Abstract

SANCHEZ-UPEGUI, Alexánder Arbey. New Modes of Educational Interaction: Linguistic Analysis of a Virtual Forum. educ.educ. [online]. 2009, vol.12, n.2, pp.29-46. ISSN 0123-1294.

The article, which is the result of a study, proposes strategies for suitable educational interaction between students and teachers, based on an analysis of a virtual university forum. The forum is one of group, discussion-based, thematic, asynchronous and argumentative communication intended to generate a knowledge-building process. The conceptual and methodological framework of the study is centered on the elements of specialized educational discourse, such as linguistic analysis of computer-mediated interaction, cyber pragmatics, the theory of courtesy, argument and the cooperative principle in communication. As a general conclusion, it is possible to say that training students and teachers in strategies for argument, linguistic correction and interaction, from a linguistic-textual and cyber pragmatic perspective, is essential to the development of collaborative, communicative and scientific competence in virtual higher education.

Keywords : Educational technology; computational linguistics; virtual learning; social interaction; communicative competence.