Task-Based Negotiation of Meaning Through a Mobile Messaging Platform

In situations where Korean university students have insufficient opportunities to communicate in English on a daily basis, using a mobile instant messaging (MIM) application for English interactions can provide them with more chances to practice the target language and negotiate meaning. This study aimed to explore Korean university students’ negotiation of meaning through different tasks using an MIM application and how these tasks influence their meaning negotiation during communicative activities on the platform. This study adopted a mixed-method approach, combining surveys and message observations to collect data. The findings showed that students perceived negotiating meaning through the MIM platform as both interesting and useful for their English learning. They valued the opportunity to communicate and negotiate meaning in English at any time and from anywhere, based on tasks. However, some challenges related to these communicative experiences were also reported. The findings indicated that some English translation applications were utilized during task-based communicative activities. Overall, the study found that students enjoyed discussing specific topics while completing various types of tasks and they experienced several benefits during their English interactions with peers on the MIM platform. The impact of different task types on meaning negotiation was also discussed.