Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2023

The complex relationship between initial anxiety and social presence in Virtual Exchange

Suzi M. S. Cavalari
  • Fonction : Auteur
Solange Aranha
  • Fonction : Auteur
  • PersonId : 1032146

Résumé

Anxiety plays a non neglectable role in Virtual Exchange. Students often experience some anxiety during the beginning of a VE, which may decrease once they better know their partner and their culture (Lee & Song, 2019). VE practice helps students for instance to lower their foreign language anxiety (Saito, 2021; Evolve project team, 2020). It is the climate of trust within the small international VE groups and more largely social presence (Garrison, 2017) that seem to influence students’ anxiety, but are plausibly, in turn, also influenced by it. Our exploratory study focuses on the complex relationship between anxiety and social presence. Questions we tackle are: Which types of anxiety do students evoke? How do they evolve during the Virtual Exchange? How do they influence or are influenced by social presence within the small international groups, at the different stages of the Virtual Exchange? The data was retrieved from a VE between a Brazilian and a French university with 31 participants, conducted during 10 weeks in autumn 2021. We distributed four surveys (28 respondents) at different stages of the VE, which allow us to investigate the evolution of both anxiety and social presence during the VE. Additionally, final reflective texts are taken into account. Statistical analyses of the quantitative data based on closed survey items with Likert scales show that initial anxiety is still correlated to social presence after the icebreaker task and even after the main VE task. And, anxiety at later stages is also inversely correlated to social presence measured at the same moments. In order to gain deeper insight into the relationship between anxiety and social presence, we conduct a content analysis on the data of open survey answers and reflective texts. During the conference, we will present the research question, theoretical basis of our study, research methodology as well as the results of our quantitative and qualitative analyses.

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Dates et versions

hal-04840269 , version 1 (16-12-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04840269 , version 1

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Elke Nissen, Suzi M. S. Cavalari, Solange Aranha. The complex relationship between initial anxiety and social presence in Virtual Exchange. IVEC, Oct 2023, Sao Paulo, Brazil. ⟨hal-04840269⟩

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