Telecollaboration for language learning in secondary schools
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The document discusses a conference on telecollaboration for language learning held in Dublin, focusing on a blended teacher education course aimed at enhancing interaction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. It details the structure of the project, participants' characteristics, and the technological and pedagogical challenges faced during implementation, along with their reflections and outcomes. The findings suggest variations in experiences and attitudes between the French and Dutch participants regarding technology use and collaborative tasks.
Telecollaboration for language learning in secondary schools
- 1. TELECOLLABORATION FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS Shona WHYTE, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France Linda GIJSEN, Fontys University of Applied Sciences,Tilburg, Netherlands promoting interaction in the EFL classroom via a blended teacher education course New Directions in Telecollaborative Research and Practice: The Second Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 2. TELECOLLABORATION FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS promoting interaction in the EFL classroom via a blended teacher education course 1. overview of project 2. EFL classroom outcomes 3. teacher reflections Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 3. TELECOLLABORATIVE RESEARCH Telecollaborative research has focused on learning about the target language culture (Kramsch, 2014) understanding those from other cultures as a window on one’s own culture (Guth & Helm, 2010) the mediating role of technology itself (Kern, 2014) limitations and drawbacks of online communication • technical constraints and problems • artificial exchanges limited to personal registers (Hanna & de Nooy, 2009) • unchallenging task design which fails to engage participants in genuine collaboration (Ware & O’Dowd, 2009) Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 4. OUR CONTRIBUTION focus on language learning and use teacher education for secondary school or vocational EFL contexts task-based orientation in cognitivist-interactionist framework Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 5. 1 OVERVIEW OF PROJECT blended course using Google applications for synchronous and asychronous collaboration a. teacher education course b. participants c. project tasks Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 6. 1ATHE COURSE France: University of Nice/School of Education (ESPE) 12h course on technology for (language) teaching second year Masters in Teaching English 9h/week teaching placement + academic/pedagogical training Netherlands: Fontys University of Applied Sciences,Tilburg 8h course on technology in language teaching second year Masters (open only to qualified teachers) 20h/week teaching positions 2014-15 pilot project: student teacher collaboration Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 7. COURSE ORGANISATION preliminary group meeting: Adobe Connect/Skype (December) initial tasks: video selfie presentation, Google community membership, enter teaching details on shared Google document (Christmas break) creation of FR-NL teams: 3-5 teachers in 9 teams; shared folder on Google Drive; 6-8 week course (March-April) weekly face-to-face class sessions in each country: group interactions - Google chat/hangout; one online session in France final session to share teams’ results and reflections: synchronous video connection and separate presentations on each side
- 8. 1B PARTICIPANTS characteristics of student teacher groups in each country pre-course questionnaire attitudes to teaching/learning languages view on technology for language teaching Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 9. PARTICIPANTS characteristics of student teacher groups in each country French: more homogeneous, younger, less (specific) training and teaching experience Dutch: both younger and older participants, more (specific) training and more experienced teachers pre-course questionnaire attitudes to teaching/learning languages view on technology for language teaching Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 10. PRE-COURSE QUESTIONNAIRE online form attitudes to teaching/learning languages Lightbown & Spada views on technology for language teaching Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 11. 1 2 3 4 5 imitation correction intelligence L1interference grammarpractice grammarsyllabus errorcorrection gradedmaterials junkydata OVERALL FRENCH DUTCH LANGUAGE LEARNING &TEACHING BELIEFS Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T attitudes to teaching/learning languages Lightbown & Spada 1. Languages are learned mainly through imitation 11.Teachers should teach simple language structures before complex ones. 12 items 5-point Likert scale misguided beliefs 5 = very traditional/outdated 1 = very well-informed/up to date
- 12. 1 2 3 4 5 imitation correction intelligence L1interference grammarpractice grammarsyllabus errorcorrection gradedmaterials "junkydata" OVERALL FRENCH DUTCH LANGUAGE LEARNING &TEACHING BELIEFS Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 13. 1 2 3 4 5 search(self) seach(teaching) e-mail LMS internet blog audiorecording videorecording slideshow onlinehelp helpcolleagues OVERALL FRENCH DUTCH TECHNOLOGICAL SELF-EFFICACY PERCEPTIONS Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 personalskills technologyforteaching orientation O VERALL 4.334.384.234.38 3.934.05 3.7 4.05 FRENCH DUTCH TECHNOLOGICAL SELF-EFFICACY PERCEPTIONS Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 15. PROJECTTASKS & DATA Objectives for student-teachers: share information about their learners devise learning tasks involving interaction between learners in different countries document instances of target language communication and learning. Data: student-teacher contributions during the course the teaching and learning materials they designed their reflection on the implementation of activities from a TBLT perspective.
