Because of language difficulties international students have a hard time playing major roles in discussions that take place in face-to-face meetings. The difficulties that students have in understanding lectures can have serious consequences (Boyle, 1993.) Wicks (1996) analyzed the effect that English proficiency has on the performance of international students.

The American way of learning is different from other countries. American students are accustomed to expressing their opinions freely. No one will be penalized for raising a question or making a little digression, interaction is regarded as a normal and encouraged way of learning. On the other hand, in Taiwan, for example, the teacher is the authority in the classroom. Students are the listeners, and they would feel embarrassed if they ask "stupid" questions. As a result, when Taiwanese student study in the American classroom, such values and experiences are transferred in the following ways: the student shows slow response, he worries if his question is sensible or not one and spends a lot of time thinking how to phrase the question (Lam, 1994).

A suggested solution for this language problem is to use a CMC medium. But does the use of CMC affect student participation? and how can students be encouraged to use this medium?.

Bellman (1992) reported that computer conferencing increases literacy, it encourages usually silent students to participate in class discussions. It is equally accessible to all students regardless of their level of computer expertise.

In a CMC environment, students may raise a topic or comment on the topic raised by others without any interference or mediation. Being afraid of saying a wrong sentence or making a wrong expression disappear in this environment.

Computer conferencing gives an equal opportunity for participants to make intelligent contributions to the discussion. This prevents individuals or small groups from dominating the conversation as often occurs in face to face meeting (Graddol, 1989).

Computer conferencing allows a better quality of participation, less dominance, and states equality when compared to face-to- face discussions (Siegel, 1986).

Moore (1989) described three types of interaction, learner- learner interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-content interaction. The focus of this paper was on learner-instructor interaction which is interaction between the learner and the expert who prepared the subject material or some other expert acting as instructor.

In their study Owusu-Sekyere and Branch (1996) focused on the importance of feed back and interaction during instruction at a distance. They pointed out that onsite instruction provides immediate opportunities for interaction and feed back.

The purpose of this study is to answer the following question: Can CMC improve learner-instructor interaction and class participation of international students?

International students enrolled in a class utilizing CMC will demonstrate a higher frequency of interaction, than international students enrolled in traditional, face-to-face classroom.

In his study, Wicks (1996) analyzed the effects that English proficiency has on the performance of international students in comparison with Australian students at the University of Southern Queensland (UNQ) in Australia, concentrating particularly on overseas students externally and admitted under the alternative English entrance requirements.

The overseas students selected for this study came from Hong Kong, Singapore or Malaysia. They were compared with students who were born and educated in Australia.

The researcher concluded that, there is no major problems with English language proficiency for international students who are studying in Australia. However, students who are studying externally in their home countries may be performing below their potential.

Wicks quoted Bradly and Bradly (1984) saying that overseas students face problems of cultural and social differences when mixing with Australian staff and students, the major area of concern is their proficiency in English.

The aim of Lam (1994) study was to find out if the specific interactional skills acquired by students through their first language experience are automatically carried over to second language use and if this transfer is beneficial in developing interactional competence in the second language. The researcher investigated the turn-taken behavior of eight Chinese students from Taiwan participating in graduate classes at an American university.

Data for the analysis was collected from three graduate classes at an American university. The participants were Chinese students majoring in education. Their length of stay in the States ranged from three months to about a year. Half of the participants majored in English when they were undergraduate students in Taiwan.

A coding system based on Rogers and Farace (1975) was used to quote the terms of the participants in the video taped sessions. A turn is defined as the act of taken the floor, which begins when one speaker starts talking, and ends when he/she stops talking and another participant begins to talk.

The researcher concluded that, in addition to personality factors and learning styles, native culture plays a vital role in shaping Taiwanese student's reaction to the target culture. Students have to be more aware of the strengths and weaknesses that their cultures give them in order to be able to acquire interactional competence. The support from teachers and fellow American students is also crucial in their language acquisition process.

The need for interaction may be explained by a theory of cognitive speed (Fulford, 1993). Our average rate of speech is comfortable when we are involved in two-way conversation. If we perceive our selves as inactive the pace seem to drag. This situation may occur in one-way communication such as lectures and video programs (Fulford and Zhang 1993).

Types of Interaction

Moore (1989) described three types of interaction relative to distance education: learner content-interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction.

Learner-content interaction is interaction between the learner and the content or subject of study. This is a defining characteristic of education.

Learner-instructor interaction is interaction between the learner and the expert who prepared the subject material, or some other expert acting as an instructor. The goal of such interaction is to stimulate, motivate, and facilitate educational activities and learning strategies.

