Abstract:

In a typical English language classroom, it is common to find students coming from different backgrounds with different experiences. These differences may arguably impede students’ communication in group activities. Yet, delivery and assessment in English language courses often require students to participate in group communication which pose challenges for students in their learning process and well as for course instructors in monitoring students’ progress. The emergence of mobile instant messaging (MIM) has tremendously promoted group communication in social setting. Nevertheless, the use of MIM has not been fully explored and integrated into students’ in-class and out-of-class language learning activities. This paper presents a documentation of procedures involved in developing protocols for students’ MIM group communication for instructional applications in an English language course for Low English Proficiency (LEP) students at a technical university in Malaysia.

Keywords:

Protocols, mobile instant messaging, group communication, instructional applications.