Learning Electronic Literacy Skills in an Online Language Learning Community James Simpson* University of Leeds, UK This paper is about the learning that happens in the synchronous text chat forum of on online group of English Language learners and tutors. It is a socioculturally oriented case study of an informal virtual community called Webheads, who meet online in various places on the internet. Although dedicated to English Language learning, much other learning takes place within the group. The study concerns the learning of certain skills associated with electronic literacy, namely discourse management and technological skills involved in using synchronous text-based computer-mediated communication (SCMC). The paper focuses on the analysis of the concepts of collaboration and scaffolding in learning. Attention is also paid to the analysis of SCMC text, employing the notion of the conversational floor as an appropriate analytical unit for this type of discourse. Introduction In recent years the social dimension of language learning has received attention from classroom-based second language acquisition researchers. Likewise, the development of virtual groups of language learners linked through networked computing leads us to consider the social in language learning using computer-mediated communication (CMC-based CALL). But the learning that happens in such groups is not restricted to learning a target language. Much of the learning that happens online is associated with skills needed for successful interaction online: for example, how to participate in online discourse and how to access the technology. These skills can be termed the skills of electronic literacy, and are required in addition to an ability to interpret and *Corresponding author. School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. Email: j.e.b.simpson@education.leeds.ac.uk Computer Assisted Language Learning Vol. 18, No. 4, October 2005, pp. 327 – 345 ISSN 0958-8221 (print)/ISSN 1744-3210 (online)/05/040327–19 Ó 2005 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09588220500335463