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    Second Language Use Online and its Integration in Formal Language Learning: From Chatroom to Classroom
    Second Language Use Online and its Integration in Formal Language Learning: From Chatroom to Classroom
    Second Language Use Online and its Integration in Formal Language Learning: From Chatroom to Classroom
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    Second Language Use Online and its Integration in Formal Language Learning: From Chatroom to Classroom

    By Andrew D. Moffat

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    This book explores the relationship between online second language (L2) communicative activities and formal language learning. It provides empirical evidence of the scale of L2 English use online, investigating the forms most commonly used, the activities likely to cause discomfort and the challenges experienced by users, and takes a critical approach to the nature of language online beyond the paradigms of ‘written’ versus ‘spoken’. The author explores the possibilities for language teaching practices that engage with and integrate learners’ L2 English online use, not only to support it but to use it as input for classroom learning and to enhance and exploit its incidental learning outcomes. This book will be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers interested in computer-mediated communication, online discourse and Activity Theory, while language teachers will find the practical ideas for lesson content invaluable as they strive to create a successful language learning community.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMultilingual Matters
    Release dateJul 6, 2022
    ISBN9781800413641
    Second Language Use Online and its Integration in Formal Language Learning: From Chatroom to Classroom
    Author

    Andrew D. Moffat

    Andrew D. Moffat is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, USA. He obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham following a decade spent teaching English as a Second Language, and his research interests include language learning, education, sociocultural theory and corpus linguistics.

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      Book preview

      Second Language Use Online and its Integration in Formal Language Learning - Andrew D. Moffat

      Second Language Use

      Online and its

      Integration in Formal

      Language Learning

      SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

      Series Editors: Professor David Singleton, University of Pannonia, Hungary and Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and Associate Professor Simone E. Pfenninger, University of Salzburg, Austria

      This series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of language acquisition and processing in situations where a language or languages other than the native language is involved. Second language is thus interpreted in its broadest possible sense. The volumes included in the series all offer in their different ways, on the one hand, exposition and discussion of empirical findings and, on the other, some degree of theoretical reflection. In this latter connection, no particular theoretical stance is privileged in the series; nor is any relevant perspective – sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, etc. – deemed out of place. The intended readership of the series includes final-year undergraduates working on second language acquisition projects, postgraduate students involved in second language acquisition research, and researchers, teachers and policymakers in general whose interests include a second language acquisition component.

      All books in this series are externally peer-reviewed.

      Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.

      SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: 153

      Second Language

      Use Online and

      its Integration in

      Formal Language

      Learning

      From Chatroom to Classroom

      Andrew D. Moffat

      MULTILINGUAL MATTERS

      Bristol • Jackson

      DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/MOFFAT3627

      Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

      A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

      Names: Moffat, Andrew D., author.

      Title: Second Language Use Online and its Integration in Formal Language Learning: From Chatroom to Classroom/Andrew D. Moffat.

      Description: Bristol, UK; Jackson, TN: Multilingual Matters, [2022] | Series: Second Language Acquisition: 153 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: This book addresses questions surrounding online second language (L2) communicative activities and formal language learning. It provides empirical evidence and analysis of the scale and nature of L2 English communicative activities online and explores the possibilities for language teaching practices that engage with learners’ L2 online activities—Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2022001042 (print) | LCCN 2022001043 (ebook) | ISBN 9781800413627 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800413641 (epub) | ISBN 9781800413634 (pdf)

      Subjects: LCSH: Second language acquisition. | English language—Web-based instruction. | English language—Computer-assisted instruction for foreign speakers. | English language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. | Internet in education.

      Classification: LCC P118.2 .M64 2022 (print) | LCC P118.2 (ebook) | DDC 401/.93—dc23/eng/20220316

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022001042

      LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022001043

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-80041-362-7 (hbk)

      Multilingual Matters

      UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.

      USA: Ingram, Jackson, TN, USA.

