171

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
Department of English Studies, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz

SSLLT 5 (1). 2015. 171-186
doi: 10.14746/ssllt.2015.5.1.9

http://www.ssllt.amu.edu.pl

Book Reviews

Online Communication in a Second Language:
Social Interaction, Language Use and Learning Japanese

Author:
Sarah E. Pasfield-Neofitou

Publisher:
Multilingual Matters, 2012

ISBN:
978-1847698247

Pages:
238

The reviewed book aims at examining the processes of undirected language use in
computer-mediated communication (CMC) settings. Rather than focusing on CMC
interactions in tasks designed, monitored and assessed by teachers and integrated
with the regular language learning curriculum, Pasfield-Neofitou decided to inves-
tigate unrestricted, unguided, free communication between users of the same lan-
guage, Japanese, in this case. The researcher’s purpose was to observe and analyse
“natural” communication, one that is not triggered or stimulated in any way by the
teacher, the coursebook or the classroom assignment. It was also interesting to see
how natural CMC interaction evolves and in what social settings.

Another interesting issue is how learners autonomously select CMC
modes, given a great variety of dimensions CMC actually encompasses (e.g.,
synchronous vs. asynchronous, text vs. audio vs. video), and whether there is
any correlation between the implementation of particular CMC environments
and the languages that are used within these. As the author herself writes in



172

the introduction, “the volume serves to challenge traditional categorizations of
‘synchronous’ and ‘asynchronous’ CMC mediums, assumptions about the
‘placelessness’ of online domains, and previous characterizations of online con-
versations as ‘haphazard’ and ‘unstructured’” (p. 1)

On top of all that, the process of learning Japanese is examined, in order
to see how learners were using CMC in their L2 and how this communication
provided opportunities for language acquisition. This area is particularly worth
exploring due to the considerable differences between English and Japanese,
mainly in terms of script, and the ways of handling the issue of script shift in
different ways in a computer format.

The particular research questions posed by Pasfield-Neofitou were as follows:

1. How do learners establish and maintain relationships in which they use
a second language online?

2. What is the nature of learners’ CMC and in what combinations are they
using CMC in their second language?

3. How does the use of CMC in conjunction with other resources provide
opportunities for second language acquisition?

It is the aim of the present review to assess whether and to what extent the author
has actually managed to accomplish the formidable task she set herself, in particu-
lar, whether the book offers “an alternate, sophisticated view of CMC interaction
which highlights identity, the skilful management of communication, and user
agency in interaction with technology” (p. 1), as claimed in the introduction. This
was to be accomplished by researching a body of CMC data collected from 12 stu-
dents studying Japanese at an Australian university and their 18 Japanese contacts
who volunteered to communicate via different CMC modes (email, Skype, Mixi
blogs/videos/comments/profiles, Facebook messages/wall/albums/apps/profiles,
MySpace comments/profiles, World of Warcraft profiles, MSN convesations,
phone emails, Ameba blogs/profiles or Mind map data). In total, 777 CMC data files
were compiled into a corpus of 2,460 naturally occurring instances of communica-
tion collected over the period of three years.

The book is composed of six chapters (with the first being entitled “Intro-
duction” and the last one “Conclusion”), a list of references and an index of
names. The key chapters reporting upon different aspects of the study are
Chapters 2-5: “Learner backgrounds and online L2 networks,” “Social settings
of situated CMC use,” “Features of CMC use” and “Use of contextual resources
and SLA opportunities.”

The first chapter, “Introduction,” in fact contains not only a statement of
aims and purposes of the researcher that are to be realized throughout the book



