Chapter 12: Telecollaboration

Chapter 12

TelecollaborationBy: Melinda Dooly The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning

Telecollaboration

This chapter examines the role of telecollaboration with regard to language learning and more specifically language education. In simple terms telecollaboration means “collaboration at a distance. ” As defined in this chapter, telecollaboration is the “process of communicating and working together with other people or groups from different locations through online or digital communication tools (e.g., computers, tablets, cellphones) to co‐produce a desired work output.” It is also the process where a combination of components builds to reinforce learning, social interactions, dialogue, intercultural exchange, and communication. (Dooly 2014)

As technology continues to grow and improve, the use of “telecollaboration” has become more prevalent for promoting language learning through digital communication. This forum has afforded teachers and students an “economical and accessible means to communicate and collaborate with speakers of other languages from around the world.” Telecollaboration is versatile. It can allow educators and students to communicate within a classroom, virtual, at home and it can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Key Terms

ERIC

CLT

CMC

Computer-mediated communication

Education Resource Information Center

Communicative Language Teaching

Telecollaboration

Teletandem

The process of communicating and working together with other people or groups from different locations through online or digital communication tools.(Dooly 2014)

A virtual, collaborative, and autonomous mode of learning in which two speakers of different languages use the text, voice, and webcam image resources to help each other learn their native language or language of proficiency (Telles 2009)

So what is telecollaborative learning in language education?

The use of computer‐mediated communication (CMC) can promote language learning as well as provide practice with using a target language. This has become quite widely accepted among both language educators and the general public because of accessibility and convenience for learning.

The “user-friendly online technologies” have led to an increase in the practice of “online interaction and exchange” in language teaching and learning (Dooly and O’Dowd 2012, 13).

Online Exchanges

Connecting online language learners with exchanges that can provide a variety of learning opportunities have been recognized with many different names. Some of which include “virtual connections, teletandem, globally networked learning and of course OIE which refers to the mode of “online interaction and exchange.” Of these exchanges, I would like to highlight Teletandem learning for language learners across the globe. Students are paired with partners and through videoconferencing, students practice conversing to learn each other’s language by means of bilingual conversation sessions. It is a virtual, collaborative, and autonomous mode of learning in which two speakers of different languages use the text, voice, and webcam image resources to help each other learn their native language or language of proficiency (Telles 2009).

One of the most widely referenced definitions of telecollaboration comes from Belz (2003), who explains the term as" a partnership in which internationally‐dispersed learners in parallel language classes use Internet communication tools such as e‐mail, synchronous chat, threaded discussion, and MOOs (as well as other forms of electronically mediated communication), in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate, and intercultural exchange."(Belz 2003, 2)

Historical overview of telecollaboration in language education

• Collaborative practices in formal education have been documented as early as the 1900s (Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec 1998)

• Gouseti (2013) describes the historical idea of “twinning” as a legal or social agreement between locations such as towns or provinces to promote cultural and business ties.

• This concept has gradually developed into e‐twinning aimed at “universal mutual understanding” (Vion, 2002, 623, quoted in Gouseti 2013, 377) and as a “means of breaking down pre‐existing stereotypes and prejudices and bridging the cultural gap between nations” (Gouseti 2013, 377–378).

• “Twinnings” included schools whose exchange efforts were supported, at least minimally, by some use of technology (at first, letter exchange, followed by emails, forums, and later on more advanced CMC technology).

• 1960s the term “global village” was first used by McLuhan (1962 [2011]) to describe a shrinking planet linked by communications technology.

• Along with the advent of some websites, such as the Orillas Network in the early to mid‐1990s which served as a clearinghouse for exchanges between classes in the American continents and Europe (O’Dowd 2007).

• Interest grew incrementally in telecollaboration in language education. This is evident in the breakdown of percentages of publications of articles and reports that have been written on the topic since 1995.

Telecollaboration Reasearch and Practice Survey

Melinda Dooly surveyed the published literature referenced in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) on telecollaboration with regard to both research and practice.

Her Findings

• Telecollaboration is used with greater emphasis within fields related to language teaching and learning (L1, L2, foreign, ESL, etc.)
• intercultural education
• intercultural competences

• Sixty‐five percent of the articles published on telecollaboration were in journals specializing in language education and/or intercultural issues

• Telecollaboration is defined within the parameters of language teaching and learning as described by O’Dowd as:
• " the application of [synchronous and asynchronous] online communication tools to bring together classes of language learners in geographically distant locations to develop their foreign language skills and intercultural competence through collaborative tasks and project work.

(O’Dowd 2012, 340)

Why So Interested?

Dooly and O’Dowd’s (2012) analysis presents four principal reasons for the increased interest in and practice of telecollaboration in FL (foreign langauge) environments:

The escalation of easily accessible communication technology in the classroom was emerging.

A growing recognition of the importance of intercultural competence (IC) in foreign language learning and the way in which online exchanges can support IC development was increasing.

the increasingly widespread acceptance of the “paradigm of language learning as a sociocultural process facilitated through carefully constructed purposeful, plausible communicative events had a strong impact.

The inclusion of language competences and e‐literacies required in emerging labor markets drove more interest.

Trends

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Models of Telecollaboration in Language Education

Task‐Based Language Teaching (TBLT) Activities designed to foster second language acquisition. Stand-Alone- short and simple units of interaction that can be easily integrated into already existent study programmes. Task sequences- long‐term, structured exchanges aimed to help language students develop not only linguistically but also socially, cognitively, and interculturally. (Kurek (2012)

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) A social learning frame designed to provide opportunities for the individual to construct his or her own abilities through collaboration with others. Socioconstructivism- role of the teacher is to set up an optimal environment where learners can construct knowledge through engagement with artefacts, all within their “zone of proximal development” (ZPD), so level‐appropriate learning can take place. (Doolittle and Hicks 2003; Fosnot 2005; Karpov 2003)

Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL) Projects completed collaboratively by students and teachers through the use of online tools and/or information communication tools (ICT). Promotes non‐linear, socially‐distributed cognition which, in turn, foments the “capacity of ‘thinking together’ in what has been called ‘participatory power’” (Dooly 2013b, 239)

Learner Autonomy Telecollaborative group autonomy is the capacity of a group to manage itself on three levels:

• a socio‐affective level (getting along with others),
• a sociocognitive level (resolving problems together),
• and an organizational level (planning, monitoring, and evaluating work.

(Mangenot and Nissen 2006, 604)

Real World Context

Supports geographically‐distanced collaborative work, intercultural exchange, and social interaction of individuals or groups through synchronous and asynchronous communication technology .

Global Society

Scholars and teachers from many areas of education have been engaging in telecollaborative exchanges for promotion of competences and knowledge across curriculum and subject areas beyond just language education.

Transdisciplinary

Students and teachers communicate using multiple tools to interact, promote and support learning with respect and appreciation of different perspectives for culture and language.

Intercultural Competence (IC)

People who specialize in interacting between disciplines and ideas—educators involved in promoting communicative competences for learners.

Great Synthsizers

Thanks!

Hope my presentation helped you understand telecollaboration with better clarity.