      Website: www.multilingual-matters.com

      Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat

      Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters

      Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com

      Copyright © 2022 Andrew D. Moffat.

      All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

      The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned.

      Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India.

      Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Group Ltd.

      Contents

      Figures

      Tables

      Acknowledgements

      Abbreviations

      1 A Thoroughly Modern Medium

      1.1 Aims of the Book

      1.2 Focus on Computer-Mediated Communication

      1.3 Defining the Object of Study

      1.4 Research Gap and Contributions to Knowledge

      1.5 Partnership with Cambridge University Press

      1.6 Research Questions and Research Design

      1.7 Structure of the Book

      2 Situating the Research

      2.1 Informal Second Language Learning

      2.2 L2 English Computer-Mediated Communication

      2.3 Complexity in Language Learning

      2.4 Activity Theory

      2.5 Conclusion

      3 Research Methods

      3.1 Research Questions

      3.2 RQ1 and RQ2: A Survey-Based Approach

      3.3 Questionnaire Design

      3.4 Piloting and Modifications

      3.5 Data Collection and Processing

      3.6 Initial Description of the Data

      4 EL2 CMC Activities and Communicative (Dis)Comfort

      4.1 Language Activities and Language Functions

      4.2 Functional Approaches to Language

      4.3 Outlining a Functionally Motivated Language Activity

      4.4 Affective Barriers to Language Acquisition

      4.5 Constructing the Questionnaire

      4.6 Comfort with L2 Use Online

      4.7 Conclusion

      5 Contexts and Attitudes

      5.1 Classifying CMC

      5.2 Constructing the Questionnaire

      5.3 Surveying Socio-Technical Configurations of EL2 CMC Usage

      5.4 EL2 CMC and Language Learning: Beliefs and Attitudes

      5.5 EL2 CMC, Informal Learning and the Language Classroom

      6 Difficulties Encountered in EL2 CMC Interactions

      6.1 Survival of the Fittest

      6.2 Systemic Contradictions

      6.3 Methodology: Constructing this Section of the Questionnaire

      6.4 Difficulties of EL2 CMC Reported by L2 English Users

      6.5 Quantitative Analysis

      6.6 Summary: Difficulties Encountered in EL2 CMC

      7 Language Online: A Corpus Study

      7.1 Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis

      7.2 Digital Conversation: Speech, Writing or Something Else?

      7.3 Corpus Analysis

      7.4 Idiosyncratic Use of Common Language Items: Analyzing CANELC

      7.5 Non-Standard Typography

      7.6 Keywords in CANELC

      7.7 Typographic Variation

      7.8 Filling in the Gaps: Instant Messaging

      7.9 Relating Speech, Writing and CMC

      7.10 Conclusion

      8 Towards an Integration of EL2 CMC and Formal Instruction

      8.1 Why Integrate?

      8.2 Goals

      8.3 Linked Activity Systems: The Case of Almon

      8.4 Incidental Learning and Multiple Motives

      8.5 A Macro-Functional Needs Analysis

      8.6 A Language Awareness Approach

      8.7 Proposed Classroom Methodology: Show and Tell

      8.8 Almon Revisited

      8.9 Conclusion

      9 Conclusion

      9.1 Research Questions Revisited

      9.2 Contributions

      9.3 Limitations

      9.4 Future Research Directions

      9.5 Closing Remarks

      References

      Appendix A: Questionnaire

      Appendix B: Codebook from Qualitative Analysis

      Index

      Figures

      2.1 From exposure to acquisition

      2.2 Engeström’s activity system, adapted from Engeström (1987) with permission from Taylor and Francis

      3.1 Distribution of respondents by country of nationality

      3.2 Distribution of respondents by country of location

      3.3 Age distribution of respondents

      3.4 English-level distribution of respondents

      3.5 Classification of respondent location

      4.1 Prioritization of motives among macro-functions

      4.2 Divergent bar chart showing questionnaire responses regarding comfort level

      4.3 English proficiency level distribution across location types

      5.1 Frequency of English use in STCs

      5.2 STCs ranked by ‘Highly Frequent’, following recoding

      5.3 STC frequency mode values. The values 1–4 along the horizontal axis correspond to the frequency categories Unusual, Occasional, Habitual and Highly Frequent respectively

