What is Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM)

This chapter explores WhatsApp interactions and the benefits of mobile instant messaging (MIM) in teaching and learning processes within the context of an inter-university telecollaboration project. From a cyberpragmatic framework, this study analyses how the participants communicate by taking advantage of the possibilities of the medium and considering its constraints, as well as how the creative use of the multimodal elements fosters the development of learners' communicative competence. After categorising the learning activities, a mixed-method analysis was performed to identify which multimodal elements were used and what pragmatic effects they had in the analysed WhatsApp conversations. Of these multimodal elements, emojis have been explored in greater depth owing to their pragmatic relevance in MIM. The results show a rich communication landscape in which multimodal elements play a significant role in generating conversation topics, establishing a friendly and safe learning atmosphere, facilitating communication, and providing language learning opportunities.