HOW CAN TELECOLLABORATION HELP

LANGUAGE LEARNING?

Tandem DKIT/BETHUNE IUTVicky Leahy / Laurence de Gruil

International symposium in Béthune, November 15 2012

Contents:

• What is telecollaboration?

• Why DKIT?

• Our objectives

• Tasks performed by students during online exchanges

• Evaluation

• Follow-on effects

What is telecollaboration?→ A form of computer-mediated communication

"The application of online communication tools to bring together classes of language learners in geographically distant locations to develop their foreign language skills and intercultural competence throughcollaborative tasks and project work." R. O’Dowd (2010:Eurocall Symposium)

Our objectives• To enhance language learning &

intercultural competence through regular exchanges on topics such as history, geography, way of life etc.

• To improve oral competency using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

• To increase students’ awareness of Europe.

• To encourage and prepare the students to international mobility

WHAT and HOW?• Year 1 DKIT Business students of French / Year

1 Béthune IUT Chemistry students of English (14 each last year, 18 this year)

• Target language : French for Irish students / English for French students

• Students paired by teachers• Voluntary project for French students

(motivated) → outside the class sessions / fully integrated into the curriculum for Irish students

• For DKIT students : project worth 15% of the overall semester mark / 25% for Béthune IUT students

• Regular online exchanges : topic-related activities to be carried out every week

- Synchronous (discussion

questions)> Text-chat tools (Googlechat, Facebook)

> Audio and video conferencing

(Skype)

- Asynchronous :

> Sending of audio files recorded with Audacity (peer correction)

> Recording of videos (personal and cultural)

> Mini-reports on historical and cultural events / regions …

> Blog to host the students’ work

Schedule for semester 1• Semester 1• Week 2: All students to create a gmail account and to be paired by lecturers.• Week 3: Preparation for getting to know you session-vocabulary & questions.• Week 4: Getting to know you.. General questions through 1st contact by gmail chat.(written work)• Week 5: Individual work. Each student to practise orally and record themselves via audacity, files to be

sent to partner for co-correction.• Week 6: Getting to know you question & answer session via Skype. Students to engage in peer

correction.• Week 7: Oral presentation of work in class & written submission of partner details.• Individual work. My first month at college.(initial settling in & impressions of college life, timetables,

subjects etc.) Preparation of questions for partner.• Week 8: French mid-term.• Week 9: First month at College. Question & answer session via skype. Students to engage in peer

correction. • Week 10: General overview of tandem exchange.( getting to know you & first month at college) Each

student to practise orally and record themselves via audacity, files to be sent to partner for co-correction.

• Week 11: Video recording by each student presenting their partner. (submission of written work on first month in College)

• Week 12, 13: • Evaluation of tandem project.• A mini-report on important dates/festivals. Irish students to present St.Patricks Day, Easter etc. and an

introduction to the North East region.• Creation of a blog of combined work.

EVALUATION

Benefits :

– Use of technology has enabled activities which would not have been possible without it

– Students are active, collaborative and creative– Learner-centered environment– Sense of curiosity and motivation enhanced

Bumps in the road :

- Sometimes difficult to understand each other- Technical problems- Sometimes low participation (students not

able to contact their partners)- Different academic calendar

Follow-on effects :

• French students willing to meet their partners in DKIT> 3-day trip organised last September

> Four 2nd-year students still in the project willing to organise a new study trip next year

• Irish teacher (Vicky Leahy) planning to visit us in semester 2

…September 2012 in Dundalk …