Paper presented at AILA World Congress 2014: One World, Many Languages, held in Brisbane, Australia, 10-15 August 2014.

1. New perspectives in processes & outcomes of
telecollaboration in foreign language curricula
K. Jauregi (Utrecht University & Fontys University of Applied Sciences)
R. de Graaff (Utrecht University)
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2. The TILA Project
Telecollaboration
Intercultural
Language
Acquisition
Funded by: European Commission
Term: 2013-2015
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3. Background to TILA
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4. Need for a change in Language Teaching?
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5. Video communication
Adobe connect
NIFLAR 2009-2011
3D Virtual Worlds
Second Life
Open Sim
Focus on Tertiary Education
(some pilots at secondary education)
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6. NIFLAR 2009-2011: Results in tertiary education
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7. NIFLAR 2009-2011: Results of pilots in secondary
schools
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8. © 2014 TILA
Background
Most experiences and research results reported so
far on telecollaboration refer to tertiary language
education (Pol, 2013).
Need to focus on secondary education
in order to find out whether the positive research
results on telecollaboration related to adults at
tertiary education do apply to teenagers who are
learning languages in quite a different educational
setting.
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9. © 2014 TILA
What is TILA about?
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10. Tools for synchronous telecollaboration in TILA
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Video/Audio Communication
BigBluebutton
(Skype, Google Hangout)
3D virtual worlds
Open Sim(ulator)

11. Tools for asynchronous telecollaboration in TILA
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Forum Blog
Wiki Journal
Moodle
Social media
VoiceThread
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12. © 2014 TILA
Activities undertaken
Analysis of teachers’ needs
Teacher training modules & sessions
Telecollaboration pilots
December – February 2014
Pilots in 5 target languages (Sp, En, Fr, Ger, Catalan)
212 learners, 20 teachers, 8 schools
Most pilots: synchronous communication (BBB &
OpenSim)
Tasks have been developed
Research approaches & tools developed
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13. Organizing telecollaboration pilot sessions
Challenges:
Contextual: school philosophy, timetables,
Pedagogical: views on teaching,
Intercultural: collaboration with teachers from other
cultures > different expectations, styles,
Technological: not up-to-date hardware, firewalls,
internet connections, insufficient IT support,
Different views on privacy issues related to teenagers,
Pairing telecollaboration peers,
Telecollaboration format: Lingua Franca / Tandem.
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Voorbeeld TILA
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Recordings

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Research data:
 Recordings
 Student questionnaires
 Interviews with pupils
 Teacher questionnaires
 Interviews with teachers
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Pilots (December 2013-February 2014)
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16. The TILA Project
Telecolaboration
Intercultural
Language
Acquisition
Funded by: European Commission
Term: 2013-2015
© 2014 TILA 16

17. © 2014 TILA
Learner surveys
Background survey
User experience questionnaire
Technical quality
Suitability of the environment used
Suitability of tasks
Communicative performance
Motivation
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18. Research participants
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77 students
8 secondary schools
They like languages, particularly:
Speaking 3.98/5
Learning about other people (3.85/5)
Pronunciation (3.85/5)
Grammar (2.99/5)
18
DE
FR
NE
UK
ES
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19. Research participants
Telecollaboration tools
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64 %
17 %
Skyp
9 %
BBB
OpenSi
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20. Research participants
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20
60 %
40 %
Tandem
Lingua
Interaction
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21. Sound was good (if applicable) 2,75
I like to communicate and interact in this tool environment 4,11
I like to meet students from other countries in this tool environment 4,3
I like to learn in this tool environment 4,12
I like to be visible in a video 3,68
I like to see the others in a video 4,06
II like to be an avatar 3,53
I like to speak with an avatar 3,53
I felt comfortable in the interaction 3,77
I felt satisfied with the way I communicated 3,53
I felt the tool environment affected my communication positively 3,58
I enjoyed communicating with students from another country 4,30
I found it motivating to communicate with students from another country 4,18
It was important for me to be understood 4,17
It was important for me to understand the other student(s) 4,23
It was important for me to learn about the other students’ life and culture 3,91
It was important for me to get to know students from another country 4,07
I was able to learn something about the other students’ life and culture 3,76
I enjoyed the online task 4,08
I found the online task interesting for interaction with peers of other
4,15
countries
I found the online task useful for my language learning 3,99
The online task helped me discover new things about the other culture 3,81
I would like to use online tasks with students from other countries more
4,15
often
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77 respondents (20 OpenSim)
5
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22. Results
Lowest scores: sound quality
(M=2.90, SD=1.08) Likert scale (1-5)
Positive assessment of the activity
“I would like to use online tasks with students from other
countries more often” (M=4.07 and SD=0.84)
Students like…
• to communicate via the Internet (M=4.06, SD=0.75)
• to meet students from other countries (M=4.35, SD=0.63) to
learn in this medium (M=4.04, SD=0.87).
The tool used does not seem to have an impact on the scores
but students feel more at ease in OpenSim (M=2.77)
compared to Skype (M=3.00) and BigBlueButton (M=3.38).
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23. The TILA Project
Telecolaboration
Intercultural
Language
Acquisition
Funded by: European Commission
Term: 2013-2015
© 2014 TILA 23

