The present study analyzed small group interaction in the videoconferencing-mediated English class at a university in South Korea. Adopting the ‘affordance’ construct (van Lier, 2004) as a conceptual framework for interpreting small group work, the goals of the research are to 1) identify the types of linguistic affordances emerging in videoconferencing-mediated small group work and 2) examine learners’ perceptions and responses to the linguistic affordances. Data were collected from two major sources: 40 video recording files of small group observation and post-class interviews with four students. The paper analyzed 13 extracts selected from the transcription of the video recordings. The overall results of the research suggest that a range of linguistic affordances emerged through interaction and participants responded to the affordances they perceived in various ways. Three types of linguistic affordances were observed in the data: technology-generated affordances, learner-generated affordances, and learner-to-learner-generated affordances. The study findings have important implications for providing new insights into the operationalization of the affordance construct as well as advancing the understanding of the affordance perspective of L2 learning.

This case study examined 10 Korean English teachers who were involved in small group work (SGW) for the purpose of improving their own English language proficiency. Their beliefs about and practices of SGW were closely observed as they actually went through a SGW. A total of 10 teachers (three groups) teaching at elementary or middle schools participated in the SGWs for one year. In the SGWs they were supposed to meet once a week in groups, give a presentation in English on a selected topic, and discuss the topics presented. Throughout the research period, they were interviewed and surveyed periodically. The result of the study showed that teachers generally had positive beliefs about SGWs and were very willing to go on with it in the same way they used to or in a little modified way. Especially, the teachers revealed strong conviction that the most powerful aspect of SGW was that it kept them motivated to continue learning, which has rarely been the case when they tried to study individually.