DO WE REALLY NEED A WEBCAM? THE USES THAT FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS MAKE OUT OF WEBCAM IMAGES DURING

Paper presented at the iLearning Forum 2009. Paris, Palais des CongrŁs, janeiro de 2009. Abstract: The use of webcam images in online interaction poses several challenges to research in the fields of language learning and intercultural communication. This article brings the results of an investigation about the role of webcam images in online interactions of students when learning foreign languages in teletandem by using instant messaging software such as Skype, OoVoo or Windows Live Messenger. It starts with an overview of the theoretical grounds of the study in terms of images, gestures, non-verbal language and teletandem. Data were collect by means of a questionnaire responded by 22 students and analyzed from a qualitative, interpretive paradigm of educational research- hermeneutic phenomenology. The research questions were: (a) What teletandem practitioners see in their own images during conversation? (b) What teletandem practitioners see in their partners webcam images that come to them? and (c) To which image window do partners look when they talk with and when they listen to their partners? Results of the analysis show the impact of webcam images over online intercultural communication and learning, vocabulary learning, control of self-appearance, making technical adjustments, control of ones own reactions during communication, and what students look at their partners body, reactions and surroundings