Instant Messaging as Digital Discourse Socialization in the Context of English for Academic Purposes

Abstract

Digital interaction in higher education is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. However, the effects that such digital interaction has on the lived experiences of students and teachers within the traditional classroom should be illuminated from different perspectives to inform pedagogy adequately. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of instant messaging (IM) as an educational and communicative tool in the context of a multidisciplinary English for Academic Purposes (EAP) presentation course. To achieve the purpose, a phenomenological methodology and qualitative content analysis method were used to describe and reflect on the lived experiences of the research participants. As a result, three main themes were identified that characterize the lived experiences, namely interpersonal relations, pedagogic concerns, and psychosocial influences. The integration of these themes with relevant pedagogic theories and a tailored research design led to three main contributions: (1) the operationalization of a creative qualitative research design within a digital setting; (2) the theorization of IM-mediated education; and (3) the development of principles for academic discourse socialization through IM. The paper proposes critical research directions that probe the blatant digitization of education.

Keywords: instant messaging, digital discourse socialization, English for Academic Purposes, phenomenology, social fatigue, Confucianism