The use of the webcam for teaching a foreign language in a desktop videoconferencing environment

International audienceThis paper explores how language teachers learn to teach with a synchronous multimodal setup (Skype), and it focuses on their use of the webcam during the pedagogical interaction. First, we analyze the ways that French graduate students learning to teach online use the multimodal resources available in a desktop videoconferencing (DVC) environment to monitor pedagogical interactions with intermediate level learners of French in a North-American university. Then, we examine communicational and pedagogical aspects of this process which involves orchestrating different modalities and deploying various regulations for "semio-pedagogical" purposes. We define semio-pedagogical skills as the capacity to mediate a pedagogical interaction by combining or dissociating modalities (written, oral, and/or video) that are adapted to objectives and to the cognitive requisites of the task. We posit that these skills have to become part of the professional repertoire of future teachers, as they will increasingly be required to exploit the multimodal potentialities of online communication in their teaching. The study draws on screen capture recordings of teacher trainee-student interactions and is completed by semi-directive interviews with teacher trainees (n = 5). It aims (1) to identify the importance of webcamming in the share of the pedagogical range available to teachers and (2) analyze the non verbal dimension of pedagogical communication via DVC. The outcome of this study is the identification of five degrees of utilization of the webcam medium: there a certain gradation in the way webcamming is used (with a more or less significant use of image) when compared to other modalities. The different uses that are identified vary according to the perceived usefulness of webcamming to monitor teaching and to the teacher trainees' capacity to manage different workspaces

The use of the webcam for teaching a foreign language in a desktop videoconferencing environment

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Enseigner par visioconférence poste à poste : cadre méthodologique pour l'analyse de pratiques tutorales

Cette publication se donne pour but de présenter le début de construction d'un protocole de recherche destiné à décrire les pratiques tutorales de deux populations d'enseignants en ligne. Il s'agit d'une part, de tuteurs débutants (étudiants en Master professionnel de l'université Lumière- Lyon 2) et d'autre part, de tuteurs expérimentés. Ces deux populations ont participé à un enseignement de Français Langue Etrangère (FLE) à destination d'un groupe d'étudiants américains de l'université de Californie Berkeley donné en 2009-2010 sur une plateforme d'apprentissage vidéographique synchrone. La communication cherche à montrer les bases d'un protocole de recherche fondé sur des données empiriques recueillies de façon écologique. Nous présentons les fondements théoriques, méthodologiques et débouchons sur les questions de recherche retenues concernant les pratiques pédagogiques des enseignants en ligne dans un environnement synchrone. Un premier corpus d'étude est proposé pour décrire les stratégies tutorales en s'appuyant sur l'analyse de discours et des interactions en dispositif synchrone multimodal et sur l'analyse de discours medié par ordinateur

A semiotic perspective on webconferencing-supported language teaching.

International audienceIn webconferencing-supported teaching, the webcam mediates and organizes the pedagogical interaction. Previous research has provided a mixed picture of the use of the webcam: while it is seen as a useful medium to contribute to the personalization of the interlocutors’ relationship, help regulate interaction and facilitate learner comprehension and involvement, the limited access to visual cues provided by the webcam is felt as useless or even disruptive. This study examines the meaning-making potential of the webcam in pedagogical interactions from a semiotic perspective by exploring how trainee teachers use the affordances of the webcam to produce non-verbal cues that may be useful for mutual comprehension. The research context is a telecollaborative project where trainee teachers of French as a foreign language met for online sessions in French with undergraduate Business students at an Irish university. Using multimodal transcriptions of the interaction data from these sessions, screen shot data, and students’ post-course interviews, it was found, firstly, that whilst a head and shoulders framing shot was favoured by the trainee teachers, there does not appear to be an optimal framing choice for desktop videoconferencing among the three framing types identified. Secondly, there was a loss between the number of gestures performed by the trainee teachers and those that were visible for the students. Thirdly, when trainee teachers were able to coordinate the audio and kinesic modalities, communicative gestures that were framed, and held long enough to be perceived by the learners, were more likely to be valuable for mutual comprehension. The study highlights the need for trainee teachers to develop critical semiotic awareness to gain a better perception of the image they project of themselves in order to actualise the potential of the webcam and add more relief to their online teacher presence

The Impact Of The Webcam On An Online L2 Interaction

International audienceIt is intuitively felt that visual cues should enhance online communication, and this experimental study aims to test this prediction by exploring the value provided by a webcam in an online L2 pedagogical teacher-to learner interaction. A total of 40 French undergraduate students with a B2 level in English were asked to describe in English four previously unseen photographs to a native English-speaking teacher of EFL via Skype, a free web-based videoconferencing tool, during a 10-minute interaction. Twenty students were assigned to the videoconferencing condition and 20 to the audioconferencing condition. All 40 interactions were recorded using dynamic screen capture software and were analyzed with ELAN, a sound and video annotation tool. Participants' perceptions of the online interaction are first compared with regard to the issues of social presence and their understanding and appreciation of the online interaction, using data gathered from a post-task questionnaire. The study then explores whether seeing the interlocutor's image impacts on the patterns of these synchronous exchanges and on the word search episodes. Results indicated that the impact of the webcam on the online pedagogical interaction was not as critical as had been predicted

