Unitalks, A Blended Learnign Platform for University Specific Foreign Language Training for Architecture Students.

UNITALKSA Blended Learning Platform for University Specific Foreign LanguageTraining for Architecture Students Farid Mokhtar Noriega1, John D. Fynn2, Mary McDonald-Rissanen3 1 Universidad Camilo José Cela, Spain, 2Université Blaise-Pascal (Clermont 2), France, 3 University of Tampere, Finland 1 http://www.ucjc.edu, 2http://www.univ-bpclermont.fr, 3http://www.uta.fi Abstract: The objective of the UNITALKS project is to develop a blended e-learning solution for foreign language training adapted to the university environment and to careers in architecture and building construction. Based on the VoiceForum project, an Internet or Intranet based platform, the approach aims to create an immersive task-based collaborative learning environment incorporating certain free software tools including a wiki repository where students and tutors can interactively and creatively enrich their learning community with new resources. UNITALKS is forward-looking in its recognition of the social as well as the technological dimension of an effective learning strategy and innovative in its approach to designing discipline-specific content tailored in a staged process to support maximum learner engagement and full operational ability in the professional context. Keywords: Education; mobility; task-based approach; blended learning; learning communities.The context for the project use generic materials developed by well known specialized language training publishers. The contentThe lack of university discipline-specific training pro- is not necessarily appropriate to the learners’ realgrams for foreign languages is producing low quality needs; it tends to be instruction focused and mayteacher, researcher and student mobility in the Euro- not be the most efficient way to help university staffpean space of higher education. Although this prob- and students develop the communicative abilitieslem is noticeable in visiting students coming from they need in a foreign university environment andnewly incorporated countries to the EU, the problem school of architecture, for example.is more severe in highly specialized disciplines such The inefficiency of foreign language courses isas architecture and building science. Some European often due to several factors:countries suffer from this problem and their teachers a. The instructor’s teaching strategy does not en-and students are excluded from the exchange pro- gage the motivation of the students;grams either voluntarily or selectively. b. The limited periods of training (e.g. intensive When students, young researchers and teachers courses);apply for foreign language courses, they generally c. Lack of time for the trainee (demanding aca- Session 10: Collaborative Design - eCAADe 27 349

demic timetables); their different expectations and learning styles.d. The training material is generic not linked to the The starting languages of the proposal are Eng- student’s discipline. lish, French and Spanish. Other teacher-tutors will be The candidates for mobility programs need at invited to use the basic course materials and Web 2.0least to speak fluently in order to be evaluated by tools to develop their own content and share it withtheir host teachers. The ERASMUS exchange students others. The basic topic will be the university environ-in Architecture suffer from a language exclusion syn- ment and campus communication in the foreign lan-drome by some teachers and native students, and guage. The justification is that the students are moti-sometimes receive poor academic qualifications for vated when they link their training to something fa-that reason, despite their brilliant academic results miliar to them. Travelling abroad and acquiring newat home. experience is very exciting and encourages them to This problem of inadequate foreign language engage in a more concrete way with the learningcompetences also affects research teams and EU contexts and aims.collaborative projects when researchers have toshare ideas and concepts; they don’t have sufficient The design of the UNITALKS coursetime to write properly expressed reports and work-ing documents. Joint European postgraduate proj- The course takes into account a general pedagogicalects are also weakened by the low level of specific strategy, an approach to discipline-specific contentlanguage competences. In some EU countries this progression and a skills requirement concerning theproblem is still unsolved despite the huge amounts teacher-tutors.of money, of research, the use of the most advanced The general pedagogical strategy takes its inspirationICT e-learning platforms and the joint efforts of from constructivist, communicative and task-basedmany European teams. approaches to language learning and teaching. The materials, tools and didactic intent come together inThe UNITALKS proposal an overall immersive strategy which becomes easier to implement when learning activities are connect-Aware of this problem, a joint team of university ed to the whole syllabus and participants becometeachers of the Camilo José Cela University School stakeholders in the learning outcomes. With this aimof Architecture (Spain) and English as a foreign lan- in mind, the course content is closely related to theguage at the universities of Clermont 2 (France) and discipline (Architecture and Building Construction inTampere (Finland), are trying to solve this problem our case).using an innovative blended e-learning strategy. The most attractive aspects of the discipline areThe objective of the UNITALKS project is to develop to be given some extra focus to increase motiva-a blended e-learning solution for foreign language tion as affective factors play a big part in languagetraining adapted to the university environment and learning. Learning by doing is part of the immersivespecific architectural and technical discourse. strategy. It suits kinesthetic learners in general and The target populations for this project are uni- architecture and engineering students in particular.versity members: teachers, researchers, administra- This can be linked to an important need in thesetive staff, and students in general who need to ac- disciplines for proficiency in the visual language orquire appropriate specific foreign language skills to graphic expression which relates also to the learn-increase their academic competences and mobility ing style of visual learners. Manipulation of graphics,in the future. The pedagogical plan took into consid- text and speech data will be developed throughouteration the different generations of the learners with the course as something indispensable to acquiring350 eCAADe 27 - Session 10: Collaborative Design

