Telecollaboration in Historical Spaces. Inservice and preservice foreign language teachers imagine future roles for online intercultural exchanges.

In recent years, the growing availability of internet connected devices and the widespread use of computer mediated communication appear to have reduced barriers to a potential 'normalisation' (Bax 2003, O'Dowd 2010) of online intercultural exchanges (OIE's) in foreign language classes. However, if informal and professional communication has been transformed by digital technology, classroom-based foreign language education has largely remained in a "walled -garden" or an analogue mode. Mentoring of OIE's could be facilitated by students bringing their personal digital devices to a wifi equipped class, but this might also result in unwelcome disruption (Conolé 2008) of teaching space.The use of Web 2.0 and informal social networking sites to set up 'Telecollaboration 2.0' projects (Guth & Helm 2010) could facilitate communication between learners but boundaries between personal and professional spaces might become uncomfortably blurred for both teachers and learners. More complete integration of OIE's into classroom practices may necessitate a radical rethinking of both teacher and learner roles. While many teachers and learners may now accept some pedagogical benefits of OIE's, they may be ill-prepared either to invest time in such exchanges or to transform their practices to take full advantage of their virtual partners. Perhaps more complex cultural obstacles are at play here preventing OIE's from becoming a 'core' rather than a 'peripheral' (O'Dowd 2010) element of foreign language education. The C OIE project seeks to 'build bridges' between formal and informal spaces, and to enable 848 learners from a British university (BU), a French university (FU) and a Polish university (PU) to develop digital literacy, linguistic, intercultural and pedagogical competences. The diverse means and modes of interaction and the large numbers of learners involved allow the members of the teaching network to reflect on the different possibilities and the challenges to integrating OIE activities into their pedagogical programs. At the same time, a small group of PU learners involved in the OIE are studying for a master in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and have participated in the exchange as both learners and trainee-teachers. A group of 6 experienced and 6 trainee language teachers from the C project are to be selected. Using Scollon and Scollon's (2004) concepts of 'historical body' and 'historical space' as a backdrop, we will study and analyse narratives relating their past experiences and their current attitudes to technology use in and outside the classroom. A quantitative/qualitative survey will enable us to further identify their professional and informal practices. Examination of interactions during the OIE will help to confirm their technology uses. A semi-directed interview will enable us to capture and analyse their visions of the place of OIE's in their imagined teaching futures. How far will these teachers and learner/teachers' grounding in existing discourses of practice be an obstacle to future transformations in their classrooms? This study's findings may help us to better understand barriers and bridges to wider, deeper integration of OIEs in future foreign language programs

Pakiet metodyczny dla nauczycieli języków obcych II etapu edukacyjnego

poradnik nauczyciel

Développement de compétences interculturelles et numériques : le cas d’un dispositif de télécollaboration à l’université

International audienceLes dispositifs intégrant les Tice pour les langues étrangères, mettant notamment en oeuvre en l'interaction en ligne, sont aujourd'hui entrés dans la norme (Bax, 2009 ; 2011). La télécollaboration (Tomé, 2009 ; Helm et al., 2012) en particulier permet d'engager les participants sur la durée, dans des contextes culturels variés (O'Dowd, 2018). Elle constitue un terrain d'étude intéressant des compétences non seulement numériques mais également interculturelles. Le dispositif que nous présentons met en relation des apprenants d'anglais langue étrangère en contexte universitaire francophone, avec des étudiants polonais, futurs enseignants d'anglais, et vise à établir des liens entre apprentissage formel et informel, et espaces personnels, institutionnels et professionnels des participants. Lors de sa mise en oeuvre au second semestre 2018-2019, les participants ont notamment pu se présenter sur des applications en ligne, contribuer à un groupe de discussion qu'ils administraient, participé à des visioconférences sur des thèmes interculturels, organisées et animées par les étudiants-futurs enseignants. Ils pouvaient également communiquer en ligne, en synchrone ou asynchrone, avec les applications de leur choix, en binôme ou en groupes. De plus, des activités hors ligne, telles que l'accueil des étudiants polonais par les apprenants français, ont pu être réalisées. Dans notre présentation, nous proposons un cadre permettant de caractériser les interactions des participants, en vue d'analyser les apports de la télécollaboration. Les premiers résultats montrent l'adoption de nouvelles compétences numériques et le développement de diverses compétences interculturelles, comme la reconnaissance des possibilités offertes par des échanges virtuels interculturels et l'ouverture d'opportunités de mobilité physique informelle entre apprenants

Divided by a common language : English across national, social, and cultural boundaries

Publikacja recenzowana / Peer-reviewed publicationZe wstępu: This monographic volume presents ten selected studies exploring the multiple interrelationships between language and the communities of speakers who sustain it, focusing on the various roles that language plays for its users, both native and non-native. On the empirical side of things, the studies included in this volume focus on the English language and its socio-cultural and educational contexts. The multifarious relationships between language and the communities of its users are addressed here from different perspectives and points of view. All the different threads fi nd their synthesis in the ways in which language, a carrier of culture and marker of national, social and cultural identity, refl ects the changes taking place in the communities using it as a tool for interpersonal communication, accumulation, storage and dissemination of information, social interactions, transmission of culture, and many other purposes, which are the focus of this volume. The diverse topics explored by the authors speak to the richness and complexity of the social and cultural meanings of language and the importance of questions of language ownership, language attitudes, and linguistic as well as cultural diversity