- 16. 2 EFL CLASSROOM OUTCOMES promoting classroom interaction a. teaching/learning activities b. task analysis c. learner productions Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 17. 2A ACTIVITIES Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T TEAM INFORMATION EXCHANGE COLLABORATION & PRODUCT CREATION 1 Learners work in groups to exchange e-mails 2 Learners in pairs to exchange e-mails with self-selected partners 3 Learners work in groups to exchange video presentaNons to prepare and take quizzes final quiz 4 Learners exchange by e-mail to make and confirm hotel reservaNons (tourism vocaNonal educaNon) 5 Learners work in groups to exchange e-mails (final quiz/video presentaNons separately) 6 Learners work in pairs by e-mail to plan weekend in partner country 7 Learners work in groups to exchange e-mails to work on wriNng skills 8 Learners work in groups to create common producNon digital poster 9 Learners create a collaboraNve short story, group work collaboraNve stories O’Dowd & Ware 2009
- 18. 2BTECHNOLOGY Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T TEAM COMMUNICATION OTHER TECHNOLOGY 1 gmail Skype 2 e-mail video selfies 3 learner video 4 e-mail YouTube 5 e-mail learner video 6 e-mail 7 e-mail digital poster so`ware, ppt/Prezi 8 Padlet 9 Google documents Padlet, website
- 19. 2BTASK CRITERIA Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T TEAM MEANING FOCUS “GAP” LEARNERS RELY ON OWN RESOURCES OUTCOME/PRODUCT 1 No InformaNon exchange Yes, but pre-task final leaer/e-mail, presentaNons 2 Yes InformaNon exchange Yes, but pre-task e-mail summary (3 mails) 3 Yes Reasoning gap Yes, but pre-task class quiz 4 Yes InformaNon exchange Yes, but pre-task e-mail confirmaNon 5 Yes InformaNon exchange Yes, but pre-task e-mail feedback on paper, learner presentaNons 6 Yes InformaNon exchange Yes wriaen reports 7 Yes InformaNon exchange Yes, but pre-task learner presentaNons 8 Yes Reasoning gap Yes, but pre-task A4 poster presentaNon 9 Yes Reasoning gap Yes class discussion
- 20. 2B REPORTED OBJECTIVES Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T AIMS CONSEQUENCES LANGUAGE •pracNce four skills •acquire vocabulary •pre-task acNviNes to prepare learners •no focus-on-form acNviNes CULTURE •learn about other cultures • no focus on intercultural competence TECHNOLOGY •collaborate in a safe learning environment •learn to idenNfy and apply new informaNon •failure to exploit potenNal of technology •no specific digital literacy goals
- 21. 2C LEARNER PRODUCTIONS Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T teachers were • satisfied with learner involvement in tasks in general • often pleased with quality of learner productions • sometimes surprised at learner insights during task activities or in later discussion teachers had difficulties • handling and exploiting large quantities of learner productions • managing different levels of task engagement among learners and scheduling contraints • selecting examples of learner productions to share as data
- 22. 3TEACHER REFLECTION promoting interaction in the EFL classroom via a blended teacher education course a. final course session feedback b. written reflection c. conclusions Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 28. CONCLUSIONS wide variation across and within groups, consistent with different training, experience, beliefs about language learning/teaching value of (inter)cultural exchange is different for English studies versus EFL graduates views of feasible learning tasks differ for novice versus experienced teachers differences in institutional contexts in France and the Netherlands NL: university delivery of in-service teacher education combined with pre-service teacher education; incentives for project-based learning and innovation FR: more recent integration of university and school-based components of teacher education; less concrete support for task-based approaches or innovation most productive teams in terms of task design and collaborative outcome were most or least motivated participants at the start of the project
- 29. AND SO … teachers did focus on language use, although tasks offered limited opportunities for interaction for teachers: rich, nuanced reflection on opportunities and challenges of telecollaboration for teacher educators: questions about role of telecollaboration in formal teacher education programme Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T
- 30. TELECOLLABORATION FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS promoting interaction in the EFL classroom via a blended teacher education course Shona Whyte (Nice) Linda Gijsen (Fontys) Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education, Dublin, 21/04/16 http://wp.me/p28EmH-8T wp.me/p28EmH-8T