Digital in-text comments in video-mediated second language writing tutorials: A resource for linking in situ and ex situ engagement

Abstract

This paper examines the use of digital in-text comments on a shared screen in the delivery of feedback in video-mediated one–one writing tutorials. Data are seven cloud recordings of 1–1 writing tutorials between academic writing tutors and second language speaking internationals students at a university in the UK. Examples are taken from a corpus of 41 instances of tutor feedback, with a specific focus on advice-giving sequences, analysed using Multimodal Conversation Analysis. Our analysis shows how advice is constituted jointly of the tutor's talk, their pre-written in-text comments, and the digital work to establish joint attention to various referents on the shared screen. This complex digital gestalt serves to not only accomplish the production of advice, but to link what has been produced in the past, what is being produced in the moment, and (potentially) what will be engaged with by the student in the future. This, we argue, shows that in situ engagement can be informed by - and informing of – ex situ engagement. The study adds to existing research on video-mediated interaction, especially in educational and pedagogical settings, writing tutorial interaction, and engagement in interaction.