DISCOURSE PATTERNS IN THE E-DISTANCE LEARNING FORUMS

Abstract

This research investigated discourse patterns in online discussion forums, a asynchronous type of computer-mediated communication. 110 messages were collected from the online discussion forums designed specifically for an English course taken by the e- distance learning program students at MARA University of Technology, Malaysia. The online forum allows students in this program to communicate with their fellow classmates, lecturers and other e-distance learning students. The content of the messages were mainly about classes, exams, documentations, assignments to be submitted and rarely about everyday life. The messages sent by the students when communicating with their classmates and lecturers were analyzed based on Muysken typology of code-mixing. It was revealed three main codes; Malay, Arabic and English were used by the participants in the online forum. This study hopes to provide useful information about language patterns and styles of writing among the students in the discussion forums which can be helpful for classroom practitioners. In addition, the result of this research will be of value for the development of studies in the area of computer-mediated communication

Keywords

• Code-switching, Code mixing, Computer-mediated communication

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