Developing Language Fluency and Accuracy through Telecollaborative Exchanges

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Developing Language Fluency and Accuracy through
Telecollaborative Exchanges
Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages March 29, 2008 New York, NY

• Lina Lee
• University of New Hampshire

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Overview

• Telecollaboration
• UNH-León online exchange
• Goals and framework
• Promises and challenges
• Pedagogical implications
• Questions-answers

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What is telecollaboration?

• Use web-based learning between two institutions
  from different cultures
• E-tandem learning--Cultura project
• Online communication tools
• E-mail, chats, forums, videoconferences, blogs
  podcasting, etc.
• Equal opportunities and benefits
• Use of both L1 and L2
• Exchange of languages and cultures
• Task-based activities

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Why uses telecollaboration?

• Virtual learning community
• Collaborative Interaction (Lee, 2004)
• Active and autonomous learning
• Scaffolding via peer feedback
• Affordances (VanLier, 2000)
• Linguistic and cultural resources
• Intercultural communicative competence (ICC)

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How to use telecollaboration?

• Institutional context
• How can technology enhance learning and teaching?
  Why?
• What technology and support are available?
• Partnerships
• IECC Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connections
  
• http//www.iecc.org/
• Blogs-Exchange (BE) www.blogs-exchange.com
• Objectives of the project
• Structure of the exchange
• Evaluation and feedback

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Telecollaborative project

• Two institutions
• University of León, Spain (Robert ODowd)
• University of New Hampshire, USA
• Planning stage via e-mail
• Task design
• Communication tools
• Schedule of activities
• Evaluation
• Course syllabus
• 15 of final grade

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León-NH online exchange

• January 20 - May 10, 2007
• Language in use - English and Spanish
• Student groups - Groups of 3-4
• 18 UNH students
• 19 León students
• Tools
• Course management Moodle
• Asynchronous communication message boards
• Oral message board Audio recordings

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UNH students

• Spanish 504 second semester of intermediate
  course
• Major, minor and FL requirement
• 3 years in high school 1-2 semester in college
• Different levels of motivation
• Curse management system Blackboard
• One-page essays via Digital Drop Box
• Group chats

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León students

• English Learning and Didactics course
• English as foreign language
• Advanced language proficiency
• Teacher education
• Becoming English teachers
• Course management system Moodle
• Login with username and password
• UNH student as guest user

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Four major tasks

• Introduction and cultural background
• Home town and university life
• English and Spanish
• Immigration experience
• Cajas de cartón by Francisco Jimenez
• Spanish / oral recordings
• Race and race relations in the USA
• Movie Crash
• English
• Ethnographic interview
• Topic of your choice Todo sobre España
• English and Spanish

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Peer feedback

• Providing corrective feedback to each other after
  posting original messages
• Focus on form via explicit feedback
• Linguistic errors
• Vocabulary and grammar
• Explanations
• Use of both English and Spanish
• No specific instructions in terms of how to
  provide feedback

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Moodle at University of León

• http//www3.unileon.es/dp/dfm/moodle/course/view.p
  hp?id48
• Several documents
• Information for log in for the first time
• Group assignment
• Guidelines for working with partners
• Description of tasks
• Message board

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(No Transcript)
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Oral recordings

• Inmigración Cajas de Cartón
• Alli
• Matt
• Alyssa

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Evaluation

• Two surveys
• Five-point-Likert-scale
• Mid-semester
• End-of-semester
• About online exchange via Moodle
• Virtual learning environment
• Collaborative interaction
• Task-based activity topics
• Peer feedback
• Impact on learning Spanish

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Survey on online exchange

• It has been a positive experience for me.
  (4.5/4.3)
• I enjoy writing to my partners in a small group
  (4.2/4.3)
• I think Moodle is an effective tool for out of
  class exchange. (4.3/4.4)
• Working with someone online has been beneficial
  to me. (4.0/4.2)
• I find online exchanges time-consuming. (3.1/3.9)

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Survey on online exchange(continued)

• I like the topics we have discussed. (3.6/3.9)
• I read most of the postings and respond to them.
  (4.2/4.3)
• I am comfortable expressing myself online.
  (4.3/4.5)
• I find error corrections useful. (4.5/4.0)
• Online exchanges help me practice Spanish.
  (4.6/4.5)

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Most learned

• Learning about Spanish culture
• Communicating with people from Spain
  learning from each other
• Writing for a real audience
• Practicing Spanish outside of class
• Working collaboratively with peers
• Being accountable and responsible