Une approche sémio-didactique de l'activité de l'enseignant de langue en ligne: réflexions méthodologiques

International audienceThis contribution assesses from methodological and epistemological perspectives a five-year interdisciplinary project whereby researchers in language education and in computer science have endeavoured (1) to study online synchronous language teaching, and (2) to develop tools to support the teachers' mediation activity and foster their professional development. The project concentrates on a training situation in which trainees had to teach French as a foreign language to distant learners via a web-conferencing platform. The methods that have been used to study the different facets of the online teachers' activity are detailed. The rationale for a semio-didactic approach is explained as well and several aspects pertaining to the management of the online interaction and the development of a critical semiotic awareness are presented.Cette contribution établit la synthèse méthodologique et épistémologique d'un projet de recherche longitudinal et interdisciplinaire au cours duquel des chercheurs en didactique des langues et en informatique ont cherché à appréhender l'activité d'enseignement de langue en ligne synchrone et à proposer des outils pour faciliter l'activité de médiation et de développement professionnel des enseignants. La recherche s'appuie sur une formation dans laquelle des apprentis sont placés en situation d'enseigner le français langue étrangère à des apprenants distants par le biais d'une plateforme de visioconférence. Les moyens méthodologiques pour saisir les facettes de l'activité d'enseignement en ligne sont explicités et, selon la démarche sémio-didactique adoptée, plusieurs aspects liés à la conduite de l'interaction en ligne et au développement d'une conscience sémio-pédagogique critique sont présentés

Doing expertise multilingually and multimodally in online English teaching videos

The use of online videos as a teaching resource is gaining importance. It opens up opportunities for the creation of knowledge, as educational content can now be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection. This democratisation of access to knowledge can also be seen in the language learning context, where English language teachers create online videos for a transnational audience. In this paper, we present a case study of how two online English teachers ‘do expertise’ in their lessons, drawing on their multilingual and multimodal repertoire so that expertise is talked into being. We conducted semi-structured interviews and analysed them by interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to make sense of the teachers’ experiences of designing online teaching materials, and how their expertise was talked into being in the process. The aim of this paper is to contribute to understanding of expertise in the context of online language teaching. We argue that online teachers ‘do expertise’ by drawing on their multimodal design knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and linguistic knowledge

Multimodal research: Addressing the complexity of multimodal environments and the challenges for CALL

Multimodality, the study of the interaction of language with other semiotic resources such as images and sound resources, has significant implications for computer assisted language learning (CALL) with regards to understanding the impact of digital environments on language teaching and learning. In this paper, we explore recent manifestations of CALL in 3-D virtual worlds, illustrated by the example of Second Life. The multimodal analyses of a conventional face-to-face lesson and three language learning activities in Second Life highlight some of the affordances and challenges presented by 3-D virtual environments. The results suggest that while multimodal resources integrate naturally to facilitate language teaching and learning in an orderly, structured and goal-orientated manner in classroom lessons, the often uncoordinated use (or absence) of avatars' gaze, facial expression, body posture, gesture, as well as the unclear proxemics and use of space pose problems for effective communication in a 3-D virtual world. In addition, a technology-oriented register, alongside traditional instructional and regulative genres and registers, is introduced to help students cope with the demands of learning a language in a 3-D virtual environment. The study raises the issue of the relative effectiveness of 3-D virtual worlds for language teaching and learning. In doing so, a digital approach to multimodal research is proposed in order to address the complexity of multimodal learning environments and the various challenges for CALL

Sharing a multimodal corpus to study webcam-mediated language teaching

This article proposes a methodology to create a multimodal corpus that can be shared with a group of researchers in order to analyze synchronous online pedagogical interactions. Epistemological aspects involved in studying online interactions from a multimodal and semiotic perspective are addressed. Then, issues and challenges raised by corpus creation and sharing are examined with a particular focus on ethics. Basing my discussion and analysis around a particular research project, the steps involved in the creation of a multimodal and shareable corpus are described and the scientific benefits of a collective exploration of data and their subsequent multimodal representations are discussed and illustrated. It is finally claimed that corpus sharing can contribute vastly to the field of computer-assisted language learning by enhancing its scientific robustness as it favors a multidisciplinary, systematic, and in-depth analysis of multimodal data