When “Just Talking” Isn’t Allowed: Analyzing Procedural Knowledge to Make Sense of an Online Community’s Failed Interactions

• In Event: Employing Local Strategies Research to Understand the User Experience (UX)

Abstract

This presentation will focus on the findings from an applied research project for which I used the Ethnography of Communication to analyze the communicative practices in an online language learning community called Eloqi (pseudonym). By analyzing the local rules of communicative competence and the types of procedural knowledge that were locally demanded, I was able to diagnose interactions marked by community members as unsuccessful or failed. This diagnosis resulted in a set of simple recommendations for improving employee-client communication on the community’s platform.
Eloqi was an ambitious web-based, voice-enabled platform that connected English language learners in China with trainers in the United States. Eloqi’s trainers and students used their community membership for employment, education, and cultural exchange. In this way Eloqi’s platform, coupled with the company’s in-house educational content, made up a sustained virtual space for meaningful transnational interaction.
I studied the Eloqi community for 10 months using online participation observation, Skype-based interviews, and on-the-ground interviews in Beijing, China. Using the theoretical/methodological framework of the Ethnography of Communication and Speech Codes Theory I analyzed these data to uncover patterns of communicative conduct and the local norms, premises and rules pertaining to communication. I also sought to understand how Eloqi’s user interface (UI) shaped the communication of the Eloqi community members interacting on and through it.
In this presentation I will present illustrative data for types of procedural knowledge, showing how a lack of the required knowledge led to miscommunication. I will demonstrate how breakdowns in communication resulted when participants lacked the required procedural knowledge. I will also show how participants handled these breakdowns in communication. I will conclude with implications for applied practice as well as takeaways for practitioners. When a company like Eloqi creates a technological interface to connect employees and clients in communication, every element of the UI’s build has the potential to shape, constrain or allow for certain communicative practices. When users don’t understand and/or aren’t taught the expected procedure for using the UI, conflict and misunderstanding can result. It is therefore useful to think through the procedural knowledge needed to communicate effectively on the given platform.

Author

• Tabitha Hart, San Jose State U