Vocabulary learning in Mandarin Chinese – German eTandems

This article deals with vocabulary learning in synchronous, multimodal eTandems focussing on Mandarin Chinese as a target language. In doing so, the study adopts an emic, conversation analytic perspective and triangulates self-reported data from learner diaries with recordings of actual eTandem conversations. The analysis of the learner diaries showed that the participants perceive to have mostly improved their vocabulary. In order to identify the video extracts for qualitative analysis, the vocabulary items mentioned in the learner diaries were located within the interactions and analysed by means of Conversation Analysis (CA). For the most part, the analysed sequences classify as instances of word searches during which a clear preference for self-initiated collaborative repair was observed. Peer-assistance of the expert speaker was only performed on request of the learner. Furthermore, the multimodal setting shows how the participant’s gaze plays a key-role in assessing the status of the word search.