Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Marcelo Castro

Committee Member

Georgina Arguello

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

blended learning, collaborative boards, communicative competence, computer-mediated communication (CMC), contextual factors, equity-minded access, feedback, high school teachers, interpretive communication, learning, NVivo analysis, presentational communication, secondary education, short-form video, snowball sampling, teachers’ perceptions, thematic analysis, videoconferencing, world languages

Abstract

This applied dissertation examined how high school world language teachers in the Mid- Atlantic United States perceived and used computer-mediated communication (CMC) to develop students’ communicative competence. It focuses on how teachers integrated CMC to support interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational communication in secondary world language classrooms. The study highlighted teachers' daily decisions regarding when and why to use specific CMC tools in their instruction.

Using a generic qualitative design, the researcher conducted semi-structured Zoom interviews with secondary world language educators recruited through professional networks using snowball sampling. Interviews were audio-recorded with consent, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed in NVivo following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis. The study addressed three questions: (a) which contextual factors affect teachers’ CMC use and how these factors shape integration; (b) which CMC tools teachers employ and the outcomes they observe for interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational communication; and (c) how often and for what purposes CMC appears within weekly instructional sequences.

Participants reported using videoconferencing for live interpersonal speaking, short-form video for presentational performances with structured response, and collaborative boards/LMS tools for planning, reflection, and feedback. Findings suggest that sustainable integration depends less on platform selection than on practice-proximal professional learning, clear facilitating conditions (time, technical help, exemplars), and equity-minded access options (e.g., multiple modes, captions, asynchronous alternatives). Implications include targeted professional development on task design and feedback economy, district-level supports for weekly routines, and future research on longitudinal outcomes.

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