24. Case study: interaction analysis
Focus on how learners negotiate intercultural meaning in
interaction with peers (Kroon, 2014), taking into
consideration that:
understanding in interaction is the result of
collaborative construction of shared meanings that
can be achieved through the use of meta
communicative strategies (Bahtina et al. 2013).
RQ: How do teenagers use meta communicative strategies
that lead to intercultural understanding during
synchronous telecollaboration sessions through VC?
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25. Method:
Pilots from two schools (NE, ES)
January 2013-February 2014
18 learners participated (volunteers)
Telecollaboration format:
Tandem with Lingua Franca (Spanish / English)
Language proficiency level:
Spanish: native / A2
English: B1 / B2
2 tasks were carried out once a week: getting to know
each other / Feasts & customs
Environment used BBB (videocommunication)
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26. Corpus
Mode Quantity Duration (min)
ELF (Task 2) 4 152
NS/NNS (Task 1) 4 205
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27. Method
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Triangulation of methods consisting
of:
Quantitative analysis of the
transcribed and coded interactions,
Discourse analysis,
Interview to teacher
Survey to pupils
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28. Method of analysis. Meta-communicative devices:
Bahtina et al. 2013:
MCD1 focuses on the situation and the development of understanding
regarding the assumed set of actions that must be taken to achieve a
shared (social) goal; task orientedness ("What we need to do is X.")
MCD2 focuses on having a shared system of orientation in time and
space (II: "If you read this card you should read from left to right.")
MCD3 provides understanding in the field of linguistic realizations in the
discourse and gives meanings to words ("What does this word mean?"
Or "That is called X and Y means").
MCD4, a multifunctional mechanism which is used as interlocutors do
not understand each other ("You mean X?"); misunderstandings can be
prevented or rectified.
An additional MCD was added:
MCD0: negotiations due to technological problems
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29. SP1: (2.30) WHAT? What?
NL1: I've been in Thailand on VACATION↑. (3.0) YEAH?
(3.0) ((laughs)) (1.0) Could you hear that?
SP1: E::h.
NL1: ((laughs))
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Examples
MCD0: comprehension problems due to technology
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30. MCD1: content / task orientation
SP1: I:::, (2.0) I don't think that I am (the best).
NL1: Sorry, what did you say? (1.0) Wha/ ((laughs)).
Are we talking about your basketball? (1.30) Yes, right?
SP1: I what?
NL1: (0.5) Are you good or not good?
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31. MCD2: space and time orientation
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SP1: TU INSTITUTO..
NL1: Répitelo↑ Oh e:::h mi instituto es NSG, en
Nimega, (0.4) ehm es una ciudad/
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32. MCD 4 (indicates lack of understanding) +
MCD3 (linguistic strategies to clarify meaning)
SP2 YO estoy (.) estudiando (.) alemán.
NL1 (6.5) Hm?
SP2 YO ((risas)) <YO ESTOY ESTUDIANDO alemán>.
NL1 ¿Sí? Ah BIEN ((risas), yo TAMBIEN
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33. Average quantity of MCDs
MCD ELF (Task 2) NS/NNS (Task 1) Total
0 28.5 (0.20) 32.0 (0.15) 60.5
1 18.0 (0.10) 21.0 (0.10) 39
2 6.5 (0.05) 6.5 (0.05) 13
3 20.5 (0.15) 19.5 (0.10) 40
4 22.0 (0.15) AILA 2014 22.0 (0.10) 33 44
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34. Conclusions
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Pupils are very positive about synchronous
telecollaboration, in spite of technological
challenges (“newness” effect?)
Telecollaboration provides opportunities for
the use of meta-communicative devices
both in Tandem and in Lingua Franca
In a non-optimal telecollaboration conditions,
a lot of MCD use consists of negotiations
related to technological problems (MCD0)
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35. Conclusions
The technological environment in conjunction with the
tasks offers pupils the opportunity to create utterances
at different meta-communicative levels, by comparing
cultures with respect to time, space and habits, while
checking understanding and clarifying meaning, which all
contribute to the development of intercultural
understanding. AILA 2014 35
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Indicate that telecollaboration appears to be of
added value in FLT, as pupils from different
countries are brought into contact to carry out
interaction tasks through technology in which
they frequently use communication strategies
to achieve intercultural understanding. & they
are positive about the experience.

36. Conclusions
A long way to go for synchronous
telecollaboration in secondary education to be
implemented technologically and logistically
successfully
Powerful environment for authentic communication if
preconditions are met sufficiently
Need for more research studies ((a)synchronous
collaboration, interaction, tasks, motivation)
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37. Thank you for your
attention!!
Join us at www.tilaproject.eu
tila@uu.nl
#tilaproject
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38. © 2014 TILA
References
Bahtina, D., Thije, J. D. ten & F. Wijnen (2013) Combining cognitive and interactive
Approaches to Lingua Receptiva. Special Issue on Receptive Multilingualims.
International Journal of Multilingualism. 10(2), 159-180
Canto, S., de Graaff, R. & Jauregi, K. (2014). Collaborative tasks for negotiation of
intercultural meaning in virtual worlds and video-web communication. In González-
Lloret, M. & Ortega, L. (eds.) Technology and Tasks: Exploring Technology-mediated
TBLT. Amsterdam /Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Canto, S., Jauregi, K. & van den Bergh, H. (2013). Integrating cross-cultural interaction
through video-communication and virtual worlds in foreign language teaching
programs. Burden or added value? In ReCALL, 25/1, 105-121.
Jauregi, K., R. de Graaff, H. van den Bergh & M. Kriz (2012). Native non-native speaker
interactions through video-web communication, a clue for enhancing motivation. In
Computer Assisted Language Learning Journal, 25.1, 1-19.
Kroon, van der I. (2014). Intercultureel begrip in het vreemdetalenonderwijs.
Unpublished Master Thesis. Utrecht University.
Pol, L. (2013) Telecollaboration in Secondary Education: An Added Value? Unpublished
Master Thesis. Utrecht University.
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