A Microanalysis of Text's Interactional Functions in Text-and-Voice SCMC Chat for Language Learning

Social Interaction In Bimodal Scmc

Even though SCMC can emulate face-to-face communication, the two are not the same. The text mode contains elements of oral communication, but lacks the embodied actions typically associated with face-to-face conversations. In order to signal non-verbal cues, participants utilize emoticons, acronyms, and even orthographic symbols (González-Lloret, 2015). Importantly, in bimodal SCMC involving both voice and text modes, the ongoing process of oral turn construction is available to the recipient whereas the real-time composing process of text is not. Although many chat technologies alert the recipient as soon as text is being typed and these alerts have a foreshadow effect on the upcoming text (Gibson, 2014), only the final textual package is seen by the recipient when it is posted. Further, the oral mode has linear sequentiality, that is, “each utterance can be placed immediately after its intended referent” (Garcia & Jacob, 1999, p. 361). In contrast, text-based communication can have multidimensional sequentiality, which includes overlapping and numerous simultaneous threads (Tsai & Kinginger, 2015) since there are “multiple, concurrent ‘speaker’ selection options” at a time, and participants can not control where their message is placed relative to its intended referent (Garcia & Jacob, 1999, p. 361). These features become different affordances for participants in bimodal SCMC.