Explaining different aspects of word knowledge: A multimodal analysis of lexical explanation sequences during online French tutoring sessions

Abstract

This is a study on lexical explanation sequences that emerge naturally from online French tutoring sessions. From a 15.5-hour corpus of videoconferencing-based pedagogical interaction between seven tutors in France and twelve learners in Ireland, we identified nearly three hundred lexical explanation sequences. These were analyzed using a multimodal approach in order to determine which resources were used by the tutors to focus on the different aspects of knowing a word: form, meaning, and usage. In addition, we analyzed the ways in which tutors fostered the learners’ cognitive and socio-affective involvement in the explanation sequences. Our descriptive statistics are accompanied by examples that illustrate typical and innovative uses of the affordances offered by the videoconferencing platform.

Keywords

• lexical explanation
• videoconferencing
• multimodality
• teaching French as a foreign language