“I do which the question”: Students’ innovative use of technology resources in the language classroom

Abstract

Many reports suggest that the use of education technology can have a positive effect on language education. However, most of the research indicates that there is need for more detailed understanding of the pedagogical processes that support technology-enhanced language learning. This text takes a social semiotic perspective to examine multimodal interaction (Jewitt, Bezemer, & O’Halloran, 2016) of learners taking part in telecollaborative activities in a language classroom. The study aims to provide a detailed view of the ways in which the language teachers’ task-as-workplan (Breen, 1987, 1989), designed around different technologies, dovetails (or not) into the task-as-process (i.e., the way in which the learners interpret and act upon the task instructions). Comparing the teachers’ pedagogical design and intended purpose of different technology-supported tasks with the actual way in which the learners interact with the tools, the results show that the students often engage with the technology in unexpected, and at times, highly innovative ways that often diverge from the task-as-workplan.