Conversations multimodales: l'enseignement-apprentissage des langues à l'heure des écrans partagés

The use of an audiographic environment such as Lyceum allows multimodal communication between language learners. In particular, they can hold conversations in real time both orally and in writing. In this article the author asks how best to promote multimodal conversing in support of language learning. After analysing the way in which learners as well as teachers have been found to appropriate the different functionalities of the system, the author offers pedagogical recommendations

Usages, contre-usages: nouvelles cultures des formations virtuelles

Based on a study of virtual language learning via real-time multimodal platforms, this article has a focus on usage in teleconferencing. In particular, the relationship between the structure of a particular platform (Lyceum) and the usage that is developed within it is examined. To do so, the author introduces the notion of affordance. Using four analytical dimensions derived from social semiotics, discourse, design, production and distribution of the artefact used for teleconferencing, the author presents examples of appropriation, some in line with the aims of the platform designers, others created by the users to counter what appear to be communicative failings of the platform

Ce que cyber-parler veut dire: quels cadres théoriques pour l'analyse des conversations multimodales en réseau?

This is a methodological chapter in which the question for investigation is how to describe the effects of technological mediation on learning. The chapter focuses on the use of language by learners enrolled on a course of English-for-specific purposes, which they attended entirely via the synchronous multimodal platform Lyceum. Data showing how learners utilise the resources of the environment in order to progress conversations with native-speaker tutors and with their peers is analysed. Three frameworks for the problematisation of technologically-mediated language use are proposed

Oral conversations online: redefining oral competence in synchronous environments

In this article the focus is on methodology for analysing learner-learner oral conversations mediated by computers. With the increasing availability of synchronous voice-based groupware and the additional facilities offered by audio-graphic tools, language learners have opportunities for collaborating on oral tasks, supported by visual and textual stimuli via computer-conferencing. Used synchronously with real-time voice-based work, these tools present learners with the challenge of learning a new type of oral interaction, and researchers with the need for developing methodologies for redefining L2 oral competence in these environments. In this paper we address the latter. We examine approaches from the interactionist branch of Second Language Acquisition research, and we question the ability of this model of language learning to fully account for the processes that take place when learners are interacting with machines while talking to each other. To complement the socio-cognitive insights of that school, we look to interactional linguistics and to social semiotics. Building on findings from these fields, we offer a qualitative discussion of the discourses evidenced in conversational data from two distance-learning projects that use synchronous voice in conjunction with other stimuli, in an intermediate French programme at the UK Open University. We then present detailed conclusions about the methodological challenges involved in analysing the oral competence of students who use these tools

"Reflective conversation" in the virtual language classroom

In the Open University of the United Kingdom, the principle that distance language learners should be encouraged to reflect on their own learning has traditionally been central to the design of conventional (i.e., print, audio, and video) course materials. However, since computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies have created the possibility for learners to interact with each other and with teachers and native speakers--thus providing opportunities for practice and intrinsic feedback on communicative competence--an issue has risen around the continuing role of conscious reflection. Is conscious reflection, in fact, still necessary in a more interactive learning environment? We argue here that it is, and that a challenge is facing the developers of the virtual language classroom to combine the processes of conscious reflection with those of spontaneous interaction. In our view, the medium of asynchronous conferencing is particularly well suited to such a combination as it is flexible with regard to place and pace, and able to support both monologue- and conversation-like forms of written language exchange. Here we examine the kinds of reflectiveness and interactivity that are mediated through such exchanges, and discuss their value for learning. We examine some examples of CMC exchanges generated during an online course in French, and propose a pedagogy which focuses on the generation of what we are calling "reflective conversation," that is, computer-mediated asynchronous discussion around language topics and language-learning issues

Analyse de Concordances in The Classroom: a resource book for teachers

Cet article analyse un livre ou un document.This article reviews a book or document

La recherche-développement en didactique des langues : trois questions, trois ouvertures

Face à une conception de la recherche-développement en linguistique appliquée comme pratique individuelle aboutissant à la production d’un objet souvent plus utile à son inventeur qu’à ses destinataires, cet article énonce trois priorités pour ceux qui cherchent à la repenser : l’attention portée au développement collaboratif de cette recherche, à la viabilité du modèle économique qui la sous-tend, et à son ouverture sur les principes du libre partage et de la modification créative des objets d’apprentissage.Research and development in applied linguistics is often an individual practice resulting in a product of greater use to its inventor than to its target users. In this article we list three priorities for those interested in rethinking this practice, including : a focus on collaborative research, attention paid to the economic model underpinning the research, and engagement with the principles of free access to and creative reuse of learning objects

Learning to learn a language – at home and on the Web

This paper reports on work at the Open University's Centre for Modern Languages (CML) and Institute of Educational Technology (IET), on the use of technology to support language learners working at home and in virtual groups via the Internet. We describe the Lexica On-Line project, which created a learning environment for Open University students of French, incorporating computer-based lexical tools to De used at home, an on-line discussion forum, and guided access to the Francophone Web. We report on some of the outcomes of this project, and discuss the effectiveness of such a configuration for the promotion of reflective language-learning practices. Robin Goodfellow is a lecturer in New Technology in Teaching at the Open University's Institute of Educational Technology. His research interests in foreign language learning are in lexical acquisition and learning via asynchronous networks. Marie-Nolle Lamy is a senior lecturer in French at the Open University's Centre for Modern Languages. Her research interests are in French lexicology and syntax and student strategies for distance-learning of French