students each. In order to prevent their getting lost in the flow of chatting, the writer
gave the subjects a fixed topic, including self-introduction, difficulties of learning
English, my college years, my future plans, etc for each chatting. During these
sessions, students have tried their best to express their ideas/opinions in English.
The complete chatting processes were automatically saved into chat logs, from which,
the author analyzed errors and categorized features.
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Data sources of this study consist of transcripts chosen from online chat sessions
between the author and the subjects, which lasted approximately 60 minutes each
time. Chat logs were randomly chosen and printed out as data of the analyses of error
and features of English used in the chat project.
Results to Q (1) What error types and features are found do the chatters reveal in
English they use in the chat logs?
Brown indicated in 1994 that sources of errors of interlanguage were: (1)
interlingual transfer (2) intralingual transfer (3) context of learning and (4)
communication strategies (Brown 1994: pp. 213-217). Errors discovered from
collected chat logs come from all these four sources. In the following, all five
sources of errors are illustrated by examples:
Interlingual Transfer. Subj
e
c
t
s
’na
t
i
ve l
a
n
g
ua
ge
,Chi
ne
s
e
,e
xe
r
t
e
dg
r
e
a
t
interference on their English productions. The following extracts are vivid
illustration:
Examples:
平淡是幸福說：Judy worries her skin is getting black...
I
nChi
ne
s
eus
e
di
nTa
i
wa
n,i
ti
spe
r
f
e
c
tt
os
a
y“
皮膚變黑”
,s
ot
hes
t
ude
ntj
us
t
literally translated the phrase into English.
This is Jeen speaking 說: please explain....dragonfly meaning
This sentence is a c
ompl
e
t
et
r
a
ns
l
a
t
i
onof“
請解釋 dragonfly 的意思”
.
In addition to the conventional type, a new type peculiar in on-line chatting is a
code-mixing phenomenon of adding Chinese sentence-final particles to English
sentence structures, as the following examples show:
miffy 說:Le
t
’
sg
ot
o濱崎步’
sc
onc
e
r
tba!
喉嚨痛說:Idon’
tunde
r
s
t
a
ndy
e
…
Thes
t
ude
ntj
us
tpu
t“
ba
”(
吧)a
nd “
y
e
”(
耶) to indicate/emphasize her
feelings.
Intralingual Transfer. Negative intralingual transfer (overgeneralization) is also
a source of their errors.
Examples:
Lo Lo: How can I invite another classmates?
The student over-g
e
ne
r
a
l
i
z
e
dt
hewor
d“
a
not
he
r
”
,r
e
s
ul
t
i
ngi
nus
i
ngi
ti
nf
r
ont
of a plural noun.
wait on hand and foot 說: i never been there so i don't understand.
The student here over-generalized the use of past participle to every verb
tense.
Context of Learning. Some errors show that students have acquired false
concepts from their previous teachers and/or textbooks.
Example:
上帝關門會開窗說：dear sir...i like the ring you made so much
Appa
r
e
nt
l
y
,t
hes
t
ude
ntwa
se
duc
a
t
e
dt
oc
a
l
le
ve
r
yt
e
a
c
he
r“
Si
r
”noma
t
t
e
r
what sex the teacher is.
Communication Strategies. Brown (1994: 118-124) categorized four broad
s
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
e
soutofTa
r
one(
1981i
nBr
own1994)
’
sc
l
a
s
s
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
on:a
voi
da
nc
e
,
prefabricated patterns, appeal to authority (speaker) and language switch. The
f
ol
l
owi
nge
xa
mpl
eofas
ubj
e
c
ts
t
u
d
e
nt
s
’s
t
a
t
i
ngpr
oc
e
dur
e
sofma
ki
ngc
ur
r
yr
i
c
ei
sa
vivid illustration of her using communication strategies:
平淡是幸福
平淡是幸福
平淡是幸福
平淡是幸福
說: go to 快速道路 first. then go to number 3 高速公路
說: then get out in 關西交流道
說: then you see sign of 六福村. follow sign is ok.
說: teacher, how to say those words?
First, the student put English words in the prefabricated patterns of Mandarin
Chinese, and apparently she avoided using words and sentence structures she did not
know or could not remember, and then she asked the teacher (the authority in a sense)
for those English words, and she just switched to her native Chinese to convey what
she would like to express.
The features revealed were as follows: (1) instant language repair, (2) uses of
emoticons and animated graphics and (3) closer teacher-student relationship.
Instant Language repair. The examples listed below showed that the subject
students were alert to the language used in the chat room and they would repair their
language more often than what they did in real-life oral conversations.
Example:
Lo Lo 說:Idi
s
t
r
oi
e
dy
e
s
t
e
r
da
y
’
ss
pe
e
c
h.
Lo Lo 說: destroyed
The student found out his own error and made an immediate correction.
Uses of Emoticons and Animated Graphics. Internet users use a large system of
emoticons to express their emotions and feelings to add vitality to plain typed texts.