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Challenges

• Keeping interactions consistent
• No responses/feedback from the partners
• Less effort and commitment
• Not enough exchange to develop
• interpersonal and social relationship
• Time consuming course load
• Misalignment of academic calendars
• Technological problems

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Discussion Board

• Group 1 34 postings
• Group 2 28 postings
• Group 3 40 postings
• Group 4 26 postings
• Group 5 39 postings

• Group 6 39 postings
• Group 7 34 postings
• Group 8 16 postings
• Group 9 33 postings
• Group 10 34 postings

Average 32 postings 8 postings for each
task Each post about 200 words
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Ranking of topics

• Task 1 Personal introduction
• Longer posts with resources
• University and young peoples life
• Task 2 Ethnographic interviews
• Pop culture and the target culture
• Daily life, holidays, social programs, politics
• Task 3 Immigration issues
• Task 4 Race issues in the USA

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(A1) University Life at UNH

• Hola!Como estas? Como es escuela? Quierro hablar
  sobre nuestras escuelas y la vida de espana
  tambien.Mi vida a UNH es muy aburida durente la
  semana. Tengo mucha tarea durente la semana y
  estudio mucho. La escuela tiene diez mil personas
  probablamente un poquito mas de esto. Entonces
  hay muchas oportunidades satisfacer personas
  nuevas. En los fines de las semanas hay muchas
  fiestas. La universidad tiene muchas
  fraternidades y hermandades de mujeres tambien.
  Entonces hay muchas fieste a las fraternidades.
  Tambien, hay autobuses que van a Pourtsmouth una
  ciudad mas grande que Durham y muchos estudiantes
  van a Pourtsmouth tambien.
• Pero, quiero saber sobre la vida en espana. Tengo
  la opurtunidad para estudiar en espana y quierro
  saber sobre la vida. Tengo alugnos preguntas.

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(A2) Response from León

• Me encanta que León sea pequeño, ya que todos nos
  conocemos, ademas, puedes recorer la ciudad a pie
  en menos de una hora, y solo tiene una zona de
  bares y pubs para salir de fiesta, llamado "El
  Barrio Humedo". alli, por las tardes, los bares
  abren y sirven cortos de cerveza con una tapa.
  creo que es una tradición unica en españa, mas
  bien por el norte. se trata de un vasito pequeño
  de cerveza acompañado de un plato con algo de
  comida, como por ejemplo, pan con jamon, morcilla
  (comida típica leonesa) croquetas, aceitunas,
  etc. ademas es muy barato.
• quieres saber algo mas??como es alli la fiesta?
  teneis zonas para salir por la noche? o solo en
  las fraternidades?como es un dia alli? un fin de
  semana?
• have a nice week, see you soon!!!bye!

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(B2) Response to economical situations in Spain

• 4. here exist very poor people, and very rich
  people, but most of spanish people are in a
  middle class.5. the statistics say that we are
  under most of countries in europe, but I think
  its irreal, because in other coutries, the
  salaries are big, but the prices of things are
  more big.see you jorge !

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(C1) Asking about Holidays

• Mi tema puede ser un poco ancho, pero querría
  realmente saber mucho sobre la cultura que es tan
  extraordinaria a España, que no puedes encontrar
  dondequiera. Tenemos las vacaciones tales como el
  4 de julio que son extraordinario a los EEUU.
  Qué causa que el país hiciera esas vacaciones de
  días?

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(C2) Response from León

• Talking about holidays in Spain, there are a lot
  , but the most important ones are- Easter
  Holidays when the death and resurrection of God
  is represented(you have a link to see how is in
  León),(the first week of April)- Carnival when
  everybody dress up and wear fancy dresses (you
  have a link to see how is in Santa Cruz de
  Tenerife-Canary Islands-) (24th on February)

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(D1) Questions about politics

• Me interesa en muchas cosas sobre Espana. Por
  ejemplo,?Como es las politicas de Espana? ?Que
  tipo del gobierno tienes? En los Estados Unidos
  tenemos una democracia. Nuestro presidente es
  George W. Bush, pero a mi no me gusta el mucho.

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(D2) Politics in Spain

• About politics, we live in a democracy,
  fortunately. In this moment Jose Luis Rodríguez
  Zapatero is the president, he is from the
  socialist party. I'm not really interested in
  this topic. All politicians are similar.I have
  heard about the killing, it's horrible. Here in
  Spain is not so easy to buy an arm but
  unfortunately we have a serious problem with the
  terrorism (I'm not sure if that is the correct
  way to write that word, could you correct me?
  Thanks).

