Interaction and Knowledge Construction in Online English Teaching

Within a Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning context, this book investigates how teachers and learners interacted and articulated their understanding of English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP)-related knowledge in a synchronous EFL classroom. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way people receive education, causing an almost overnight switch from on-campus instruction to distance learning. Under the use of three different learning analytics approaches, this book has moved beyond the usual descriptive understanding of the online learning process to an in-depth exploratory and inferential analysis of the entities, structures, relations, and processes of learning. The findings enrich current understandings of the complexity of ERPP teaching and learning in synchronous learning contexts. These findings also drive us to rethink and reshape the way ERPP instruction is delivered post-pandemic. An essential read for students and scholars of education and academic English. This book will also be a vital source for researchers in the field of learning analytics, data analysis, and data interpretation in language teaching and learning.

Yining Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tsinghua University, China. Her research interests include online language teaching and learning, individual differences in language learning, and learning analytics in language teaching and learning.

1. Introduction 2. Interaction in second language synchronous computer-mediated communication 3. Knowledge construction in online learning contexts 4. Teaching and learning in English for Research Publication Purposes courses 5. An integrated framework for English for Research Publication Purposes knowledge construction in synchronous computer-mediated communication 6. Research methodology 7. Using social network analysis to analyze interaction in an English for Research Publication Purposes classroom 8. Using epistemic network analysis to analyze knowledge construction in an English for Research Publication Purposes classroom 9. Using lag sequential analysis to analyze knowledge construction sequence in an English for Research Publication Purposes classroom 10. Conclusion