Discourse Analysis of EFL Students’ Attitudes and Social Interactions Towards a Virtual Classroom

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the discourse of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ attitudes and social interactions towards a virtual classroom of Hoa Sen University Mlearning System. The system is built on Moodle platform, where educators and learners are empowered to create personalized virtual classrooms in a secure and integrated environment. Through social network-like features, teachers and learners can exchange more ideas about lessons after school to promote independence in learning and strengthen social relationships. Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) refers to interactivity between or among people through mediated communication channels. A myriad of studies on the use of CMC of foreign language learners have been conducted; however, there is little research using discourse analysis to explore students' attitudes and social interactions in language learning contexts. This paper uses an interpretive methodology by working from quantitative and qualitative data. The participants were 100 non-English major students of an English Writing class for one semester. Besides, statistics from students' interactions and post-interviews were analyzed based on discourse analysis. The results showed that learners had positive responses and attitudes towards the virtual classroom. Finally, some implications for EFL learning and teaching using virtual classrooms were discussed.