'Ears before Eyes': Expanding Tutors' Interaction Skills beyond Physical Presence in Audio-Graphic Collaborative Virtual Learning Environments

Abstract

This chapter considers how the absence of certain aspects of non-verbal behaviouraffects interaction in audio-graphical learning environments. The authors introducestrategies to deal with turn-taking, time lag and other incidences, while observing thedifficulty in applying the communicative approach to language teaching in thesesettings. By highlighting the limited validity of an extrapolation of methodologiesbetween face-to-face and virtual classrooms, we call for research to address the needfor a new course of action; one that takes full advantage of the technology in its ownright.