Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) SIG
Why have a SIG in Computer Mediated Communication?
The field of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become a key area of research and development in CALL and it has established itself as one of the main themes of EUROCALL conferences over the past number of years. Colleagues working in CMC have focussed on a wide variety of themes which examine the application of online communication tools such as blogs, wikis, email, online forums, video- and audio- conferencing and virtual worlds to foreign language learning contexts. Important sub-themes include telecollaboration, the application of interactionist, constructivist and sociocultural interpretations of language acquisition in online environments, issues in task design for online interaction and the role of teachers in online learning.
What are the SIG’s activities?
This aim of the CMC SIG is to provide EUROCALL members working in this area with a specialised forum for networking and collaboration with other colleagues as well as for professional development. Some ways in which the SIG does this are by:
- sharing information on recent developments in CMC related applications, research and pedagogy with other members through our mailing list and other communication channels.
- organising pre-conference workshops at EUROCALL conferences.
- organising symposia at EUROCALL conferences
- organising regional workshops in members’ home institutions, which will enable members to make others aware of EUROCALL’s work.
- collaborating on the development of international project proposals.
- establishing links with other organisations’ special interest groups working in related areas such as the CMC SIG of the American association Calico.
Our History
Since its founding at the EUROCALL 2007 conference in Coleraine, Ireland, the SIG has organised pre-conference workshops and/or CMC symposia at each annual EUROCALL conference in order to share ideas not only with one another but to publicise CMC research and practice to conference participants who may not yet be involved in CMC. In addition to this, the SIG has organised two successful workshops (Padova, Italy in 2008 and Leòn, Spain in 2009), which were characteristically small and allowed for intense learning and sharing of experience and knowledge. In 2011, the CMC SIG joined together with the Teacher Education SIG in order to exploit the overlap of topics in the two fields and share experiences across these two areas. The first joint SIG workshop was then held in Barcelona, Spain. This was believed to be particularly important given cuts in funding for professional development across Europe as a consequence of the financial crisis. Given the success of the 2011 conference, the two SIGs subsequently organised a workshop in 2012 in Bologna, Italy. Later, in August 2020 the first Joint Symposium between the CMC Sig and the MALL Sig took place in order to share pedagogic experiences and exploit the overlap of themes in the two fields. This Joint Symposium between the CMC Sig and the MALL Sig happened within the context of the pandemic Covid’19 which implied that this EuroCALL Gathering had to take place online. Also, the first Joint CMC & MALL Webinar took place in the year 2020, being offered two different webinars. Please see below for further activities that have taken place since.
People
Chair
Name: Salvador Montaner-Villalba
Affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de València
E-mail: smonvil@idm.upv.es
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvadormontanervillalba/
Secretary
Name: Alice Gruber
Affiliation: Heilbronn University, Germany
E-mail: alice.gruber@hs-heilbronn.de
SIG Social Networks
Our LinkedIn Group: EUROCALL CMC SIG
Our Facebook group: CMC SIG
Some examples of our recent events...
- Joint CMC & MALL SIG Symposium, “CMC & MALL Unite”, at EuroCALL Online Gathering 2020, 20 August 2020. Watch online seminars at YouTube
- Disruptive technologies and the language classroom: a complex systems theory approach”, by Regine Hampel, The Open University, UK, 6th March 2020
- “Pedagogical Frameworks and principles for mobile (language) learning to support related teacher education”, by Ton Konreaad, TELLConsult and Suzanne Lustenhouwer, Tools for Pedagogy, 20th March 2020
- CMC SIG Workshop at EUROCALL 2019 Conference- Web 2.0, Virtual Reality and interactive videos in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, 28 August 2019
- CMC SIG Webinar “Can you repeat that? The pedagogical potential of in-person, device-mediated communication”, offered by Jennica Grimshaw 7th June 2019 - read more information about this event
- Multilingual Show & Tell (online) 15 June 2018
- Third conference of UNICollaboration: Telecollaboration and virtual exchange across disciplines: in service of social inclusion and global citizenship, Krakow, Poland, 25-27 April, 2018,
Further information and our events archive is available from our members' area.