      5.4 Breakdown of STC categories showing sub-groupings

      5.5 Mean frequency of STC use, stratified by age group. The integer values on the vertical axis correspond to the original response options in the questionnaire, in order of ascending frequency: higher values signify increased average frequency

      5.6 Mean frequency of STC use, stratified by English level

      5.7 Mean frequency of STC use, stratified by classification of country of location

      5.8 Overall response distribution to items in Question 26

      5.9 Questionnaire item 26.1 stratified by age

      5.10 Questionnaire item 26.1 stratified by English proficiency level

      5.11 Questionnaire item 26.2 stratified by classification of country of residence

      5.12 Questionnaire item 26.2 stratified by age

      5.13 Questionnaire item 26.2 stratified by English proficiency level

      5.14 Questionnaire item 26.2 stratified by classification of country of residence

      5.15 Questionnaire item 26.3 stratified by age

      5.16 Questionnaire item 26.3 stratified by level

      5.17 Questionnaire item 26.3 stratified by classification of country of residence

      7.1 Comparing first- and second-person pronoun use

      7.2 Uses of ‘this’ in business email and personal email

      7.3 Distributions of the four senses of ‘just’ in samples of 50 concordance lines in CANELC and across the subcorpora

      7.4 Proportions of the two senses of ‘too’

      7.5 Relative frequency of ‘really’ and ‘very’

      7.6 Response latency model, showing the relationship between different communication types, whether spoken, written or computer mediated. Numbered positions are intended as approximate exemplars of (fictional) instances of communication

      8.1 Almon’s unsuccessful classroom learning activity system

      8.2 Almon’s EL2 CMC activity system, linking to his classroom learning system

      8.3 Almon’s successful classroom learning developing the tools of his EL2 CMC system

      8.4 Additional elements in the EL2 CMC activity system, fostered through a language awareness approach

      Tables

      2.1 Contrasting conditions of informal and formal learning environments

      2.2 Two flavours of ‘informal’

      4.1 Activities included in questionnaire, categorized by macro-function

      4.2 Differences between online and offline data

      4.3 Differences between online and offline data for the making new friends activity, stratified by age

      4.4 Level of comfort with EL2 CMC activities, cross-tabulated with age

      4.5 Level of comfort with EL2 CMC activities, cross-tabulated with classification of country of location

      4.6 Differences between online and offline data for the making new friends activity, stratified by the classification of country of residence

