Article: Activity theory perspective on student-reported contradictions in international telecollaboration.

ABSTRACT

This process-oriented study focuses on contradictions that emerged in a WebCT bulletin board collaboration among English learners from Japan, Mexico and Russia, and explains them from the perspective of activity theory (Leont'ev, 1978, 1981; Engestrom, 1987, 1999). The study identified a) two intra-cultural contradictions--to post or not to post, to sound formal or informal; b) three inter-cultural contradictions--unequal contribution, genre clash/plagiarism, clash of topic choice; and c) three technology-related contradictions--message overload as hindering community formation, bulletin board as too "slow" when compared to chat, and names and gender ...

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