advanced communication skills when working in the in the first level, and the architectural culture, build-field. ICT tools facilitate this integration and blending construction and computer technology in theing of different media for study and communicative second and third levels of the course will engagepurposes. the learners and help the teacher-tutors to motivate Learning is a socio-cultural act and whereas this them. The latter will control the level of difficulty ofmay be taken for granted in contact hours in class, the task to stimulate the learning process. Learnerit has been taken fully on board for the online com- motivation has been considered in the choices madeponent, which means giving special importance with regards to designing the learning environmentto learner interaction and collaborative outcomes. but it has been a key issue also in staging the dis-Collaborative study groups have been shown to be cipline-specific content. The syllabus strategy is oneeffective through the opportunity they provide for that charts a progressive level of complexity. As inpeer learning scenarios. This has been an inspiration computer games design where a technique knownthat we can implement within a simulated architec- as difficulty balancing is used to maintain playertural studio environment. motivation, learner frustration should be limited by A wiki space such as the EduTech Wiki (http:// task-based scenarios taking the participants forwardedutechwiki.unige.ch/en/) will propose a sustain- through increasing levels of complexity from the firstable repository to store all the content developed level up to the postgraduate level.by the team and the contributions of students and The evolving complexity of content will naturallyteacher-tutors. The environment is like a seed, a de- engender a need for correspondingly higher levelsveloping open source collaborative environment. of language performance in order to collaborate and The blended learning strategy consists of con- communicate more effectively and with greater pre-tact and virtual sessions both of which will motivate cision about complex issues. The content syllabusthe students to socialize and build their own per- will move progressively towards higher levels of ex-sonal learning environments and contribute to their pectation in learner collaboration and outcomes inlearning community. In the project, language learn- the target language. We can see this linguistic pro-ing is supported by a community of learners. Syn- gression in the table below (Table 1) with its accom-chronous as well as asynchronous communication panying reference to the language levels establishedtools that are freely available will supplement the by the Common European Framework of Referenceplatform and act as communication vehicles within for Languages (CEFR) scaling up from A1 (elemen-this learning community. Webquest-style tasks and tary) to C2.web searches for architecture and building constru- An issue insufficiently addressed in course de-ction content will help the students increase their sign which integrates discipline content and lan-analysis and research competences as well as enable guage is the skills requirement for teacher-tutors. Incollaborative task-based projects to be conducted. a blended learning course the teacher-tutor needs The overarching framework of the proposed syl- to have ICT skills that can match those of the par-labus is international mobility in the European space ticipant trainees. In our case also there are specificof higher education. From the beginning the learner teacher-tutor competences necessary for engag-will be introduced to typical discourse encountered ing learners and understanding their special needsin international university environments, the objec- such as expressing ideas and proposals graphically,tive being to help establish basic communication understanding the technical-scientific conceptswith supervisors, teachers and other faculty staff and and the cultural singularities of the architecturalstudents. discipline. The use of the campus context and lexical field Session 10: Collaborative Design - eCAADe 27 351