Learner-learner interaction is interaction between a learner and other learners, alone or in group setting, with and without the real-time presence of an instructor.

Most treatments of the concept of interaction in distance education have been based on the previous types of interaction. However, Hillman, Willis, and Gunawardena (1994) introduced a fourth type of interaction that occurs between learner and the technologies used to deliver instruction. They presented the concept of learner-interface interaction.

In spite of the importance of these types of interaction in distance education, Wagner (1994) said that Moore's three types of interaction will narrows the focus of discussion of learning events. He defined interaction as "reciprocal events that require at least two objects and two actions"(p.9). Interaction occurs when these objects and events mutually influence one another.

Rirchie and Newby (1989) investigated the influence of environment on interaction in distance education. Twenty-six college undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of the following classrooms: a traditional face-to-face classroom, a television studio classroom, and in a distance classroom equipped with two-way audio capabilities.

The researcher found that students in the traditional setting interacted more than the students in the other two classes. Moreover, distance students perceived less involvement, less ability to ask questions, and less overall enjoyment. The researchers concluded that, ability to interact strongly influences students' attitudes and, therefore, commitment to learning.

Learner-instructor interaction

Learner-instructor interaction plays an important role in both distance education and face to face education. This interaction is believed to individualize instruction so that learners have valuable, relevant learning experiences ( Moore, 1989 ).

In their quantitative study, Fulford and Zhang (1993) investigated the relationship between learner perceptions of interaction and learner satisfaction with the distance learning context. They concluded that perceptions of interaction is a critical predictor in a distance learning environment.

The participants were 223 K-6 teachers in Developmental Approaches in Science and Health Program. This study took place in five different locations: two locations were using two-way audio/one-way video ( N = 98 ), three locations were using two-way audio/two-way video ( N = 135 ). 123 participants provided complete data on all instructional days.

The researchers found that as perception of overall interaction increases, perception of personal interaction increases, and perception of personal interaction seems to be only a moderate predictor of satisfaction. The findings suggest that when learners perceive the level of interaction to be high, they will be more satisfied with instruction than when they perceive the level of interaction to be low.

In their study Van Hallan and Miller (1994) examined the effect of direct student- to -teacher interaction, via telephone, on students achievement in the distance learning situation. The research question was does frequency of students call-ins to the course instructor accurately predict success as measures by positive change in pre-to past-test scores? Forty one high school juniors and seniors participated in the study. The researchers concluded that interactivity measured by the number of phone calls students make to the instructor, may not always correlate positively with students learning in distance course.

Definition

CMC (1994) is transmission and reception of messages using computers as input, storage, output, and routing devices. CMC includes information retrieval, electronic mail, bulletin boards, and computer conferencing.

CMC is the process of exchanging thoughts, ideas, and information via a computer and screen connected to other computers.

Kahle said that Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) refers to a wide range of asynchronous, text-based computer conferencing systems. A combination of speaking, writing, and publishing, CMC offers a number of unique benefits to distance education. The asynchronous medium is credited with encouraging more reflective and focused student dialogue. One of the greatest contribution of CMC to distance education is increased interaction among remote learners.

CMC is described as a medium with potential educational ability, which is low in nonverbal cues and social context cues. Walther (1992) notes that CMC lacks nonverbal cues which can results in impersonal and task-oriented messages; but CMC users develop an ability to express the missing nonverbal cues in written form ( Gunawardena, 1995 ).

Why CMC

CMC has been used to remove the barriers between students and teachers. E-mail and computer conferencing which allow students to contact instructors or colleagues any time replaces the usual sense of isolation experienced by remote learners with one of sustained interaction. Electronic learning communities have proven effective in reducing student drop-out rates ( Eurich, 1990 ).

Education through CMC can provide individuals with high quality education customized to their personal interest and lifestyles. CMC requires changes in traditional classroom pedagogy and writes new roles for students, teachers, and administrators.

Paulsen (1994) quoted Henri (1988) stating that many educational application of CMC can be imagined, such as : a) replying to queries and requests from students, b) providing advice and guidance, c) helping students to solve problems with regard to the subject matter, d) serving as a transmission medium for homework and test papers, e) discussing projects and work with the tutor, f) bringing students together in accordance with their interests and their needs, and g) encouraging team projects and setting-up self help groups.

Berge (1994) mentioned that CMC promotes a type of interaction that is often lacking in the traditional teacher-based classroom. It allows learners the freedom to explore alternative pathways to find and develop their own style of learning. Computers are not a threat to teacher, but the role of the teacher may change when using them. Computer technologies allow professionals to share with students tools that we use daily.

