Information Technology Reference
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people. Drawing on philosophers such as Plato, to research institutes such as
Nomura, she elegantly argues that people need to widen their concept of technology
to include techniques, approaches, and processes (Zhouying
2011
). She describes
this as 'soft tech'. Although her perspective is clearly not unique, what is indisput-
able is that although artifacts have enabled changes, people need to develop ways to
best make these changes work. It is this factor that is driving a lot of research in
social sciences of late. Zhouying Jin believes that these changes can be described as
traditional notions of 'hard tech' being supplanted by wider notions of 'soft tech'.
This paper will outline how important this 'soft tech' is in appropriately
incorporating 'hard tech' innovations within the educational service industry. In
fact, it will quickly become apparent just how complicated 'soft tech' solutions may
be, compared to that of 'hard tech'. Specifically, it will look at how Internet
telephony can be best managed for intercultural collaboration and language
learning.
8.2 Background
Rapid and on-going developments in computer-mediated communication (CMC)
technologies increasingly facilitate opportunities for language learners, educators,
and educational institutions. Unsurprisingly, these opportunities have been taken
advantage of in a variety of ways. Initially they were (and still are) used for
e-learning or communicative forums through emails, websites or blogs. Recently,
widespread access to Web 2.0 technologies such as VoIP telephony (Skype, Google
Talk, Messenger) or 3D avatar software (Second Life, Active Worlds) has become
available.
Language learning has traditionally been described in terms of location: foreign
language (FL), whereby the learning is undertaken in a country where the language
is not commonly used, or second language (SL) acquisition, where the learning takes
place in a country in which the target language is commonly used in day-to-day
transactions. Naturally SL environments provide opportunities for learners to absorb
a more holistic range of target (such as paralinguistic or pragmatic) skills. In
contrast, FL teachers cannot easily recreate a SL style learning environment: it is
usually bound to the classroom, creating debate over the authenticity of the learning
experience.
The reason CMC technologies have become so meaningful for language acqui-
sition is because they can facilitate communication in a number of forms which
together, can provide learners with more of the opportunities previously ascribed to
the SL environment, despite being accessed in the FL environment.
Although CMC technologies can enable more 'authentic' language learning
opportunities, their primary practical use seems mostly defined by transactional
activities: getting learners to negotiate meaning through interaction. Accordingly a
lot of research has focused on Telecollaboration, in which collaborative exercises
are undertaken via internet telephony. As often happens however, coined phrases
can lead to a range of meanings. For the purposes of this research, Telecollaboration