173

but also contains the whole theoretical background to the field the author de-
cided to explore. Thus, first of all, it contains a brief literature review reporting
upon the findings of previous studies in such areas as the language of CMC
(learner output produced in spoken vs. written, synchronous vs. asynchronous
modes) and characteristic features of digital writing such as multiple punctua-
tion, eccentric spelling, capitalisation, emoticons, rebus writing or nonlinguistic
symbols. In particular, the researcher is trying to draw a distinction between
spoken versus written and synchronous versus asynchronous communication,
challenging the traditional distinctions of synchronicity by showing, for in-
stance, how contemporary CMC applications blur the line by providing versatile
forms of online presence (e.g., synchronous instant messengers allowing send-
ing “offline” messages or hybrid tools like Google Wave and Facebook allowing
multiple modes of online communication). The review of literature on the lan-
guage of CMC continues in the areas of CMC genre selection, the way CMC lan-
guage output is conceptualized and the extent to which the personalized lan-
guage output allows one to create a personal internet (rather than the global,
everyone’s, Internet). Pasfield-Neofitou claims, after Miller and Slater (2000),
that L2 language use in CMC settings allows one to construct a personal online
domain, a property of the learner, which is evolving given changing patterns in
language use or technology preference. This interesting concept is in close par-
allel to the notion of interlanguage (see, for instance, Selinker, 1972), which em-
phasizes learner ownership and active authorship of L2 language use. L1 per-
spectives in terms of development of language proficiency in English and in Jap-
anese are also reviewed, with special attention devoted to the notion of iden-
tity: How previous studies report upon the performance/construction of online
identity in the individual and group dimensions, instructed CMC L2 use as well
as the effect of CMC use on intercultural competence development.

A separate part of the introductory chapter is a detailed presentation of
the theoretical framework that Pasfield-Neofitou adopted for her study,
namely, the social realist approach (see, for instance, Sealey & Carter, 2004).
Social realism makes use of a broad definition of applied linguistics which en-
compasses not only the teaching and learning of additional languages but also
aspects of language in use, thus resulting in an overlap of linguistics and socio-
linguistics. In this framework, according to Belz (2002), the empirical world is
viewed as highly complex and multifaceted, where social action is shaped by
the interplay of macro (structure) and micro (agency) phenomena, which, in
methodological terms, results in the view of the social world as stratified, com-
prising structure, agency, and culture, with language as a cultural emergent prop-
erty (Sealey & Carter, 2004). In particular, Pasfield-Neofitou presents the strati-
fied social world model, describing the four social domains of situated activity,



174

psycho-biography, social settings and contextual resources as influences con-
stantly shaping language users’ lives, with a complicated network of interrela-
tions between them. The selection of domains as areas for analysis is the back-
bone of the book, reflected in the titles of the successive chapters.

The final part of the introduction contains a discussion of the methodo-
logical framework, the research procedure, sampling, data collection and anal-
ysis techniques. In particular, the research relies on ethnographic approaches
to data collection, including interviews, qualitative surveys, focus groups, as
well as such quantitative measures as calculations of post lengths. Data col-
lected from 12 students of Japanese studying at an Australian university and
their 18 volunteer Japanese contacts amounted to 777 CMC data files of differ-
ent types resulting in 2,460 naturally occurring instances of communication. The
researcher had access to archived text-based communication of the partici-
pants, which, however, they were allowed to censor if they did not wish the
researcher to view material of sensitive or personal nature.

The remaining part of the introduction retells the data analysis frame-
work which Sarah Pasfield-Neofitou uses to draw conclusions about language
use and CMC patterns: comparative analysis of interviews and questionnaires,
computer-assisted qualitative data analysis backed up by NVivo software and
computer-mediated discourse analysis.

The decision to cover all the three crucial areas in a single introductory
chapter, namely, the statement of aims for the book, literature review and
presentation of research methodology does not seem to be the most fortunate.
As a result, some areas of L2 CMC do not get sufficient coverage, especially the
effect of instructed CMC on L2 acquisition. Even though this is beyond the major
focus of the book, the body of literature is so immense that it could get a slightly
more systematic coverage in the chapter. Similarly, given great attention de-
voted to the social aspects of language development in CMC use, the review of
L2 acquisition in telecollaborative CMC settings seems inadequate as well, with
only few works of O’Dowd and Belz acknowledged. Finally, greater acknowl-
edgement of previous studies into CMC in tandem settings would have shed
better light on how language acquisition patterns observed for Japanese in the
work under review refer to the already established body of knowledge.

