The discourse of a community of student teachers: a corpus-based analysis of online and face-to-face modes

This research study focuses on the discourse of a community of student teachers and a peer tutor in an English language teaching teacher education programme. The chief aims of this study are (1) to examine the features of the discourse in online and face-to-face modes of communication, (2) to investigate the community practices, and extrapolate how the student teachers and the peer tutor build and maintain their community, and (3) to elucidate what roles the modes of communication play in shaping the discourse from this context. Discussions were held between participants in face-to-face settings and via computer-mediated communication (chatroom, discussion form and blog interactions), and these are analysed from a corpus-based discourse analysis perspective. Due to the lack of corpus-based studies on computer-mediated discussions, this research is unique in its treatment of the data, with both quantitative and qualitative corpus-based analyses utilised. Moreover, the student teachers’ attitudes and reactions to the study are provided through questionnaire, interview and e-mail data to strengthen the findings. This data thus offers a valuable insight into the discourse between this specific community, and the student teachers’ personal feelings towards the use of face-to-face and online interactions during their course of study. Findings emerging from the corpus, namely the Teacher Education Corpus of Student Teacher and Peer Tutor Interactions (TEC-SPI), suggest that the discourse between the student teachers has a number of functions, namely narrative, cognitive, affective, and evaluative. Through such functions, the student teachers are forming and representing their identities, and appear to show some evidence of growth and identification with the professional teaching community over time. Moreover, the student teachers and the peer tutor are very much aware of maintaining co-operative interactions, where politeness, face-saving strategies, and relationship building are evident throughout the data. Both online and face-to-face interactions have distinct affordances for the student teachers, and indeed the benefits of such forms of communication are recognised by them. Findings such as these can assist the language teacher education arena in obtaining a better understanding of the processes student teachers undergo in their learning to become teachers, but also of the various modes of communication now at our disposal, which may be exploited to inform future practices.