Abstract:

In this paper, we will demonstrate how a multimodal conversation analytic approach (Streeck et al., 2011) can shed light on the complex phenomenon of a co-writing computer-mediated activity (Bodger & Andersen, 2005). Through a fine-grained video based single case analysis (Mondada, 2013; Arend et al., 2014), we will show how four teachers collaboratively write a narrative fiction. They enact and cross their ‘teaching’ representations and resources to create a story that is intended to be read by their students in order to build up knowledge of vocabulary.

The teachers co-construct the story Maya by addressing each other through talking, gazing, gesturing and through mobilising a computer. We argue that ‘both’ texts, i.e., the verbal negotiations about the story to tell and the computer-mediated written text emerge in the interactional dynamics of the writing process and occur as semiotic materialization of joint teacher representations. Multimodal conversation analysis allows us to study the ongoing organization of the computer-mediated activity in its temporal and sequential unfolding as well as to investigate the dialogic relationship between the oral and the written text. Furthermore, we attempt to visualize the teachers’ doing being authors.

This paper seeks to make a contribution to analyze collaborative computer-mediated story-writing as well as to sensitize teachers to the high complexity of computer-mediated co-writing.

References:
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Keywords:

Computer-mediated co-writing, storying, multimodal conversation analysis.