Chapter 2, entitled “Learner Backgrounds and Online L2 Networks,” is an
extended description of the participants of this longitudinal study, outlining
their self- or psychobiographies with respect to language learning, internet use,
and relationships with their Japanese-speaking networks. The accounts are
given based on the descriptive coding of participants’ attributes from their in-
terview comments and the auto-coding of Japanese email interview responses.
Obviously, much greater emphasis is laid on the Australian participants than



175

their Japanese counterparts, and the former’s sociocultural backgrounds are
thoroughly covered in the chapter. Pasfield-Neofitou first produces a summary
of the learners’ linguistic backgrounds indicating languages, trips to Japan, years
of Japanese study and the like; then, a similar summary is made of their tech-
nological backgrounds (type of computer/operating system, total daily com-
puter use, number of computers used, preferred online applications). In a way,
the author produces an account similar to the language passport of the Euro-
pean Language Portfolio in the two areas of language use and computer use. A
similar summary is made of Japanese contacts, though to a less detailed extent.

What follows is a descriptive account of the learners’ biographies, with
rich data on their learning context, professional situation, proficiency in Japa-
nese, preferred learning habits, contacts with the Japanese language and cul-
ture and the like. Each description is a vivid and in-depth account of one’s psy-
chobiography, which makes the next three chapters a truly interesting read.
Moreover, thanks to establishing the networks and relationships of CMC use
and providing clear data on the nature of the relationships between Australian
participants and their Japanese partners (who are, for instance, a former tutor,
a friend from a bar, a MySpace friend, a boyfriend or a museum boss), one can
fully see and understand the complex nature of foreign language interaction
occurring in CMC settings.

The description of participants shows at the same time both stronger and
weaker sides of the study. On the one hand, the 12 Australian participants ex-
hibit an immense range of learner profiles as far as age is concerned (ranging
from 18 to 28 years of age), additional languages (ranging from 2 to as many as
6), level of proficiency in Japanese (from beginner levels of 1-2 to very advanced
levels of 11-12), length of study of Japanese (1-17 years) and length of stay in
Japan (from none to as many as 13 months in total). Collecting a rich body of
data from participants across such a wide spectrum of sociodemographic and
learning variables enabled the researcher to come up with examples of interac-
tions with their corresponding linguistic and technological contexts. On the
other hand, the body of data is quite naturally skewed towards the more profi-
cient participants. For instance, out of 777 data samples as many as 294 (more
than 37%) were produced by one particularly prolific and proficient participant,
while 2 participants out of 12 account for almost 60% of the total number of
data samples. Some participants contributed very little to the corpus: Hyacinth,
7 samples (6 blog entries and 1 blog profile); and Noah only 4 (1 blog post, 1
comment, 2 profiles). As a result, it is difficult to make generalisations about the
whole group as such; rather, individual cases need to be interpreted in relation
to their sociocultural settings.



176

Chapter 3, “Social Settings of Situated CMC Use,” is the first out of the
three chapters recounting the results of the empirical work conducted by Sa-
rah Pasfield-Neofitou in her study. More specifically, the author identifies here
the ways in which the participants’ experiences of sociocultural nature shape
CMC use in a variety of computer environments. The three focal issues of man-
agement of identity, maintenance of interest, and nonuse/lapsing/lurking are
discussed in great detail, with example incidents proving particular points. It
turned out that there exist language- or nationality-specific online domains,
specific places on the Internet which are characteristic for particular linguis-
tic/cultural communities. The participants in the study, in their substantial
part, were shown to actually shape these Japanese-language domains to per-
sonalise them. An important part of this chapter is also an attempt at investi-
gating the effect that engagement in CMC interaction with Japanese contacts
had on the lives of the Australian participants in a somewhat broader commu-
nicative context. Data on, for instance, the increase in the number of Face-
book contacts, the ratio of actual “active contacts” to “all contacts” and the
number of Japanese-language environments used for everyday purposes, the
characteristics of code-switching and medium-switching, all seem to demon-
strate that involvement in CMC interaction does exert an effect on the way
that learners use computers for work, study and leisure purposes. It is, thus,
an important finding of Pasfield-Neofitou’s study that the L1-L2 computer use
is bi-directional: What we do in digital environments in L2 shapes the way we
use computers and the Internet in L1.

