Telecollaboration

Definition

What is Telecollaboartion?

Telecollaboration is defined by Julie A. Belz in the following way:

“…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.” (2003a: 1)

Robert O'Dowd precises it in Foreign Language Education as:

"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 throught collaborative tasks and project work." (2010:Eurocall Symposium)

More recently, Telecollaboration is replaced by a more generic term "Online Interaction and Exchange "(OIE) by Melinda Dooly and Robert O'Dowd (2013).

Different forms of Telecollaboration

Dooly and O'Dowd(2013)proposed a general categorization of the OIE in FL Education as follows:

in-class interaction

It was described previously as Computer-Assisted Classroom Discussion(CACD)by Ortega(1997). Student-student interaction within one class using online networks for FL learning. In the early 1990's when access to Internet was not easy, synchronous text-based communication, such as chats, MOO's and Local Area Networks(LAN)were mostly used in target language (monolingual)Today,asynchronous text-based communication such as blogging, forums, are used for reflective discussion in distance education courses among teachers and students.

class-to-class interaction (Online Intercultural Exchange or Telecollaboration exchange)

It refers to class-to-class interactions via virtual intercultural interaction and exchange between classes of FL learners in geographically distant locations. In the late 1990's interaction was mainly text-based and asynchronous. Today, synchronous oral communication (e.g. videoconferencing)and multimodal exchanges (e.g. combination of different media such as forum, wiki, blog, etc.)are popular. Telecollaboration takes one of the two forms or models according to the main learning objectives in FL education: eTandem and telecollaborative model.

class-to-world interaction, which coincides in many aspects with Telecollaboration 2.0

E-Tandem

Definition

projects:

Intercultural telecollaboration

Definition or description

Projects:

• Cultura [1]
• Telecollaboration for intercultural learning: An overview of projects involving Japan

Nathaniel Carney Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan [2]

Telecollaboration 2.0

Important links

• Cultra[3]
• Robert O'Dowd's homepage[4]

References

1. "FROM THE SPECIAL ISSUE EDITOR", Language Learning & Technology Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2003, pp. 2-5[5]
2. Belz, J. A. (2002). "Social Dimensions of Telecollaborative Foreign Language Study". Language Learning & Technology, 6(1), 60-81.[6]
3. Belz, J. A. and Mueller-Hartmann, A. (2003). "Teachers as Intercultural Learners: Negotiating German-American Telecollaboration Along the Institutional Fault Line". Modern Language Journal, 87(1), 71-89.[7] (abstract only)
4. Belz, J. A. (2003). "Linguistic Perspectives on the Development of Intercultural Competence in Telecollaboration". Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 68-117.[8]
5. Belz, J. A. (2003). Guest editor of a special issue of Language Learning & Technology on Telecollaboration, 7(2), 1-172.[9]
6. Belz, J. A. (2005). "Intercultural Questioning, Discovery, and Tension in Internet-Mediated Language Learning Partnerships". Language and Intercultural Communication, 5(1), 3-39. [10](abstract only)
7. Kinginger, C. and Belz, J. A. (2005). "Sociocultural Perspectives on Pragmatic Development in Foreign Language Learning: Microgenetic Case Studies from Telecollaboration and Residence Abroad". Intercultural Pragmatics, 2(4), 369-422.[11] (abstract only)
8. Belz, J. A. and Vyatkina, N. (2005). "Learner Corpus Research and the Development of L2 Pragmatic Competence in Networked Intercultural Language Study: The Case of German Modal Particles". Canadian Modern Language Review/Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 62(1),17-48.pdf
9. “Internet-mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education: The Cultura Project,” Beth Bauer (Brown), Lynne deBenedette (Brown), Gilberte Furstenberg (MIT), Sabine Levet (Brandeis), Shoggy Waryn (Brown), in Internet-mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education, Julie A. Belz and Steven L.Thorne, editors, Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 2006 (pp. 31-62)[12]
10. “Giving a Virtual Voice to the Silent Language of Culture: The Cultura Project,” co-authored with S. Levet, K. English, K. Maillet [G. Furstenberg principal author], electronic article in the Language Learning and Technology Journal, February 2001 [13]
11. “Using communication tools to foster cross-cultural understanding”, G. Furstenberg, NFLRC Symposium 2004 [14]
12. “Constructing French-American Understanding: the Cultura project,” G. Furstenberg. Published in a special issue of Politics, Culture and Society, based on a Middlebury symposium, Déjà Views: How Americans Look at France, edited by the Institute of French Studies at New York University, Spring 2003.[15]
24. Audra,I.Chanier,T.(2007)"Observation de la construction d'une compétence interculturelle dans des groupes exolingues en ligne," Communication au Colloque Epal(Echange pour apprendre en ligne), Grenoble, 7-9 juin,2007 [16]