CALLing to break down barriers

Don't you just love the feeling of winding down at home after a long day's work, free from restrictions and criticisms and just let loose? Don't you just love hanging out with your closest friends and leaving all your inhibitions at the door? Roed (2003) thinks online communication could do just that for otherwise reserved language learners in her study of 13 first and second year students of Danish engaged in an online communicative task in a chat room. From her findings, she concludes that a virtual environment "is a definite advantage to the shy and introvert language student" and that it lowers the level of anxiety of producing the target language as well as increasing participation. Out of the five subjects mentioned, three were real-life introverts who thrived in an online communication setting. It is concluded by Roed that because of the lack of time pressure and interruptions, online chats "deinhibits" students as they serve as a "shield" and let learners talk more freely.

Roed's idea of virtual eloquence is not new as I've experienced first hand the way shy students behave when they are online. My students can babble on and on and produce language not thought possible when they are on MSN, Facebook and other webchat tools. In fact, even teachers "talk" (language is written but register is oral, according to Roed) more when they are in front of a computer. However, whereas Roed believes that online communication serves as a scaffold for students to build up their target language gradually, I actually think it does the opposite as Internet language is everything that's not proper. Also, when doing online tasks, instructors and learners should take into account a few things. First, the virtual world is a microcosm of the real one so problems in reality are likely to exist in cyberspace. Roed mentions one in her article. She says that when in virtualy reality, group identity is so strong online that "it is often a difficult and slow process for newcomers to break in and play a part. Sounds like exclusion and "freeze out" to me. Furthermore, prolonged computer use could help usher in "Cyberhermitism" (okay, it's a new term coined by yours truly for Internet addiction), a condition that strips heavy computer users of their social skills and eventually glues them onto their seat away from any kind of real, tangible human contact. After all, face-to-face interaction is still very important as even Roed doesn't think that a person can communicate entirely by e-mail or in a chat room.

Last but not least, chat room users tend to display Jekyll and Hyde tendencies so teachers and parents must preach Internet safety to prevent this. I'm not saying that online communication is a booby trap for students but as with all things new, we should take it with a grain of salt.