Chapter 4, “Features of CMC Use,” is presumably the most significant
part of the book reporting upon research in second language acquisition. This
chapter examines the features of participants’ CMC use, focusing on the way
in which learners use CMC in their L2, for what purposes and in what combi-
nations. The situated CMC activity is analysed in terms of conversational or-
ganisation, language choice, orthography and code-switching and types of lan-
guage use. As demonstrated with qualitative data, participants’ patterns of
turn-taking are related to their language choice in terms of orthography and
code-switching. Since, as Pasfield-Neofitou proved in Chapter 3, specific
online domains are language/culture-specific, language choice analysed in
Chapter 4 shows how participants identified particular settings as either Eng-
lish or Japanese in nature. Their language choice was also influenced by inter-
personal relationships, interlocutor’s status and learner’s motivations. Quite
interestingly, the analysis in the chapter touches upon the question of
whether text-based communication is “talking” or “writing,” and challenges
the notion of synchronicity of online communication. Participants proved to
distinguish between the two modes in terms of degree of synchronicity, based



177

on use rather than solely on medium choice, and they did not label particular
media (such as MSN, MySpace or email) as clearly synchronous or asynchro-
nous. Thus, Sealey and Carter’s (2004) view of CMC as emergent from speak-
ing, writing, technology and human behaviour is reinforced through the data
from two case studies thoroughly described in the chapter.

Chapter 5, “Use of Contextual Resources and SLA Opportunities,” is the
last chapter reporting upon empirical work. It strives to examine how partici-
pation in online communication provides opportunities for language acquisi-
tion. The author draws on analytical coding of the interaction and interview
data, reflecting upon such aspects as gaining an audience, facing interactional
challenges, patterns of dictionary use and the use of other supplementary re-
sources (paper-based printed resources, non-computer-based digital re-
sources such as Nintendo DS hand-held game system, software-based and In-
ternet-based digital resources). The use of multiple resources proved to be
common, with online dictionaries being a popular resource. However, the use
of resources appeared to be influenced by participants’ psycho-biographies,
the social contexts in which communication with their Japanese partners was
taking place, as well as the very nature of the situated activity. A major part of
Chapter 5, though, is a discussion of how situated CMC activity planned in the
study makes affordances for discourse repair, peer editing and feedback giv-
ing. Participants were found to use the linguistic capital of their native-speaker
partners to obtain feedback, with some, more proficient ones, engaging in
peer editing. Repair was rather infrequent and self-correction was more prev-
alent due to the informal nature of conversations; however, in some cases
delayed repair was undertaken even after change of the topic, which testifies
to the awareness of learners and their willingness to improve.

The final part of the book draws a conclusion concerning the findings pre-
sented in Chapters 3, 4 and 5. The research questions posed in the introduction
are revisited and the most salient points are extracted from analysis.

To sum up, the book by Sarah E. Pasfield-Neofitou is a highly interesting
and comprehensive monograph on the topic of social interaction in CMC set-
tings, based on the particular example of learning Japanese by Australian stu-
dents. The author makes a number of very important claims about participat-
ing in online domains and virtual communities, entering CMC networks and
maintaining relationships, code-switching and turn-taking, as well as acquisi-
tion opportunities in CMC. The book attempts to cover such a vast area that it
would be impossible to exhaust the topic completely. In fact, it should be
treated as an invitation to undertake further research, in more controlled set-
tings, with more systematic and principled sampling, not only in order to verify
the claims made by Pasfield-Neofitou, but also, perhaps even more importantly,



178

to see to what extent the observations about the nature of learning Japanese by
Australian speakers can be generalisable to foreign language acquisition as such.

Reviewed by
Jarosław Krajka

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland
jarek.krajka@poczta.umcs.lublin.pl

References

Belz, J. A. (2002). Social dimensions of telecollaborative foreign language study.
Language Learning and Technology, 6(1), 60-81.

Miller, D., & Slater, D. (2000). The Internet: An ethnographic approach. Oxford: Berg.
Sealey, A., & Carter, B. (2004). Applied linguistics as a social science. London:

Continuum.
Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics,

10, 209-241.


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