Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is a relatively new field made even more difficult to investigate by the continuous progress and changes of the digital world. There is a multitude of research on CMC from a linguistic perspective; however, the vastness of the online world makes it difficult to determine to what extent it is a welcoming or hostile environment. The existing studies of polite and impolite language use in CMC provide some insight into the type of environment found online though there is a notable lack of information regarding the overall proportionality of impolite language use, specifically violent and aggressive language use. This study aims to explore to what extent violent and aggressive language use is present in user generated comments found on the social media platform YouTube by investigating the semantic fields of violence and aggression. It is a corpus-based study of the topmost comments collected from the most popular videos in the year 2023 in the YouTube category of Reviews. The quantitative content analysis reveals that both violent and aggressive language use is present in the comments though infrequently with violent language use having a normalized frequency of 2.1 times per thousand words and aggressive language use 2.6 times per thousand words. The qualitative pragmatic analysis of the observed instances shows that only one instance carries out the illocutionary act of violence in addition to the locutionary act. Based on these findings it appears violent and aggressive language use is relatively infrequent concerning more neutral topics and in most cases the communicators do not have violent or aggressive intent in their messages.

Cette recherche a pour objet l’étude des comportements des utilisateurs d’une plateforme de visioconférence poste à poste. Les utilisateurs de la plateforme sont deux groupes de tuteurs et leurs étudiantes ; le groupe de tuteurs est constitué de tuteurs en formation (de futurs enseignants en formation universitaire professionnalisante) et d’enseignants de FLE utilisant les outils du web 2.0. Cette recherche a pour cadre l’enseignement du FLE à destination d’un groupe d'étudiantes américaines de l’université de Californie Berkeley donné de janvier à mars 2010 sur une plateforme d’apprentissage vidéographique synchrone. La plateforme VISU, a été développé suivant une démarche originale, la conception d’une plateforme destinée a l’enseignement/apprentissage des langues. La particularité de ce projet réside dans le fait qu’un équipe de chercheurs et de développeurs ont accompagné les tuteurs et les étudiantes lors de cette expérimentation afin d’améliorer l’utilisabilté de VISU d’une séance sur l’autre. À travers une analyse de deux tâches dans les configurations qui placent un tuteur devant deux étudiantes, deux tuteurs devant deux étudiantes et un tuteur devant une étudiante, et d’une micro-analyse portant sur la transmission des consignes, nous tentons d’observer le discours et la mimo-gestualité témoignant de leur expérience utilisateur au contact de la technologie utilisée. Nous étudions également l’utilisation qu’ils font des différents outils textuels de communication, des ressources présentes sur la plateforme, ainsi que celle de la caméra. Nous discutons les résultats qualitatifs en vue de mettre au jour leurs comportements d’utilisateurs d’une plateforme en cours de construction. La méthode s’appuie sur la triangulation des données. Aux échanges en ligne du corpus multimodal est appliquée une analyse de la mimo-gestualité, ainsi qu’analyse de discours et des interactions. Des entretiens, des questionnaires et les perceptions des étudiantes et des tuteurs viennent éclairer l’analyse de leur vécu et de leur ressenti. Ce travail de recherche tente donc à travers la description de la communication pédagogique synchrone de mieux comprendre les différentes pratiques, principalement discursives et mimo-gestuelles, des tuteurs et des étudiantes engagés dans une formation en ligne. / This research studies the behavior of users of a desktop videoconferencing platform VISU (designed to deliver online courses), through the multimodal pedagogical communication of two groups of teachers: trainee tutors and experienced teachers based in different locations who taught French as a Foreign Language to a group of students from UC Berkeley in 2010. A team of researchers and developers worked together with the tutors in this experiment to improve the usability of the platform, which was under construction during the course of the study. In understanding the experience of users while using the tool, due to the performance limitations of the tool under construction, a new method of analysing data was devised in which user behavior was studied through discourse analysis, mimogestuality and the usage of tools including chat and webcam. Specifically, we analysed the usage of different tools (text based tools) as well as the webcam’s effects on user behavior. Then, through a micro analysis of the pedagogical instruction, we identified the role of these different communication tools used by the tutors in conveying the meaning of the task to be carried out. Interviews, questionnaires and perceptions of students and tutors were gathered to inform the analysis of their experiences and their feelings. This research therefore attempts, through the description of the synchronous teaching communication, to better understand the different practices, mainly discursive and mimo-gestural, of tutors and students engaged in the multimodal learning. In addition, a key significance of this study is that it demonstrates the value of considering user experience (UX) in studies involving language learning through technology. At the same time, it also indicates the value of including discourse analysis and mimogestuality in user experience research involving interactive pedagogical tools.

