Longdistance Language Exchange

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Long-distance Language Exchange

• RDP
• Rita Min Rui
• 12/12/04

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www. MyLanguageExchang.com
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www. MyLanguageExchang.com

• Through this website, an A language speaker who
  is learning B language can find a B language
  speaker who is studying A language to practice
  speaking by doing a language exchange. That is,
  the exchange partners speak in A language a
  period of time and then switch to B language for
  an equal period of time, and vice versa.

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Introduction of the Website

• Founders
• Helene Cormier Teacher of C.E.L.M language
  school, Organizing Helenes Language Exchange
  Workshops in Montreal, Canada
• Dan Yuen Engineer Computer Specialist, once
  Studied at Helenes Language Exchange Workshops
• Founding Time the fall of 2000.

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Research Objective

• What constitutes an effective distance language
  exchange which leads to the fundamental
  enhancement of the participants oral language
  proficiency?

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Research Questions

• How do the partners structure their oral
  interactions?
• How do they plan their learning tasks? What tasks
  are involved in the conversations?
• What problems do they encounter in the oral
  interactions? And what strategies do they jointly
  construct to address these problems?
• What are their attitudes to the partners
  positive or negative feedback?
• What supportive actions do they have to their
  partners?
• What are the changes of their oral language
  proficiency after a period time of distance
  language exchange?

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Research Subjects

• Chinese English Learners
• US Chinese Learners

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• RDP Journey

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Narrow My Initial Research Interest

• My Initial Interest
• Literature Review

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My Interest in Oral Language Proficiency

• My Working Experiences
• a. Teaching English Speaking/ Oral
• Translation
• b. Doing Oral Translation
• Students Experiences
• a. Face-to-face Communication with the
• Native Speakers (NS) of English
• b. Chatting in NS Voice Chat Rooms

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Doing Literature Review

• CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning)
• CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication )
• Long-distance Exchange
• Long-distance Language Exchange

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Domains Relevant to Distance Language Exchange

• Social Learning Theory---Sociocultural
  Perspectives
• Computer-Mediated Communication
  (CMC)---Collaborative Learning
• English as Second Language (ESL)/English as a
  Foreign Language (EFL)/----Monitor Model
• Cross-culture Communication---Acculturation Theory

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Social Learning TheorySociocultural Perspectives

• Participation, Collaboration, Apprenticeship
  Co-regulation
• the participants, the social norms, the division
  of labor, the subject, the goal of the outcome

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CMCCollaborative Learning

• how the partners give support to each other to
  construct new knowledge and solve learning
  problems.
• what capabilities the partners develop and what
  responsibilities they take to motivate each other
  to sustain their collaborative relationship?

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ESL/EFLMonitor Model

• the device that learners use to edit their
  language performance (Ellis, 1999, p.262)
• Acquisition Learning
• what linguistic features the learners are
  interested in taking-in and what properties
  they tend to transfer for use or for modifying?

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Cross Culture CommunicationAcculturation Theory

• the process of becoming adapted to a new culture.
• Social distance and psychological distance are
  the two major concepts
• to examine and identify the cultural barriers
  shocks in oral interaction

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Significance Preparation

• a marginal status in the study on online language
  teaching and learning
• Enhancement of English Speaking Fluency
  Accuracy of Chinese English Learners

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Preparation

• To do more literature review on the four domains
  and others
• To take courses of research methodology, such as
  quantitative study qualitative study
• To contact the Webmaster of MyLanguageExchange.com
  to gathering the information of the participants
  of distance language
• To involve myself in this distance language
  exchange to gain personal experiences of this
  practice.
• To operate a pilot study by tracing one or two
  pairs of participants to observe the process of
  their oral interactions
• To contact the professors and researchers who are
  now conducting the similar research topics and
  share with them the latest research findings
• To write short papers on the research questions I
  am interested in respectively to make a sound
  theoretical foundation for in-depth research.

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Thank You