This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding how intercultural communication, mediated by cultural artifacts (i.e., Internet communication tools), creates compelling, problematic, and surprising conditions for additional language learning. Three case studies of computer-mediated intercultural engagement draw together correlations between discursive orientation, communicative modality, communicative activity, and emergent interpersonal dynamics. These factors contribute to varying qualities and quantities of participation in the intercultural partnerships. Case one, "Clashing Frames of Expectation--Differing Cultures-of-Use, " suggests that the cultures-of-use of Internet communication tools, their perceived existence and on-going construction as distinctive cultural artifacts, differs interculturally just as communicative genre, pragmatics, and institutional context would be expected to differ interculturally. Case two, "Intercultural Communication as Hyperpersonal Engagement, " illustrates pragmatic and linguistic development as an outcome of intercultural relationship building. The final case study, "The Wrong Tool for the Right Job?, " describes a recent generational shift in communication tool preference wherein an ostensibly ubiquitous tool,

In this paper, I discuss a network-based collaborative project that focused on the learning conditions non-native speakers (NNSs) of Spanish perceived to be necessary to satisfactoraly communicate with native speakers (NSs). Data from online discussions, end-of-semester surveys, and final oral interviews are presented and discussed. The results of this study demonstrated that the NNS and NS online collaboration promoted the scaffolding by which the NSs assisted the NNSs in composing meaning (ideas) and form (grammar). In addition, the NNSs praised the unique learning condition of being exposed to a wide range of functional language discourse produced by the NSs. Students perceived that open-ended questions for two-way exchange were meaningful for them because they were encouraged to use specific vocabulary and structures during the discussions. In spite of the positive conditions and benefits created by networked collaborative interaction (NCI), it was found that there were some major issues that are crucial for NCI. This study demonstrates that learners ' language proficiency, computer skills, and age differences are important factors to be considered when incorporating institutional NCI as these may linguistically and socially affect the quality of online negotiation and students ' motivation toward NCI. Practical ideas for further research are suggested.

This paper analyses negotiation of meaning and codeswitching in discourse between 29 language students from classes at a German and a North American university, who teamed up with their peers to collaborate on projects whose results they had to present to the other groups in the MOO during the final weeks of the project. From October to December 1998, these learners, who formed a total of eight groups, met twice a week for 75 minutes in MOOssiggang MOO, a textbased environment that can be compared to chatrooms, but which also differs from these in several important respects. The prime objective of the study was to give those students who participated in the online exchanges a chance to meet with native speakers of their target language in real time and to investigate if the concept of tandem learning as promoted by initiatives like the International Tandem Network could be successfully transferred from e-mail-based discourse to a format in which the learners could interact with each other in real time over a computer network. An analysis of electronic transcripts from eight successive meetings between the teams suggests that online tandem does indeed work even if the learners have to respond more quickly to each other than if they had communicated with their partners via electronic mail. Yet a comparison of the data (184,000 running words) with findings from research on the negotiation of meaning in face-to-face discourse also revealed that there was a marked difference between conversational repair in spoken interactions and in the MOO-based exchanges. This paper discusses potential reasons for these differences, investigates the learners ' exploitation of the bilingual format of their exchange, and thereby attempts to demonstrate how online tandems can contribute to successful second language acquisition (SLA) and the development of learners ' metalinguistic abilities.

A vast and largely untapped resource for second language learners has recently become available: native speakers of languages being learned who have access to the Internet. To explore the potential of this new resource for second language learning, we reviewed six free programs for Windows and Macintosh computers that permit synchronous audio (and some video) communication via the Internet. It was found that although the audio (and video) quality varied both among and within the programs reviewed, the communicative contexts created by these programs can provide second language learners with an inexpensive means for useful audio interaction with native speakers of their second language. We provide recommendations for program choice according to user needs and preferences, with an emphasis on tandem language learning, a context in which participants take turns being both second language learner and tutor of their native language. It should be quite obvious to anyone living in a technologically developed country today that the widespread availability of personal computers and the Internet have brought about dramatic changes in the way that we communicate. The use of electronic mail is the most obvious way in which our