      4.7 Level of comfort with EL2 CMC activities, cross-tabulated with classification of country of location

      4.8 Differences between online and offline data, stratified by English level

      5.1 A summary of Herring’s (2007) faceted classification scheme

      5.2 Socio-technical configurations of CMC surveyed in the questionnaire

      5.3 Derivation of frequency categories from response options

      5.4 Spearman correlation co-efficient, showing strong correlation between the two items from Question 26

      5.5 Summaries of effects of demographic variables on agreement with statements in questionnaire items 26.1–26.4

      6.1 Problem themes, listed by degree of prominence in each form of CMC surveyed

      6.2 Problem themes across age groups

      6.3 Problem themes across language proficiency levels (listed in order of prominence at post-beginner level)

      6.4 Problem themes, listed by degree of prominence in each geosocial language learning context

      7.1 The composition of CANELC

      7.2 The top 40 keywords in CANELC, in reference to the CIC

      7.3 Top 40 keywords for CANELC in reference to the CIC, showing distributions across subcorpora

      7.4 Ten most common words following ‘I’ in discussion boards, personal email and SMS

      7.5 Classification and distribution of ‘like’ across subcorpora

      7.6 Phraseological patterns associated with senses of ‘too’

      7.7 Forms of non-standard typography in CANELC

      8.1 Summary of motives and outcomes of macro-functional activities

      8.2 Activity types in the show and tell model and the goals they aim to address

      Acknowledgements

      Huge thanks are due to everybody whose influence and support made this book possible. I am especially grateful to Svenja Adolphs and Alex Lang at the University of Nottingham, who both showed me great kindness, patience and faith: Svenja guided me through the complexities of the research process and provided me with great optimism; Alex provided invaluable feedback even at time-sensitive moments, speed-reading drafts on long-haul flights. Both have had occasion to act as crisis counsellors when the need arose! I am also extremely grateful to everyone at Cambridge University Press who went out of their way to help with my project. In particular: Laura Grimes, who worked with me to get the questionnaire up and running, and helped me arrange and settle in to my internship; and to Claire Dembry, who made me answer difficult (but very necessary) questions.

      Thanks are also due to others who have been kind enough to give up their time to offer their thoughts, particularly Zoltán Dörnyei, for his thoughts on the questionnaire analysis, and Christine Muir, for advice on dealing with 10,000 questionnaire responses.

      I’m grateful to my colleagues in the School of English and in the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training. I’m very lucky to have had such fantastic peers, even if I have been notably absent from Nottingham for a large part of the last four years. My Brunch WhatsApp group have been a great source of support and banter, not to mention inspiration for the research itself (lol).

      Many thanks to Laura Longworth and Rosie McEwan at Multilingual Matters for all their help with the publishing process.

      And finally, and in the chief place, I am forever grateful for the love and support of my family. On to the next adventure!

      Abbreviations

      1 A Thoroughly Modern Medium

      Internet-based communication continues to become ‘ever-increasingly embedded into our daily lives’ (Knight, 2015: 20), and as it permeates our everyday communicative activities its significance as a site, or multitude of sites, of language use for second language (L2) learners to engage with grows accordingly. Internet-enabled modes of communication which 20 years ago were limited to a minority of technology enthusiasts have become so ubiquitous as to be ‘squarely mundane in the business of daily life’ (Squires, 2016: 1). Furthermore, the explosive growth of smartphone usage over the last decade has marked a shift from static information terminals that required users to move to a certain physical location in order to access online communication media, to portable communication terminals carried, or even worn, by users. This has led to a situation in which we are permanently online and permanently connected (Vorderer et al., 2016), inseparable from our channels of telecommunication. Social interaction online is no longer a specialist hobby, but an integral part of a 21st-century identity.

      For people learning an L2, today’s hyper-connectivity has the potential to present new domains of engagement with and exposure to their target language. Exposure to the target language, defined as both the reception of linguistic input and the opportunity for authentic, meaning-driven interaction with other speakers, is accepted as a necessary condition for language learning (Spolsky, 1989), and computer-mediated communication (CMC) has the potential to connect learners with expert and non-expert speakers of the target language, regardless of geographical location. Such exposure is not an automatic consequence of access to internet-enabled devices however: the internet is not a monolithic entity (Pasfield-Neofitou, 2012: 7) and learners may continue to be immersed in online networks of speakers of their mother tongue.

      For L2 learners who do engage with the language online, the learning benefits are increasingly documented. Incidental learning can take place even where communicative activities are initiated for their own sake, with no explicit intention to practice the language (Sockett, 2014). This can aid language learning directly, through the acquisition of words or phrases, or indirectly, by helping learners find their voices as independent language users, entitled to participate in a global anglophone community (Lam, 2000).

      The level of target language engagement made possible by the internet has the potential to significantly increase the complexity of the language learning process, providing new avenues of exposure and communicative interaction. Language teaching practices must evolve to anticipate the needs of hyper-connected learners, both to support them in their online activities, and to maximize the potential learning benefits that such activities may provide.

