Learning Second Language via Videoconferencing: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic, videoconferencing has become a practical approach in a variety of educational fields, including second-language instruction. In this approach, teachers and learners can adopt videoconferencing multimedia affordance and undertake multimodal communication. Yet, how effective videoconferencing is for second-language learning still remains uncertain. Although there has been one review study specifically on its overall effectiveness, which lent its support to videoconferencing for second-language learning with a positive, medium overall effect size, the stringent inclusion criteria of the review study caused few primary studies for analysis, and publication bias was identified. Thus, to gain a more comprehensive picture of the efficacy of videoconferencing in second-language learning, this study will take a further step to examine the learning outcome of videoconferencing and its impact of moderator variables. A multitude of publication types (journal articles, conference proceedings, and doctoral dissertations) will be included for analysis to improve on the limitation of the previous review study. Moreover, studies with within-group treatment in experimental groups will be specifically examined to complement the previous review study. General characteristics of the included studies and their second-language learning outcomes regarding measured effect size will be reported. It is expected that the finding of the current review work will broaden the scope of videoconferencing in second-language learning, clarifying its overall effect based on different types of publications and studies with within-group designs. Thus, pedagogical implications and useful directions for future research on videoconferencing for second-language instruction can be provided.

Keywords

videoconferencing; second/foreign language; meta-analysis