Submitted by Cristiane Chim (cristiane.chim@ucpel.edu.br) on 2018-06-20T11:55:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Cecilia Bainy_ok (1).pdf: 2352266 bytes, checksum: 03accaa8878c908a67320f28fb6290bd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-20T11:55:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Cecilia Bainy_ok (1).pdf: 2352266 bytes, checksum: 03accaa8878c908a67320f28fb6290bd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-24 / Wonder Woman character is acknowledgedly feminist and figured, along with Superman and Batman, one of DC Comics's top superheroes. She is the female's best-known female superhero. However, it was only in 2017, 75 years after its release, that the character gains a cinematographic work of its own. With the advent of information technology and the appropriation of the spaces of social networking sites, the theme of feminism has been gaining strength and has been widely discussed. This study analyzes the discussion on social networking sites on gender issues, in relation to the Wonder Woman movie release, in four publications on the official Facebook page. We investigated, in the comments on the release of the film, the presence of a debate on feminist issues, in order to identify the topics discussed. The idea is that the film would be able to mobilize discourses about female empowerment. We trace a brief history of how gender issues have been discussed from the 1930s to the present day. We discuss how gender studies are understood today and about the presence of feminism on the Internet. Questions about power and discourse were brought to the fore anchored in the precepts of Bourdieu (1996) and Foucault (2013), who describe elements to be considered in speech production as being a product of power relations in a society. We understand language as a form of naturalizing power through the concept of habitus (BOURDIEU 1989), and we consider it as one of the ways of perpetuating gender inequality. We recourse to Recuero (2012, 2014) to describe computer mediated communication and its relevant aspects for the analysis of this study, understanding it as a social product, capable of simulating elements of oral conversation. We understand, as Herring (2001), that textual communication is part of the discourses that come to construct behaviors. Thus, we use theoretical and methodological contributions of the Computer Mediated Analysis Discourse, developed by Herring (2001, 2004) in an attempt to find patterns capable of indicating the presence of a discussion about female empowerment, as well as to identify other recurrent patterns of discourse. / A personagem Mulher-Maravilha é reconhecidamente feminista e figura, juntamente com Superman e Batman, uma das principais super-heroínas da DC Comics. Ela é a super-heroína feminina mais conhecida da grande massa. No entanto, foi só em 2017, 75 anos depois de seu lançamento que a personagem ganha uma obra cinematográfica própria. Com o advento das tecnologias da informação e com a apropriação dos espaços dos sites de redes sociais, a temática do feminismo vem ganhando força e tem sido amplamente discutida. Neste estudo analiso, então, a discussão nos sites de redes sociais sobre as questões de gênero, no que se refere ao lançamento do filme Mulher-Maravilha, em quatro publicações na página de Facebook oficial da obra. Investiguei, nos comentários sobre o lançamento do filme, a presença de debate sobre as questões feministas, a fim de identificar os temas discutidos. Minha hipótese era de que o filme fosse capaz de mobilizar discursos sobre empoderamento feminino. Para este projeto, primeiro traço um breve histórico sobre como as questões de gênero têm sido discutidas desde os anos 1930 até os dias atuais. Em seguida, abordo sobre como os estudos de gênero são entendidos hoje e sobre a presença do feminismo na Internet. Questões sobre poder e discurso são trazidas à tona ancoradas nos preceitos de Bourdieu (1996) e Foucault (2013), que descrevem elementos para se pensar na produção do discurso como sendo um produto das relações de poder em uma sociedade. Entendo a linguagem, enquanto forma de naturalizar o poder, através do conceito de habitus (BOURDIEU 1989), e a considero como uma das formas de perpetuação da desigualdade dos gêneros. Recorro à Recuero (2012, 2014) para descrever a comunicação mediada pelo computador e seus aspectos relevantes para análise deste estudo, compreendendo-a como um produto social, capaz de simular elementos da conversação oral. Entendo, assim como Herring (2001), que a comunicação textual é parte dos discursos que vêm a construir comportamentos. Assim, utilizo aportes teóricos e metodológicos da Análise do Discurso Mediada por Computador, desenvolvidos por Herring (2001, 2004) na tentativa de encontrar padrões capazes de indicar a presença de discussão sobre o empoderamento feminino, bem como identificar outros padrões recorrentes de discurso.

