Language Alternation in a Computer-equipped Foreign Language Classroom: The Intersection of Teacher Beliefs, Language, and Technology

Abstract

The linguistic context of the computer-mediated environment is of particular importance to better understanding the impact of computer-assisted language learning. Yet few studies have documented actual practices in such an environment. An ethnographically based case-study approach was used in this study to document the attitudes, activities, behaviours, and beliefs of one teacher and his students in a third-semester university French class as they met weekly in a computer-equipped classroom. Despite his enthusiasm, the intersecting teacher beliefs, linguistic difficulties, and technical problems impeded the creation of an environment conducive to sustaining lessons in the target language. Moreover, the teacher's activities in the computer-equipped classroom often privileged computer literacy over linguistic proficiency.