A Tale of Two Communities

Group Dynamics and Community Building in a Spanish-English Telecollaboration

Authors

  • Mark Darhower

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v24i3.561-589

Keywords:

Chat Communities, ESL, Participation Metaphor, Spanish, Telecollaboration

Abstract

This study provides a theory-driven account of community building in a bilingual telecollaborative chat setting. A symmetrical arrangement of 70 L1 English learners of Spanish and L1 Spanish learners of English engaged in weekly Internet chat sessions in small groups. The learning metaphors of community and participation serve as the theoretical framework to describe linguistic and social behaviors and interpersonal relationships among participants in two ongoing chat groups, while, at the same time, discourse data are used to build upon theory of (virtual) community. Based on Brown's (2001) classification of levels of online community, the findings illustrate the discursive construction of one community that reached the third, cooperation/camaraderie, level and another that struggled to maintain the second, membership, level.

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Published

2013-01-14

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Articles

How to Cite

Darhower, M. (2013). A Tale of Two Communities: Group Dynamics and Community Building in a Spanish-English Telecollaboration. CALICO Journal, 24(3), 561-589. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v24i3.561-589