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(E1) Store and School in Spain

• Oigo que en España todas las tiendas y escuelas
  cierran en la tarde.Me interesa mucha esta pero
  comprendo por que lo pasa. En los Estados Unidos
  todos están en una prisa, me parece que en España
  no es lo mismo. Por qué se cierran las tiendas y
  escuelas?

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(E2) Response from León

• Las escuelas es un tema muy diferente las
  escuelas del Estado, las públicas sulen tener
  clases de 830 a 1430 y ya salen para comer en
  sus casas. Las privadas al contrario salen antes
  a la hora de comer , pero tienen clase por las
  tardes hasta las 1730.Después en muchas hay
  actividades extraescolares.
• Como es allí todo esto? Como son las escuelas?
  BESOS

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(F) Use of question-answer

• Hay muchas tradiciones en España?
• It depends on the town you visit, each
• town has differents tradictions, but I think
• yes. There are a lot of tradictions here,
• but not all them are bulls or "paella" as
• people said (jajajaja)

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Comments on L2 culture

• Students from Spain
• Besos un abrazo,
• Cómo es allí todo esto? Cómo son las escuelas?
  --BESOS
• See you soon!! Kisses
• Best wishes see you good bye
• Espero tu respuesta y tus correcciones pronto. Un
  beso
• Students from USA
• Hasta luego hasta pronto adios chaio

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More comments

• En España no usamos USTED, decimos TU (ej.
  "Ahora quiero conocer más sobre ti". Is the same
  as in English "I want to know more about you")

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How to provide feedback?

• Openings with positive feedback
• You are a very advanced English speaker and
  overall your writing is very good. I did find a
  few mistakes.
• Well, your spanish is very very good, you havent
  any serius mistakes and it is the reason I didnt
  correct you. Maybe you must pay more attention in
  masculine or femenine adjetives and put the words
  in the correct order. But I insist on you havent
  seruis mistakes.

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More feedback

• Your English is good, but you have made a few
  errors. Where you have written "I live in
  Leon..." it would be better if you wrote "I have
  lived in Leon..." Also be careful using the word
  how. Where you wrote "there you can find
  monuments how the cathedral" it would be better
  if you wrote "there you can find monuments like
  the cathedral." Thats about it for now.
• I am truly impress by your writing and think that
  you will make an excellent teacher one day
• But before I do, let me say that besides a couple
  minor things, your English is great. Keep up the
  good work.

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Explicit feedback

• Si no te importa, hay varios detalles que quiero
  resaltar para que mejores tu español, por
  ejemplo
• - tu dijiste "mi y mis amigos nos gusta... " y
  deberia ser "YO y mis amigos..." porque YO es
  sujeto y MI es un pronombre.
• - tu dijiste "Mi amigo mejor..."y deberia ser
  "Mi mejor amigo" al igual que en Inglés (My best
  friend).
• - tu dijiste "los deportes raquetas..."y deberia
  ser "los deportes en los que se juega con
  raqueta" o algo similar, ya que en español no
  tenemos una sola palabra para expresarlo ,
  entonces debemos hacer una frase.

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More explicit feedback

• The last two mistakes that i noticed were in the
  sentences " in a exaggerate way" and you would
  say " in an exaggerated way" just like in spanish
  when you use o, or e depending on the word
  following, you would either use a, or an
  depending on whether the word following starts
  with a vowel.

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Peer feedback from UNH

• Tu inglés es bueno, pero algunas correcciones
  son
• University life is so interesting.
• I dont know what my favorite part of León is
  because I love that town so much.
• Be careful not to put your words out of order.

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Peer feedback from Spain

• Aunque no has escrito mucho, tu español parece
  bastante bueno. De todas formas, hay algunas
  cosas que puedes mejorar.
• Me ha sorprendido mucho tu alto nivel de español.
  Solo destacaré algunos fallos que tienes con
  algunas preposiciones.

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Pedagogical Implications

• Development of learners writing skills
• Language awareness via peer feedback
• Instructors role and responsibility
• Good planning and communication
• Teacher-to-teacher teacher-to-student
• Clear assessment procedure
• Tasks and topics
• Student generated topics
• More time for collaboration and interaction
• Interpersonal communication
• E-mail, Skype, Instant Messagner, etc.

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• Contact information
• Lina Lee
• llee_at_hopper.unh.edu
• PowerPoint
• http//www.unh.edu/spanish/lina
• Recent presentations/workshops
• NECTFL 2008