Coincidental increases in online instruction at institutions of higher education and in online social networking generally in the U.S. have created opportunities for research into how digital interpersonal connectivity affects online learning. This study examined interactive webcasts, or webcasts plus chat, that were part of an online undergraduate course covering Internet knowledge and skills at a large public university. Symbolic interactionism served as the theoretical framework for explicating interactive webcasts as useful online learning environments by exploring the complex processes that instructional staff employed to manage their actions and interactions as moderators in the webcasts and chats. A constructivist grounded theory approach guided the collection and analysis of empirical data in the form of webcast media and transcripts, chat logs, students‘ reflective writing, and semi-structured, intensive interviews with instructional staff. From the study emerged theoretical categories in three tiers related to a generalized moderator process called minding the verge: moderators minded the verge in three conditions of interaction– converging, attending, and diverging; in three loci of interaction – webcasts, chats, and webcasts+chat; and through six actions of moderating – bonding, orientating, guiding, tending, validating, and branching. The results of this study provide moderators for the course with insights into their actions in the interactive webcasts and with concepts moderators can use to explore how to manage interactive webcasts more effectively. Beyond effecting substantive changes to interactive webcasts for the course, the study may guide others who wish to pursue further studies of webcasts+chat as they occur in the course or elsewhere, or of other mixed-media environments, or who wish to adopt mixed-media environments for instruction. Other potential areas for research that emerged from this study include the affective states of participants in the webcasts+chat and the use of affective devices, such as emoticons and abbreviations, for showing affective states; the effect that format has on the efficacy of webcasts+chat used for computer-mediated instruction; and the processes students employ to manage actions and interactions in the webcasts and chats. / text

The effectiveness of e-mail writing has been exhaustively studied and reported on, especially in Taiwan. However, there has not been any research carried out on the topics that mainland Chinese university students enjoy writing about when corresponding with their Western epals, nor does the literature report research on writing e-mails to two groups of epals simultaneously. This study explores what issues concerned the participants when they exchanged e-mails with their Western epals and how they viewed their cross-cultural learning experience. The participants were 28 mainland Chinese second-year English majors who voluntarily corresponded with 28 American high school pupils and 28 Western adult epals for about two months in Autumn 2006. The data of this exploratory interpretative research was mainly collected from their e-mails, ‘final reports’, the mid-project questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. The study found that the topics the participants enjoyed writing about actually depended on with whom they were corresponding. With the younger school pupils, they tended to look for friendship by talking about pastimes, their own high school experience, etc. To the more sophisticated adult epals though, they wrote largely about personal matters, on which they seemed to be covertly seeking advice. However, some topics were common to both groups and were equally popular – for example, school and daily life. The data also reveals that the majority of the participants enjoyed the experience and overall had positive views about it. These fall into three broad categories of learning: language, cultural, and communication. However, some experienced minor difficulties and problems in these areas, particularly regarding the communication aspect. Meanwhile, in the process of the participants multiediting their ‘final reports’, learning seems to have occurred between their first and final drafts – perhaps as a result of responding to the researcher’s written feedback, which seemed to make a significant difference. The implications arising from the study suggest that the students’ interest in it stimulated their engagement with learning - though the findings are tentative. Some recommendations for further research are also given.

The potential of community building through computer-mediated communication (CMC) in virtual learning environments has received increasing attention in recent years, yet little empirical research has been conducted in this field in Middle Eastern countries particularly based on a social constructivist approach as in this case. This research is concerned with the processes of community building as experienced by university students in computer-mediated distance education classes in Iran. Its overarching concern was to see if convergence happens in an on-line university discussion forum in a Middle Eastern cultural context, and if so, to explore how it happens and with what strategies it can be supported in such environment. The research addressed the role of collaborative interaction as the process of co-construction of knowledge and identities, by looking at: (i) the students’ beliefs as reflected in a survey; (ii) patterns and outcomes of interaction derived from an analysis of on-line transactions; (iii) students’ perspectives based on interviews and their responses to a survey. The participants came from four different Middle Eastern cultural and linguistic backgrounds and were all students studying at Masters Level. The academic context was an Iranian university that has a large face-to-face student population as well as a large number of distance students. The participants’ common meeting ground was primarily a virtual environment created for the students to share their learning experience and to communicate with each other and the tutors. The participants’ beliefs and ideas in terms of choice, opportunity, culture and expectations were examined through a survey in the first phase of the study. Then, to investigate their roles in shaping the on-line community, an additional university e-forum was designed and implemented by the researcher in the second phase of the study. In this forum the participants were free to contact each other without pre-planned tasks or interventions by the class tutors. Social constructivist approaches were used to analyse interactions between students and the outcomes of these interactions. The findings suggest that participants moved their communicative competence from tangible topics towards shaping new beliefs and ideas; creating the VSD-Virtual Social Development- model. These developments are regarded as something unique for an area such as the Middle East where gaining confidence is hard especially when there is no face-to-face contact with other participants, and individuals often have concerns about revealing their real personalities in untried situations. The findings of the interviews support the findings of the second phase of the study and show what strategies the participants used in community building. The research also highlighted many issues for further study, one of which is the various interpretations of the concept of community building in on-line contexts.