Example
SOPHIA in blue【淘汰倒楣的機車】缺錢中說: Teacher looks very busy bteen
our conversation..^^'''\
Other emotions include: :p, ^o), :S and so on.
These emoticons were used to express/emphasize their feelings.
Current version of Windows Live Messenger also allows users to use animated
graphics to express themselves excessively. A message like the following will show up
when an animated graphics is sent:
美鳳 傳送「熱情香吻」動畫快遞
teacher 傳送「心心相印」動畫快遞
Closer Teacher-Student Relationship. The author found that students tended to
be more comfortable to talk to the teacher online than in real life. They would ask
personal information, such as hobbies, favorite cartoon characters and so on. This
has bridged the gap between the teacher and students, which, according to teaching
experiences, can be great encouragement for students.
Results of Q (2): How Instant Messaging Tools can help teach mixed-level
classes?
During the chatting processes, the author has found that Instant Messaging Tools
can help teaching in the following three ways:
Providing I
ns
t
antFe
e
dbac
kBas
e
donRe
c
i
pi
e
nt
s
’Le
ve
l
s
. During the
chatting sessions, students try their best to express themselves in English. Confined
by their English expertise, some students asked language-related questions while
chatting on the assigned topics. Since the author also serves as their advisor,
students also inquired school regulations or requested advices while chatting. In a
c
ha
tr
oom,t
het
e
a
c
he
rc
a
nr
e
a
di
l
ypr
ovi
der
e
s
pons
e
sa
tonc
e
. Al
s
o,s
i
nc
es
t
ude
nt
s
’
different English proficiencies can be identified from sentences they used, the teacher
is able to adjust responses by using different sentence patterns or wording. In this
way, students of all levels feel noticed and they are more likely to understand the
t
e
a
c
he
r
’
sr
e
pl
i
e
s
.
Helping Lower-level or Shy Students learn. One of the characteristics of a
mixed-level class is that higher-level students are usually responsible for all the
reactions to teachers, which leads to lower-l
e
ve
ls
t
ude
nt
s
’pr
e
s
s
ur
e
. The
yma
ybe
shy or afraid of asking questions because of the fear of being laughed at. Over time,
they may suffer from losing learning enthusiasm and lowering learning efficacy.
Teaching via Instant Messaging Tools helps to create or increase chances for
lower-level students to address opinions because chat rooms can provide a virtual
setting where users can interact with others with a reduced fear of negative reaction.
Pe
opl
ea
l
s
ot
e
ndt
obemor
e“
r
e
l
a
xe
d”
,orr
e
ve
a
ldi
f
f
e
r
e
ntpe
r
s
ona
l
i
t
ypa
r
t
si
nonl
i
ne
chatting sessions. This feature can be utilized to encourage lower-level students to
ope
nt
he
i
rhe
a
r
t
sa
nd“
t
a
l
k”(
t
houghbyt
y
pi
ng
)
.
Be
t
t
e
rUnde
r
s
t
andi
ngSt
ude
nt
s
’Le
ar
ni
ngNe
e
ds
. From the errors and
features of English students used in chatting sessions, the author has had improved
knowledge of what students need to learn and how they hope to learn. In classes
after chatting sessions, the author has added supplementary explanation of English
grammar, the American culture and so on. Students have also reported that they
were happy to be taught something they hoped to learn.
IMPLICATIONS & CONCLUSION
We must accept the fact that learning is a process of making errors. It is
t
e
a
c
he
r
s
’r
e
s
pons
i
bi
l
i
t
yt
ohe
l
pl
e
a
r
ne
r
sde
ve
l
ops
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
e
sf
ors
e
l
f
-correction and
regulation. During the chat sessions, all participants tried their best to use English,
which was an unprecedented experience in their learning years. All subjects agreed
this alternative method is more interesting and more interactive since they were
l
e
a
r
n
i
ngi
na“
c
o
ol
”wa
ya
ndt
h
e
yc
a
na
s
kque
s
t
i
on
swhe
ne
ve
rt
he
y
’
dl
i
kea
ndg
e
t
immediate feedback.
Th
i
spr
oj
e
c
tha
she
l
pe
dt
hea
ut
horno
to
nl
yknow ofs
t
ude
nt
s
’i
n
t
e
r
l
a
n
g
ua
g
e
development from the errors, but also develop closer teacher-student relationships
with them.
This project deals with text-only chatting sessions. Microphones, earphones
and webcams can be added to expand written/visual communication to audio and
oral ones. A virtual conversation which is more like real-life one can be
constructed on line. Newer versions of instant messaging have fancier functions.
For example, Windows Live Messenger 8.1 has launched free Internet Phoning
service, which should be able to become a good teaching way for English speaking.
Future researches could be done in this field. Besides, it also allows users to leave a
message to off-line users. Thus, students can ask teachers questions even when the
latter are not online.
With the far and wide power of instant messaging tools, it is hoped that students
can continue their English learning after they graduate by communicating on line with
their English teachers, realizing life-long learning.
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