      1.1 Aims of the Book

      In response to these developments in the nature of language learning in a hyper-connected world, this book will do the following:

      provide empirical evidence of the scale and nature of L2 English communicative activities online among a broad range of English learners;

      investigate the nature of the language that L2 English users may encounter in online interactions;

      explore the possibilities for language teaching practices that support and integrate learners’ L2 English online activities.

      These processes will be based on analysis of empirical data, supported and contextualized through a synthesis of existing research in a number of relevant fields.

      1.2 Focus on Computer-Mediated Communication

      This book is concerned with text-based communicative activity mediated by internet-based technologies, under the umbrella term computer-mediated communication. This term includes an array of forms of communication, including email, discussion boards, blogs, instant messaging, social media and chat rooms. Short messaging service (SMS) messaging is also included under the umbrella, in spite of the technical difference that SMS data are not transmitted via the internet, but via cellular networks. SMS is nevertheless included due to its functional similarity to, and increasing indistinguishability from, mobile instant messaging. This is discussed in detail in Chapter 6.

      There is a great deal of research and scholarship examining CMC from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including communications research, information systems, organizational research, human–computer interaction, sociology and applied linguistics. Terminological debate has been an inevitable by-product: the term CMC arose from work in the field of communication studies, such as Walther (1996), while linguistic approaches to the phenomenon give rise to language-oriented terms, such as e-language (Knight, 2015) and Netspeak (Crystal, 2001). The study of discourse in online environments has been labelled computer-mediated discourse (Herring & Androutsopoulos, 2015). The older term, CMC, is adopted here, reflecting the focus on a broad set of communicative contexts and practices, rather than a language variety or set of discourse characteristics. Baron (2008: 12) highlights the fact that much CMC now takes place using devices such as smartphones and tablets that may not be thought of as being computers in the lay sense of the word, and proposes electronically mediated communication instead. However, for present purposes, the term CMC is retained, with the computer element to be understood as referring more broadly to the information technologies that underlie the forms of hardware on which such communication takes place.

      The book is further concerned with the use of English as an L2 in interactions facilitated by CMC technologies. There is a growing body of research looking at L2 communicative and literacy practices online, and the effect of such activities on language learning. Efforts to define and label the phenomenon have produced a number of different terms: online informal learning of English (OILE; Sockett, 2014), extramural English (EE; Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2016), informal digital learning of English (IDLE; Lee, 2017), fully autonomous self-instructed learner (FASIL; Cole & Vanderplank, 2016) and mobile-assisted language use (MALU; Jarvis & Achilleos, 2013). Some approaches have focused on languages other than English (Inaba, 2019; Pasfield-Neofitou, 2012). Many of the findings of the above studies regarding the effects of L2 exposure facilitated by internet connectivity are applicable to any language. However, the global lingua franca status of English gives its learners greater potential for exposure, and a wider range of possible situations in which its use might be required.

      1.3 Defining the Object of Study

      A number of parameters further restrict the scope of the book and delineate the object of attention. These are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 2, but they are stated here for conceptual clarity, as they are fundamental theoretical positions.

      1.3.1 Online language activities motivated by an authentic communicative need

      Whether it be emailing a colleague, discussing a hobby or interest on a discussion board, exchanging WhatsApp messages with friends or merely playing around in a chat room, the book is concerned with activities initiated by a desire to communicate with other people, or to achieve some practical purpose such as making a purchase on eBay. The book does not concern itself with activities undertaken for the express purpose of language learning. There is a large body of literature looking at the use of CMC for language learning, in the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). More recently, however, an awareness has emerged that regarding CMC as a tool for language learning does not adequately describe a range of L2 activities, enabled and facilitated by the internet, in which L2 users don’t necessarily regard themselves as primarily engaged in learning (Inaba, 2019; Pasfield-Neofitou, 2012; Sockett, 2014; Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2016). These are the interactions with which this book concerns itself, as they represent a ‘back door’ to language exposure which formal language teaching may overlook.

