New perspectives on computer-mediated communication research: A social network analysis approach

The present chapter formulates and applies a range of network methods for the analysis of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to improve our understanding of CMC text in educational contexts. It uses data from a case study in which foreign language learners (N = 188) at a Japanese private university were given the opportunity to interact with their peers in a collaborative online space, part of a strategic self-regulated learning module. Special attention is paid to some key aspects of the social network analysis approach, including the need to incorporate temporal measures in such an analysis, as well as to some basic building blocks, including the creation of heatmaps. This chapter, furthermore, demonstrates how Smart CALL can serve as a contemporary, comprehensive lens through which data-driven methods for text analysis can be contextualised and explained.