Liminality and disinhibition in online language learning

Authors

  • Una Mary Cunningham Dalarna University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v12i5.950

Keywords:

distance universities, higher education, e-learning, CMC, liminality, disinhibition, language learning, online learning, computer mediated communication,

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to bring theoretical concepts from other areas of scholarly research to bear on synchronous online education in a cross-disciplinary effort to shed light on what is going on by introducing systems of thought from other areas. The liminality and associated communitas which are found in synchronous online learning environments are examined for their possible consequences for learning in general and language learning in particular. Like computer-mediated communication, liminality has been associated with disinhibitory effects. Lack of excessive inhibition has been shown to have positive effects on second language production. The position of the online learner as “neither here nor there” or perhaps simultaneously both here and there is investigated and discussed.

 

Author Biography

Una Mary Cunningham, Dalarna University

Una Cunningham is an Associate Professor in the English department at Dalarna University, Sweden, from January 2011 in the Department of Language Education at Stockholm University. Her research interests are in netbased learning and teaching, especially the learning of intelligible pronunciation in English as a second or foreign language. She has published three teaching books on the use of the Internet in schools, and has developed and taught classes in the language of electronic communication. She has been involved in distance education in various capacities since 1997. Her research has mostly been in various aspects of non-native language, particularly the phonetic characteristics and sociolinguistic consequences of foreign accent. These interests are brought together in her current and forthcoming work on oral communication between non-native speakers and between native and non-native speakers in electronically mediated learning environments.

Downloads

Published

2011-06-29

How to Cite

Cunningham, U. M. (2011). Liminality and disinhibition in online language learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 12(5), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v12i5.950

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 5 (2011)

Section

Research Articles

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. The copyright of all content published in IRRODL is retained by the authors.

This copyright agreement and use license ensures, among other things, that an article will be as widely distributed as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific and/or scholarly archive.

You are free to

  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms below:

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.