Extremely virtual and incredibly physical: Investigating language students’ mediation strategies through digital storytelling and digital social
reading
IlariaCompagnoni & FabianaFazzi
Ca’ Foscari University
Abstract
Digital mediation strategies are key soft skills to develop amongst students as they prepare to interact in
increasingly collaborative settings, socially and professionally. Defined as a set of communication strategies deployed to reach
mutual agreement over a dispute, mediation enables students’ cooperation in task-based language teaching settings. However, there
is an absence of research investigating learning practices in digital social spaces that allow students to develop mediation
strategies while using foreign languages to achieve group task goals. In this article, we will outline and compare the results of
two case studies exploring the interaction potential of digital educational activities: Digital Storytelling and Digital Social
Reading. The analysis of students’ multimodal conversations during the activities shows that while there are intrinsic
interactional affordances related to the technologies (StoryMaps, izi.Travel, ThingLink, Immerse and Glose for Education) used in
educational contexts, fostering students’ mediation strategies has only been feasible through a sound instructional methodology.
Starting from the data analysis, pedagogical implications are drawn to help language teachers implement virtual technologies to
boost students’ digital mediation strategies to act successfully in their professional and social lives. Considerations include
pre-activity tech and strategy training and the integration of asynchronous and synchronous moments of reflection. Further
discussion pertains to creating a community of practice collaborating to understand tool usability for attaining activity
goals.
With the increasing digitalisation of language education, students must mediate among meanings and decisions in virtual
interactional spaces where they collaboratively create and reflect on digital content. Mediation-based multimodal skills are paramount
in educational scenarios and are increasingly tasked with honing students’ communication, critical thinking, and social skills.
Supporting such skills by deploying mediation strategies increases skill transfer to professional and social contexts and supports
students’ life-long learning process (Lehtonen et al., 2008). Mediation strategies surface
from the complex interplay between understanding and valuing peer positions and individual stances to find common ground to accomplish
assigned tasks (Bercovitch & Wells, 1993; Mehrvarz
et al., 2021). Mediation strategies are, therefore, a manifestation of collaborative task engagement and are key from a
language education perspective. They facilitate goal attainment through opinion exchange, clarification requests, and meaning-making
interactions (Recker et al., 2021). According to the Companion Volume of the Council of Europe (2018), teaching mediation strategies is fundamental in helping learners
use language to mediate both concepts and communication, creating a learning environment that is also conducive to the development of
learning strategies (Donato & MacCormick, 1994) and co-regulatory processes (Hadwin et al., 2018). Learning strategies can be defined as specific actions, behaviours,
steps, or techniques that students employ—often consciously—to improve their progress in internalising, storing, retrieving, and using
the L2 (Oxford, 2010). In this context, mediation strategies can also be developed
consciously to support students’ cooperation and meaning-making in the target language.
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