In CMC environment, the instructor responsibility is to stimulate and maintain the students interest, and then the instructor must organize and support the students' learning individually, i.e. the teachers' influences are much greater than the traditional classrooms ( Shale, 1988 ). The teacher initiates an instruction and the student responds, then the teacher gives feedback to individual students.

CMC and Participation

In a quantitative study Schwalm (1996) examined gender differences in participation in a computer conferencing system. The researcher hypothesized that "there would be no differences in the participation of men and women in these class conferences as measured by the number of entries they read, the number of entries they contributed or by the number of words they wrote."(p.5).

Schwalm analyzed the participation of more than 26,000 community college students at ten different campuses, from Spring, 1992 to Fall, 1994.

Three measures of student participation were identified. The number of entries read ("readent") reflects student interest in the contribution of others, analogous to attentive listening in a classroom. The number of entries written ("writent") identifies discrete contributions, analogous to speaking turns in a classroom. The number of words written ("words") analogous to the amount of time a speaker would hold the floor, although just because someone writes a long entry does not mean that others read it in its entirety.

Schwalm found that no overall differences between the CMC participation of men and women but when the data was sorted according to number of entries, women contributed more entries and wrote more words than men.

Ahern (1993) examined the effect of a graphic interface of participation, interaction and student achievement in CMC by using MANOVA to analyze the data from the sample (65 collge students). The researcher found that there was no difference in the amount of participation or achievement between a text -based and graphic-based conditions.

In their study Scholdt, Zhang, and Fulford ( 1995) investigated learner perceptions of the ease of asking and answering questions in a TV classroom in both remote and classroom sites. Because " if students perceived barriers to asking and answering questions, instruction may be seriously curtailed" (p.535). The researchers found that the perceived ease of asking and answering questions varied with the location of the student.

In their study Savicki, Kelly, and Lingenfelter (1996) focused on group compositions in terms of gender and group process functions. Moreover, they examined the effects of group compositions and group tasks on conflicts or 'flaming' in CMC. The study proposed several hypotheses. Mainly, it predicted that female only (FO), and male only (MO) groups would demonstrate communication and satisfaction differences as a function of task assigned, as well as group composition.

Seventy two undergraduates psychology students participated in this study. Equal numbers of men and women were randomly assigned to three group composition conditions (MO, FO, and MIX), and two task type conditions ( feminine-context, decision making and masculine-context, intellective). There were 4 to 6 people in each group. A six-item locally constructed questionnaire focusing on satisfaction with group process and communication aspect of the CMC experience was used. Moreover, participation was measured by counting the number of words written in each e-mail during the group activity.

A factorial analysis of variance and Chi-square analysis were used. According to the research, several issues emerged related to gender and CMC. Some of these issues are as follows; gender is a factor that must be considered in CMC, there is a need for a finer distinction of tasks and task demands. The researchers found that the female-only groups had greater satisfaction with the CMC experience than the other two groups.

Overview

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of computer-mediated communication on learner-instructor interaction and class participation of international students.

Participants

The participants were thirty international students at Arizona State University. They come from countries that have almost the same educational system. The participants included twenty one males and nine females between the ages of 22 and 35 years. The International Students Office was contacted and asked to send a letter to all international students in the College of Education to see who is willing to Participate in this study. Only thirty students were selected randomly to participate in the study.

Quantitative

A standard questionnaire was administered by the researcher. The purpose is to gather background information about each participant: age; gender; native language; CMC experience; time in USA; access to e-mail; and fluency in English language.

Qualitative

The participants used e-mail messages to interact with the instructor, ask questions, and to be involved in class activities. These messages were collected.

Two thirty minute interviews were conducted with each student. One at the beginning of the semester and the other one after two months. The purpose is to investigate the attitudes of students toward the use of CMC, and to see if there is any improvement in their participation in class.

Quantitative

In analyzing the quantitative data, the researcher used the three measures defined by Schwalm (1996). The number of entries read ("readent") reflects student interest in the contribution of others, analogue to attentive listening in a class room. The number of entries written ("writent") identifies discrete contributions, analogue to speaking turns in class room. The more entries written, the more frequently the student's name appeared to others in the conference.

The number of words written ("words") describes another measure of contribution, analogue to the amount of time a speaker would hold the floor, although just because some one writes a long entry does not mean that others read it in its entirety.

Qualitative

Content data analysis of e-mail messages posted by the participant. The purpose is to check the quality of their grammatical writing subjectively.

The major limitation of this study is its limitation to participants from specific countries with almost the same educational system. Therefore, the study is not representative to all international students in USA.