Title: Students' interaction with web-based literature: towards dissolution of language boundaries

Authors: Evode Mukama

Addresses: Faculty of Education, National University of Rwanda, P.O. Box 01, Butare, Rwanda; Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linkoping, Sweden

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate how new knowledge can be developed in computer-mediated social practice. Its focus is on how language frames university students| interaction and action while studying web-based literature in small task-based groups. The empirical data were collected from a case study where 57 Rwandan student teachers were completing an examination task mediated by computer at the end of an academic course. The study draws on naturally occurring talk, observations and in-depth interviews. The data were analysed from a sociocultural perspective. The findings reveal that students coping with web-based literature face a twofold reality of classroom discourse rooted in their sociocultural and educational contexts: the one conveyed through foreign languages of instruction, the other whose vehicle is their native language. The study suggests an alternative way of constructing a substantial learning discourse based on dissolution of language boundaries.

Keywords: collaborative learning; computer-supported learning; cumulative talk; discourse; exploratory talk; Rwanda; computer-mediated social practice; university students; student interaction; higher education; web-based literature; small groups; internet; language boundaries; e-learning; online learning; electronic learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKL.2008.022065

International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, 2008 Vol.4 No.5, pp.478 - 495

Published online: 17 Dec 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article