The linguistic landscape: enhancing multiliteracies through decoding signs in public spaces

What is it? The Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a relatively new field which draws from several disciplines such as applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and cultural geography. According to Landry and Bourhis (1997), “the language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration” (p. 25). More recently, the type of signs that can be found in the public space has broadened to include the language on T-shirts, stamp machines, football banners, postcards, menus, products, tattoos, and graffiti. Despite this wider variety of signs, Landry and Bourhis’s (1997) definition still captures the essence of the LL, which is multimodal (signs combine visual, written, and sometimes audible data) and can also incorporate the use of multiple languages (multilingual

Training teachers for virtual collaboration: A case study

This study aims to explore the development of teachers' competences when trained in virtual collaboration. In order to do so, we analyse the data gathered from a group of nine in-service teachers who were trained in a forum and a wiki to become future telecollaborative teachers (TTs). During the course, participants worked in small groups and they had to carry out a series of tasks that included reviewing articles on virtual collaboration and implementing a hypothetical exchange. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on the content from the forum, wiki pages and answers to an end-of-course questionnaire. Findings suggest that there is a relationship between successful collaboration and the development of the knowledge base and competences required by the TT. Therefore, ensuring that sufficient quality interaction takes place among group members is essential in order to encourage the emergence of sound and friendly relationships that will facilitate active participation and negotiation of meanin

Identifying collaborative behaviours online: training teachers in wikis

In this paper we explore the data gathered from a group of nine in-service teachers who were trained online to become future telecollaborative teachers. Participants from different countries worked in two small groups in a wiki designed specially to facilitate discussion and collaboration. Tasks included reading and reviewing articles on telecollaboration, critically analysing examples from authentic exchanges, organising a hypothetical exchange and designing a tool for its assessment. Analyses of the pattern, scope and nature of user contributions as reliable measures of collaborative behaviours by wiki-users were carried out on the data gathered from six wiki pages and corresponding discussion pages. Findings and discussion elaborate on the collaborative behaviour (or lack thereof) observed among participant

Developing key competences for life-long learning through virtual collaboration: Teaching ICT in English as a medium of instruction

This study presents the findings from a group of forty-nine fourth year undergraduate students who were trained in a blended learning environment over two months in order to acquire base knowledge and hands-on experience about information and communication technologies (ICT) and their possible applications to the EFL classroom. The course was taught in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) and participants worked in a wiki designed specially to facilitate discussion and collaboration in the foreign language. Data were gathered from the participants' answers to an end-of-course questionnaire that featured eight five-point Likert-scale questions and five open-ended questions; quantitative and qualitative analyses were then performed upon the answers. Our findings and discussions elaborate on the impact the course had on the participants' perceptions regarding the acquisition of key competences for life-long learningThis research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (EDU2014-54673-R

Research into practice: Virtual exchange in language teaching and learning

In this article, the authors reflect on the ways research on Virtual Exchange (VE) has had an impact on language education practices and, conversely, areas in which research has been underexplored, misapplied or perhaps even over applied by VE practitioners in formal education settings. Starting from a brief historical overview of VE, the text first outlines the features widely accepted as key aspects of this pedagogical approach before considering to what extent research results can be identified in VE implementation. Principal topics covered are the main aims regarding language development when VE is applied, assessment of language development through VE and VE and intercultural competence. While the article is not intended as a comprehensive review, it provides insight into the main foci of VE research and how these findings are reaching the language classroom (primary, secondary and university)Research was funded by the VELCOME project, granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTI2018-094601-B-100). It was also supported by Assess.net, a Marie Curie Fellowship project (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 845783), funded by the European Commission, Research Executive Agency, Horizon 202

Computer-mediated corrective feedback and language accuracy in telecollaborative exchanges

Recent studies illustrate the potential that intercultural telecollaborative exchanges entail for language development through the use of corrective feedback from collaborating partners (Kessler, 2009; Lee, 2008; Sauro, 2009; Ware & O’Dowd, 2008). We build on this growing body of research by presenting the findings of a three-monthlong research project that explored the impact of peer feedback on the development of learner accuracy. Our aim was to study participants’ attention to form and the relative effectiveness of error correction strategies. In order to do so, we organised an e-mail exchange between seventeen post-secondary learners of Spanish and German. Data consist of exchanges between the five dyads who completed the full three-month project. As suggested by Vinagre and Lera (2008), analysis of these data indicate that despite frequent use of error correction, the use of remediation led to a higher percentage of errors recycled and was more conducive to error recycling in later language productio

Evaluative language for rapport building in virtual collaboration: an analysis of appraisal in computer-mediated interaction

This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Language and Intercultural Communication on 3 Oct. 2017, available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14708477.2017.1378227The main objective of this study is to explore how students who participate in virtual intercultural exchanges use evaluative language to build rapport and encourage collaboration. Data were gathered from 211 email messages sent by 40 Spanish and American university students and were tagged following Martin and White’s Appraisal model. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the lexico-grammatical tokens revealed that the participants used mostly Affect tokens in their interaction. This suggests that the students preferred expressing their own feelings and emotions rather than judging their partners’ behaviour or evaluating phenomena as a strategy to construct a positive and appealing personal identityThis work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad: [Grant Number EDU2014 54673R