meaning, authentic audience, authentic tasks, exposure and encouragement to produce varied and creative language, enough time and feedback, attention to the
learning process, atmosphere with an ideal stressanxiety level, and finally learner autonomy.
a. Interaction
The first principal condition for optimal language learning environments discussed is that learners must have opportunities to interact and negotiate
meaning Egbert, Chao, Hanson-Smith 1999. Peyton 1999 reviews the interactionist and sociocultural perspectives to see the role of interaction for
language learning and development. According to interactionist perspective, language learning can take place through interaction Ellis 2008. Almost similar,
socioculturalists, such as Vigotsky 19341962 as cited in Peyton 1999: 17, argues that all human learning, including language learning, is “mediated through
interaction with others”. From here, both perspectives confirm that interaction and negotiation are essential for learning and language development. That is,
interaction provides opportunities to negotiate meaning and form, such as asking questions, requesting for clarification, etc., so that learners receive
“comprehensible input”, i.e. understandable language that learners are exposed to Krashen 1981, as cited in Ellis 2008: 957. In addition, Swain 1985: 252, as
cited by Peyton 1999: 18 states that the use of language in interaction with others “provides opportunities for contextualized, meaningful use, to test out hypotheses
about the target language, and to move the learner from purely semantic analysis of the language to a syntactic analysis of it.” Indeed, interaction and negotiation
are important in a language learning environment to support the learning itself.
Within the computer-mediated communication, interaction can now take the „synchronous‟ or „asynchronous‟ communication forms. Chapelle 2003: 23
states that synchronous communication in learning happens, for example, when learners sit in the computer lab during the course period to read and respond to
each other‟s messages discussing a certain topic. With asynchronous communication, she adds, learners can “readspeak and writehear electronic
messages, which are stored on a server to be produced and accessed anytime ”
p.23, allowing the process of communication and learning can be spread out with unlimited time span across hours, days, weeks, or even months. In other
words, computer-mediated communication expectedly provides more flexible interactions for learners beyond here and now situations.
b. Authentic audience