Table 1 Second Elementary Intermediate Advanced Proficiency Unitalks content structure, Language Academic Environment Cultural Environment Scientific - Technical Postgraduate - competences acquired and specifications Academic proposed teaching materials. Minimum A2 B1 B2 C1 CEF level prerequisite Content - European Space of - Basic architectural - Architectural - advanced related Higher Education, knowledge areas technologies architecture materials common terminologies. - associated disciplines - associated technical technology and design - Daily academic campus - graphic language and scientific - innovation research (organized activities terminology disciplines and - high level scientific according to - University staff, - history of architecture related humanities & technical research & a progressive departments, spaces and and art - advanced development level of functions - building components architecture research - architecture complexity) - Leisure activities - building types - building philosophy & criticism - application procedures - Computer Aided construction - engineering science for UE student mobility Architectural Design - philosophy of - building codes and architecture regulations - architectural - project management criticism - urban planning - environmental studies Competences - Speak with international - speak with international - speak with exchange - speak with peers and acquired. tutors, colleagues and teachers and fellow teachers and fellow leading researchers Students will attendant staff architecture students architecture students - understand technical be able to: - write application forms - write a short essay on - write an & scientific research and text messages to architecture architectural essay publications foreign universities - represent a drawing - understand - write a research paper and international with the adequate technical and - make a scientific or coordinators technical terms scientific publications technical speech in - search for information - make an oral - search for technical public events about prospective presentation of studio information in - teach internationally destinations and courses work libraries and - develop an - write short texts and - develop an architectural knowledge databases architectural or essays project proposal - develop an building construction architectural or project proposal building construction project proposal Proposed - Conventional: - Conventional: - Conventional: - Conventional: Teaching Texts, glossaries, Texts, glossaries, Texts, advanced Texts, advanced materials university architectural glossaries, technical glossaries, technical documentaries, documentaries, videos, visuals, mind videos, visuals, mind illustrations, drawings, illustrations maps maps - ICT tools: - ICT tools: - ICT tools: - ICT tools: voice forum, blogs, voice voice forum, blogs, voice voice forum, blogs, voice forum, blogs, and instant messaging, and instant messaging, voice and instant voice and instant wiki repository, Office podcasts wiki repository, messaging, podcasts messaging, podcasts software for writing and CAD and Office wiki repository , wiki repository , presenting course work software for writing and architectural software research software presenting course work352 eCAADe 27 - Session 10: Collaborative Design

VoiceForum: the e-learning platform the learners’ own experience, sense of responsibility to a group and own creativity for thought and lan-Teacher-centered classrooms or exercise based guage. The tutor dialogues at a separate sub-mes-student-tracking e-learning systems may not be an sage level, offering guidance and feedback as well asadequate framework for teaching languages. Most any suggestions for remedial work or further study.online learning management systems are used, if In this way, the pedagogical input is always based onnot mainly designed, for an instruction-focused ap- the contextualized needs of the participants, can beproach. This traditional approach has had somewhat accessed as often as required and even searched as alimited success due to its reduced emphasis on so- resource for future reference.cial interaction compared to classroom learning and VoiceForum has already proved to be invaluableits heavy reliance on sustained intrinsic motivation for improving oral interaction skills. A built-in soundwhich is a common cause of participants dropping recorder/player is accompanied by a rich text edi-out of their courses. This situation can be improved, tor. The user posts a spoken message, for example,however, by combining an LMS system with contact to initiate a topic, to reply to another user or to ex-hours using a blended learning approach. Modern pand an existing thread or conversational branch ofonline courses provide spaces for peer interaction the discussion. Appropriate and effective or insuf-and learner-teacher interaction but these spaces ficiently appropriate and effective use of languagetend to be peripheral to the course content. The to accomplish the content-driven task is applaudedUNITALKS proposal, on the other hand, seeks to or corrected with appropriate positive or negativeplace participant interaction at the centre of the pro- feedback by the teacher-tutor at a separate peda-cess. Online course material will not be there just to gogical level in the software. To do this, the teach-be read and learnt but rather to feed collaborative er-tutor has voice and text functionality to provideproject and task activities where the participants elaborate possibilities for feedback which does notare expected to show their collaboration by results interfere with the collaboration of the group of us-and productive traces. These learning-by-doing re- ers engaged in the on-going task. For oral practicesults are monitored by the teacher-tutors who can VoiceForum achieves what is actually impossible ininteract at a specific pedagogical level to influence a face-to-face classroom situation: you cannot inter-and guide the participants towards greater levels of rupt a discussion in real time to provide contextual-achievement. ized feedback to the participants without seriously This approach is built into VoiceForum, which undermining the communicative freedom necessaryis an innovative on-going project aiming to modify for the discussion.the traditional learning paradigms. Internet or in- VoiceForum, on the other hand, uses asynchro-tranet based, its use transcends the physical loca- nous voice and threaded discussion forum technol-tion of a classroom as it bridges the divide between ogy to allow participants to interact feely and to ben-multimedia classroom use and independent online efit from pedagogical guidance in the participants’work. Work begun in the multimedia classroom can own time. That pedagogical input and dialoguebe continued at home or elsewhere without losing can be consulted and developed at will from a linktouch with co-learners or tutor. in any thread, thus enabling it to be finely tuned to In the existing kernel of the project, the VoiceFo- the context of the participants’ language needs andrum concept focuses on asynchronous learner inter- permanently available for further teacher-learner di-action in threaded discussions using voice and text. alogue or revision purposes. Guidance given to oneThis interaction between groups of foreign language participant is available and searchable by any of thelearners, based around collaborative tasks, calls upon other participants, which means that pedagogical Session 10: Collaborative Design - eCAADe 27 353

