Distance Language Learning and Desktop Videoconferencing

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This book is a study of e-learning for online language learners, with particular reference to students of Modern Standard Chinese. Using desktop videoconferencing as the medium of instruction, the author documents how remote language learners may overcome distance and acquire communicative competence through synchronous one-on-one oral and visual interaction with their instructors. Through an empirical evaluation of such interaction, this study sheds light on significant issues and challenges in an emerging field, including the needs and experiences of distance language learners, video-conferencing-based task design, implementation and evaluation, and the benefits, limitations and potential of videoconferencing-supported language learning. This book will be of interest to CALL researchers, course designers, teachers, and language learners who wish to work effectively in a multimodal online environment via sophisticated learning systems.