The objective of this study was to observe evidence of structural transfer among subjects in a group problem-solving activity and determine whether mode of collaborative technology or use of a priming agent affected the nature of transferred structures. Evidence for structural transfer is found in three theoretical perspectives: organizational ditransitive (linguistic) verb structures, adaptive structuration theory, and mental model transfer theory. Dependent variables included various grammatical structures and coefficients derived from pretest and posttest scores on David Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory, modified for the experiment. The combination of changes in grammatical frequencies and learning style may suggest that one or more media or the priming agent may affect structural transfer. Results indicate that groups using the GroupSystems™ collaborative technology produced less overall linguistic content than did subjects using a generic chat system, but employed more complex language as indicated by frequency of the organizational ditransitive verb structure. Also, subjects supplied with an organization chart (priming agent) during the group problem-solving session experienced greater change on the learning styles inventory than did those participating in the session without the chart. These findings suggest that mode of communication and use of priming agents may contribute positively or negatively to the transfer of structures among group members. Researchers, collaborative system designers, organizational leaders, trainers & educators, and frequent collaborative technology system end-users should be aware of these potential affects. Suggestions for future research are provided. Relationship of theoretical foundations of structural transfer to constructivism is discussed.

This study analyzes negative particle variation (i.e., the variable presence or absence of the negative particle ne) in synchronous French chat discourse within a labovian-inspired framework. Selected morphosyntactic, lexical, and phonological constraints are considered. Multivariate analyses performed by GoldVarb 2001 revealed that subject type (i.e., NP, [- overt] subject environment, pronoun) and the phonological environment preceding the position of neregardless of its presence or absenceare determining factors in the variation. In addition, discursive-pragmatic effect was explored in a sub-sample of data. The results indicate that ne is seldom present in verbal negation during explanatory discourse style, yet it is very likely to be retained in ludic, emphatic, and proverbial styles.

The purpose of this case study was to compare the pedagogical and affective efficiency and efficacy of creative prose fiction writing workshops taught via asynchronous computer-mediated online distance education with creative prose fiction writing workshops taught face-to-face in order to better understand their operational pedagogy and correlative affective features to determine if workshops are transferable to a computer-mediated delivery system in order to aid administrative decision-makers regarding the possible pedagogical usefulness of expanding their existing writing program to offer an optional-residency creative writing program in concert with their current high residency program. Qualitative data were collected through non-participatory virtual observation of two computer-mediated workshops and in person at a face-to-face mediated workshop. Both workshops used the traditional social constructivist workshop approach which is widely considered to be the gold standard method by the majority of creative writing programs based on its long-standing success as a pedagogical method. In addition to observing the respective workshops, one-on-one interviews were conducted with three creative writing program administrators and three creative writing instructors, one of whom was also a former program administrator. Creative writing students participating in the three observed workshops were also interviewed one-on-one. Findings revealed that from a pedagogical perspective both the computer-mediated and the face-to-face mediated workshops are pedagogically efficient and effective using a social constructivist model when workshop teachers demonstrate a strong teaching presence focused on honing novice writers’ ability and desire to write. Additionally, the researcher concluded a robust teaching presence is imperative in order to establish and maintain a strong social presence between students and between students and the instructor, as both components are critical for learner autonomy in a social constructivist teaching and learning community. However, teaching presence alone cannot guarantee a strong affective social presence as differences between students’ and/or between students’ and an instructor’s social, cultural, educational, and historical ontogenies can lead to unresolved conflicts that increase psychological distance in the teaching and learning community. Additionally, while pedagogically equivalent, computer-mediated workshops have important time management and potentially affective advantages compared to the face-to-face mediated workshop that help ensure establishment and maintenance of social presence.

This thesis focuses on online communities - both their historic and current form. Various forms of communications are described, main focus is then given to identity online and self-presentation - various forms it can take, which expressive devices are used, how trustworthy is it and how is it perceived by other others. Influence of anonymity is mentioned. Empirical part of this work explores online friendship relations, cornerstone of the current wave of social networking services. It asks several questions about ways in which they affect communication between users. Relation between several factors (reciprocity, direction of initiation of said relation) and both quantity and frequency of communication between those users before and after that friendship is established.