Figure 1 Sample screen shots from VoiceForum: list of voice messages in a threaded discussion (top left), message composition window with voice recorder (bottom left), student message with voice playback (top right) and teacher comment with student reply (bottom right)feedback becomes over time a new exploitable and share in support of task-based learning objec-resource. tives by uploading and hyperlinking to them in their Very positive student feedback on their experi- messages. In this way and in combination with otherence of VoiceForum in its current implementation en- tools, ICT provides new opportunities to create acourages us to extend this concept further to sustain learning paradigm where interactive creativity is theuser motivation in more elaborate learning scenarios engine of the pedagogical process.thanks to VoiceForum’s intrinsic features such as:a. instant membership of a small, identified learn- Implementation perspectives ing community whose creative activities are at the very heart of the course; The UNITALKS project is based on the premise that inb. highly intuitive usability and structuring of infor- professional language training, one size doesn’t nec- mation; essarily fit all. Content integration in the languagec. task dependency and learner cooperation; syllabus needs to take into account the unique char-d. persistence and ubiquity for both learners and acter of each discipline. Content integration is also tutors; an opportunity to motivate and inspire learners. Thise. construction of meaning as a basic goal to drive can be maintained also in the online component es- learning. pecially if the social dimension of learning is respect- UNITALKS can therefore use VoiceForum to allow ed and a blended approach is adopted. Blendinglearners to collaborate with texts, visuals and rich can describe the attested positive effects of combin-media documents that they can create, associate ing media types and allowing for different learning354 eCAADe 27 - Session 10: Collaborative Design

styles and different generations of learners with Dudeney, G and Hockly, N.: 2007, How to teach Englishdifferent expectations. Blending is more frequently with Technology, Pearson Education Limited.used, however, to describe the process of combining Fynn, C. and Fynn, J.: 2005, Défi personnel, défi virtuelcontact hours with time and space independence ou l’île du multimédia, Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT XXVIthrough the use of an online learning environment. 2, La motivation, un moteur dans l’apprentissage The social dimension combines with discipline des langues, pp. 124-129.specificity and the professional training aspect of the Fynn, J.: 1999, Mobilité virtuelle et apprentissage dearchitectural studio metaphor in a way that is totally l’anglais : bilan et perspectives d’une expérience,consistent with the collaborative project orientation Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT XVIII 4, Le Bilan Pédagogiqueof UNITALKS. Socialization and the cultural atmo- des Relations Internationales, pp. 51-60.sphere which we aim to develop should be strongly Fynn, J.: 2007, Aide à l’apprentissage du discoursmotivating factors and increase the capacity of the oral dans un contexte de communication asyn-learner to retain and reuse content. The architectural chrone, Apprentissage des Langues et Systèmesstudio device gives us an opportunity to innovate d’Information et Communication (Alsic), vol.10 n°1,in integrating a necessary graphic language with pp. 101-110.foreign language communication. ICT skills will be Gravett, Linda and Throckmorton, Robin; 2007; Bridgingneeded to support this innovation which is an ex- the Generation Gap; Career press.ample of how the project makes new demands on Marjanovic, Igor, Rüedi Ray, Katerina, Naa Norle Lokko,the teacher-tutors who may require some specific Lesley, 2003, The Portfolio: An Architecture Stu-training if they are to be fully effective. dents Handbook, Architectural Press A pilot project will be set up shortly. The results Willis, D. and Willis, J.: 2008, Doing Task-based Teaching,will be analyzed and evaluated to see if the expected Oxford University Press.effectiveness of the language training and the col-laborative e-learning platform can be subsequentlyconfirmed.ReferencesBarrett, B. and Sharma, P.: 2007, Blended Learning, Mac- millan Education.Bersin, Josh, 2004, The Blended Learning Book, Best practices, Proven Methodologies, and lessons learned, Pfeiffer.Ching, Francis D., 1995, A visual dictionary of architecture, John Wiley & SonsCouncil of Europe 2001. The Common European Frame- work of Reference for Languages, Cambridge Uni- versity Press http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/ documents/Framework_EN.pdfDoughty, C. & Long, M. 2003, Optimal Psycholinguis- tic Environments for Distance Foreign Language Learning, Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 7, n° 3, pp.50-80. Session 10: Collaborative Design - eCAADe 27 355

356 eCAADe 27 - Session 10: Collaborative Design

Unitalks, A Blended Learnign Platform for University Specific Foreign Language Training for Architecture Students.

by Farid Mokhtar Noriega on Dec 26, 2011

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Unitalks, A Blended Learnign Platform for University Specific Foreign Language Training for Architecture Students. — Document Transcript