Text-centered “talk” in foreign language classrooms: Comparing the affordances of face-to-face and digital social annotated reading

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study compares text-centered dialogs between two groups of intermediate second language (L2) French learners: traditional face-to-face (FTF) discussion groups; and groups who annotated and discussed texts through the digital social annotated reading (DSAR) platform, Hypothes.is. All participants read the same articles, with discussions guided by the same reading questions. Participants' dialogs in both conditions were coded based on types of discursive moves, then analyzed through a framework of social, textual, and linguistic affordances. Findings revealed that social affordances emerged significantly more frequently than other affordances among FTF groups while textual affordances emerged significantly more frequently than other affordances among DSAR groups. Findings support the benefits of DSAR tools for more anchored discussions over traditional FTF classroom discussions, with the caution that DSAR tools alone do not necessarily promote deep discussion of foreign language texts. Beyond pedagogical implications, this study suggests an expansion of theoretical frameworks of affordances in future DSAR research.