Teletandem

This article is one of a series of others that are currently being carried out within the context of the project Teletandem Brasil: Foreign languages for all. Developed at São Paulo State University, Brazil. The project focuses on the communicative processes of distance in-tandem language learning. The article focuses on a few successful and unsuccessful cases of teletandem. Data analyses are grounded on the hermenutic phenomenological mode of qualitative research. Our aim is to understand which aspects contribute and obstruct the online distance interaction of teletandem. The case studies focus on the problems that the students face and our attempt to provide explanations and to propose solutions. Some of these problems were linked to the students’ beliefs of autonomy and motivation. We conclude the article by providing a reflection on virtual in-tandem teaching/learning.

Teletandem is a virtual autonomous webcam-based context (image, voice and text), where two students help each other learn their native (or other) language through intercultural and linguistic collaboration. In this paper, we turned our attention to episodes of focus on form during a teletandem interaction in Portuguese. The participants were a Brazilian student (a pre-service teacher of English) and her American teletandem partner (a university student of Portuguese). The analysis of this interaction consisted in looking for focus on form episodes that were incidental (they emerged from conversation spontaneously or they were not previously defined by the teletandem partners). The analysis revealed (a) the prevalence of the focus on form concerning lexicon treatment; and (b) fourteen collaborative actions that provided moments of vocabulary explanation between the partners. We conclude with a discussion on teachers’ use of metalanguage; in the case of this study, when teaching Portuguese as a foreign language.

This article presents a discussion on the processes of reflection on the development of pre-service teachers of Spanish. For that, we used the stories of experiences of undergraduates in Language Arts (Spanish) within the context of teletandem. The study was grounded on the participants’ reports of their activities whether during teletandem sessions or during mediation sessions. We concluded that the actions related to both of these contexts constitute fruitful educational spaces, not only in regards to the processes of foreign language teaching and learning, but also to the processes of reflection on their student-teaching practice and to the constitution of their professional identity. We developed our analysis grounded on the assumptions of Narrative Inquiry and from a perspective of intercultural and critical competences for teacher development.

Online discussion forums have been widely used in internet mediated courses and blended courses. In these learning contexts, the mediator’s (or tutor’s) role in supporting successful learning is of considerable importance.
Firstly, the present article discusses some studies in which the mediator’s role in online learning environments is emphasized. Secondly, we use this discussion to support our qualitative case-study analysis, in which we investigated mediators’
debate-management strategies in TelEduc virtual forums. Lastly, we propose a reflective framework about management strategies in forums in virtual learning platforms.

RESUMO: Teletandem é um modelo de telecolaboração em que pares de falantes de duas línguas diferentes se encontram virtual e regularmente para aprenderem a língua um do outro. O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir as implicações pedagógicas de se integrar a prática de teletandem ao syllabus de uma disciplina de língua estrangeira, enfocando o duplo papel do professor: ensinar língua inglesa nas aulas presencias regulares e mediar a aprendizagem virtual autônoma e colaborativa em teletandem. Diários de aprendizagem, produzidos por estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira de um curso de Letras, foram coletados durante oito semanas no projeto de teletandem institucional integrado entre uma universidade britânica e uma universidade brasileira. A análise tem como foco o papel do professor na mediação da aprendizagem de língua estrangeira tanto em sala de aula como nos diários. Apresentamos evidências de como a ação do professor influencia na prática de teletandem ao mesmo tempo em que as aulas de inglês auxiliam na aprendizagem telecolaborativa autônoma. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: aprendizagem telecolaborativa; teletandem institucional integrado; papel do professor. ABSTRACT: Teletandeem is a model of telecollaboration in which pairs of speakers of different languages meet virtually and regularly in order to learn each other's language. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pedagogical Rev. Bras. Linguíst. Apl., v. 19, n. 3, p. 555-578, 2019 556 implications of integrating teletandem into the foreign language syllabus, focusing on the professor's dual role: teaching English in regular face-to-face lessons and mediating virtual autonomous and collaborative learning in teletandem. Learning diaries, produced by EFL students from a Language Teacher Education course, were collected during eight weeks of an institutional integrated teletandem project between a Brazilian and a British university. Our analysis focused on the teacher's role in mediating foreign language learning both in the classroom and through the learning diaries. We present evidence on what the professor does so that teletandem practice can contribute to language learning in the classroom and, by the same token, how EFL lessons can aid in autonomous telecollaborative learning.