      This characteristic of the object of study rests on a distinction between language learning and language use, and concomitant subject positions of learner and user. This is noted by Sockett (2014: 14) and Sundqvist and Sylvén (2016: 29), and by others whose work is not directly concerned with informal language learning, such as Cook (2011). However, Van Lier (2004), who shares with Sockett a theoretical stance that emphasizes complexity and ecology in language learning, contests this. He insists that ‘[f]rom an ecological perspective, the distinction must be rejected forcefully’ (Van Lier, 2004: 223). While it is true that learning and use do not represent entirely distinct cognitive processes, it is not unreasonable to separate them on grounds of context and identity. To class someone as a language learner when they are, say, in the bank applying for a mortgage, or emailing a supplier about a delayed shipment, is to obscure the nature of the activity. Indeed, in the terms of activity theory used throughout this book (and to which Van Lier [2004: 211] also refers), the difference between learning and use can be encoded in the motives of the activity. This book therefore follows Sockett and Sundqvist and Sylvén in continuing to use the distinction. It is acknowledged that learning occurs in situations of use, and vice versa – indeed, this is crucial to the conclusions of the book – but activities are said to be primarily learning-oriented or use-oriented, and it is on the latter that the book focuses.

      1.3.2 Online language activities which are interactive and dialogic in nature

      The book does not concern itself with ‘passive’ language activities such as watching target-language films, television programs or videos or listening to music. Sundqvist and Sylvén (2016) take a broader approach, surveying all forms of non-class-related (what they term ‘extramural’) English language activities among classes of primary school pupils in Sweden. The resulting web of activities is conceptualized by the authors as a two-storey house, with monologic, receptive activities on the ground floor and dialogic, interactive activities, whose higher level of cognitive demand is metaphorically represented by the effort of ‘climbing the stairs’, on the upper floor (Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2016: 139). It is on the upper floor that this book focuses. This focus on the interactive component of these activities reflects the assertion in second language acquisition (SLA) theory that the use of language in conversational interaction ‘forms the basis for the development of language’ (Gass, 2003: 234).

      Of the studies cited in Section 1.2, only Pasfield-Neofitou (2012) focuses on CMC activities. The L2 in this case is Japanese, and as discussed above, while many of Pasfield-Neofitou’s findings are transferrable to English, the global status of English has implications that are not addressed in a study of Japanese learners.

      1.3.3 Online language activities which are primarily conducted textually

      Despite the continuing development of more ‘information-rich’ (Daft & Lengel, 1984) online media such as video conferencing, and indeed the explosive growth in the use of these technologies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, text-based forms of communication remain perennially popular. Text-based CMC is generally regarded as a ‘lean medium’ (Rice, 1992), unable to transmit a wide array of extra-linguistic channels of information which shape face-to-face interaction in subtle but fundamental ways, such as gesture, timbre and intonation of voice, social cues such as physical appearance and dress, and the location and relative positions of interlocutors (lying on the sofa in a dressing gown versus standing in front of the manager’s desk). Nevertheless, many people often choose to send a message when they could make a phone call, suggesting that efficient transmission of information is not the sole determiner of medium choice. Recent research into the pragmatics of online communication has suggested communicative and social functions unique to text-based online communication, that therefore cannot be achieved by other means (Yus, 2011). This suggests that text remains as salient an object of study as ever, showing no signs of obsolescence, and a major site of potential L2 use. The book therefore focuses on text, and does not concern itself with ‘richer’ online media such as video conferencing.

      1.4 Research Gap and Contributions to Knowledge

      The discussion in the preceding sections established the object of study as L2 English dialogic interactions in text-based CMC, undertaken for primarily non-learning purposes. It also demonstrated a gap in the literature with regard to this combination of characteristics. A number of studies have investigated L2 English activities online, but not focused on CMC activities in detail (Sockett, 2014; Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2016); others have investigated L2 CMC

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