Investigating the linguistic and pedagogical affordances of an L2 open reading environment via eComma: An exploratory study in a Chinese language course

This exploratory, small-scale, qualitative study investigates the linguistic and pedagogical benefits and challenges of using a digital annotation tool (called eComma) to facilitate second language (L2) reading in a second-semester, university-level Chinese language course. The goals of the study are to analyze the effects of social reading on learners' understanding of Chinese literary texts and investigate how an L2 teacher might effectively incorporate this activity in his/her classroom. The results indicate that students predominantly used the social reading experience to query fellow students about the meaning of vocabulary/Chinese characters in the digital, literary texts used in the study. eComma allowed students to co-construct meaning and scaffold their learning while engaged in close readings of the Chinese literary texts outside of the physical classroom. Drawbacks of social reading in this environment include students' frustrations with some technical aspects of the eComma tool and the instructor's concerns about meaningfully bridging students' social reading experiences outside of the class with in-class discussions/activities. Pedagogical suggestions regarding L2 open/social reading include adding timing constraints to promote more virtual interaction, better integrating students' virtual comments into classroom discussion/activities, and offering more structure for novice learners.