Resumo | O propósito do presente artigo é discutir a respeito das questões relacionadas ao estabelecimento de objetivos de aprendizagem para as interações que se dão no contexto virtual do teletandem. Para tanto, fundamentamos nossa discussão no aporte teórico da abordagem do Ensino de Línguas para Fins Específicos (HUTCHINSON; WATERS, 1987; ROBINSON, 1991, CELANI; FREIRE; RAMOS, 2005), que considera o ensino de línguas a partir das necessidades de aprendizagem dos estudantes e pode ser aplicada a diferentes contextos educacionais. Os dados analisados são oriundos de questionários propostos a interagentes de teletandem, alunos de uma universidade brasileira que fizeram interação com alunos de uma universidade mexicana, durante o segundo semestre de 2018. A perspectiva metodológica do trabalho está ancorada na teoria fundamentada (CHARMAZ, 2009), cujos métodos estão baseados na coleta sistemática de dados, os quais, após a análise, dão origem a conceitos. As discussões aqui empreendidas poderão servir de subsídio a mediadores e interagentes que atuam nesse ambiente on-line de ensino e aprendizagem de línguas, no sentido de que possam direcionar e potencializar o processo a partir dos objetivos estabelecidos. Palavras-chave | Teletandem. Contexto de interação e mediação. Objetivos de aprendizagem. Abstract | The purpose of this article is to discuss the issues related to the establishment of learning objectives for the interactions that occur in the virtual context of teletandem. In order to do so, we base our discussion on the theoretical contribution of the Language Teaching for Specific Purposes approach (HUTCHINSON; WATERS, 1987; ROBINSON, 1991; CELANI et al, 2005), which considers language teaching based on students' learning needs and can be applied to different educational contexts of a specific nature. The analyzed data come from questionnaires applied to teletandem interactants, students of a Brazilian university who interacted with students from a Mexican university during the second semester of 2018. The methodological perspective of the work is anchored in the grounded theory (CHARMAZ, 2009), whose methods are based on the systematic collection of data, which, after the analysis, give rise to concepts. The discussions undertaken here may serve as a subsidy to mediators and interactors who work in this online environment of teaching and learning languages, in the sense that they can direct and enhance the process from the established objectives.

Resumo | Este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar a correção de erros no contexto teletandem, evidenciando os momentos em que ambos os parceiros se envolvem. O teletandem é uma forma de telecolaboração em que pares de aprendizes de línguas-culturas diferentes interagem virtualmente a fim de aprenderem um com o outro por meio de recursos de texto, áudio e vídeo. Trata-se de um estudo de base qualitativa e interpretativista que utiliza como dados gravações de sessões orais de teletandem. Os participantes são três pares de aprendizes que interagem em português e em inglês. Neste estudo, enfocamos os dados em língua portuguesa e a análise revela que a avaliação por pares envolve não apenas a avaliação do parceiro linguisticamente mais competente, mas, principalmente, a avaliação do próprio aprendiz (autoavaliação) a respeito do que é considerado certo ou errado em sua produção ou compreensão em língua estrangeira. Palavras-chave | Teletandem. Avaliação por pares. Correção de erros. Feedback. Autoavaliação. Abstract | This paper aims at investigating error correction within teletandem context, shedding light to the moments when both partners are involved. Teletandem is a mode of telecollaboration in which pairs of learners of different languages and cultures are involved in virtual exchanges in order to learn with each other by means of text, audio and video resources. The study is qualitative in nature with an interpretive approach, which uses as data the recordings of teletandem oral sessions. The participants are three pairs of learners who interact both in Portuguese and in English. The analysis focuses the data in Portuguese and it reveals that peer feedback involves not only the assessment made by the partner who is linguistically more competent, but also (and mainly) the assessment made by the learner (self-assessment) about what is considered an error in his oral production or comprehension.

The current study aims to investigate form, composition, distribution of
acknowledgement and agreement/assessment signals in upper intermediate/advanced Italian as L2 speakers. Data are video-transcribed computer mediated conversations for mutual language learning (Teletandem) during which two female volunteer university
students (L1: English and German) talk with a native speaker (NS) female interlocutor collected during two different meetings: meeting 1 comprises free discussion for mutual introductions; meeting 2 is a discussion on a topic chosen by the Italian non- native speaker.
The analysis shows that L2 subjects employ a great variety of (1) acknowledgement and agreement listener responses, (2) both lexical and non-lexical units whose functions, positions and frequency are affected by the level of involvement in the discourse, and (3) acquaintance of the two speakers and by the type of task. Particularly in the second meeting, when a topic is discussed, non-native speakers (NNSs) use more lexical units discourse structure.