The Combined Use of Audio and Visual Media in Computer Conferencing towards Equality in Asymmetric Second-Language Conversation

The purpose of this study is to explore and measure the impact on combined multimedia for Non-Native Speakers (NNS) to communicate with Native Speakers (NS).This article presents the effects of the combined use of audio and text, and substantiate increased participation of reciprocal peer interaction between NS and NNS. In this study, conversations were conducted in our lab between NS and NNS. We tested our predictions about participants’ speech, verbal and semantic knowledge after conversations throughout the experiment. Data found that the use of audio and text increased the participants’ mean length of utterance, and knowledge sharing between NS and NNS. The results indicated the impact of the combined use of audio and text on an interactive real-time discussion and positive effects on users’ memory retention. This research suggests potential development in audio or video conferencing tools which incorporate interaction between people with linguistic boundaries. Keyword: Communication, second language, non-native speaker, text-enhanced audio conference