Cross-Cultural Multimedia Language Learning: Case Study and Analysis Carsten Ullrich, Kerstin Borau, Scott Grant, Daniel Jackson, Ruimin Shen

MotivationLanguage learning: communication, interaction and authenticityInvestigate how to promote production of spoken languageintercultural exchangeusing synchronous and asynchronous tools for collaborative learning tasks and intercultural exchangeResponsive Open Learning Environmentswww.role-project.eu

Participants Shanghai, China and Monash, Australia.82 Chinese adult learners (ages 20-30) Shanghai Jiao Tongs Distance Education College Newspaper Discussion3 hours for 15 weeks Blended classrooms

Participants 31 Australian undergraduates (ages 18-22) Chinese Media Studies (CMS): Chinese domestic/international news in online Chinese media2 hours for 13 weeks: 2 hour seminar and 1 hour computer labClasses are face to face

ToolsVideo Conference synchronous communication+ widespread- installation requiredChat synchronous communication (asynchronous element via chat rooms)+ widespread- installation requiredMultimedia discussion tool

Pattern

Analysis: CreationStudents created 43 documents15 authored by Australian students (8 groups with at least one thread)28 authored by Chinese (17 students with at least one thread, correspond to homework ratio)Wide range of topics5 video threads (4 Australian, 1 Chinese), 21 pictures threads (1 Australian, 20 Chinese)Significant differences regarding content between two classes

Content: Chinese1/3(10) on cultural topics (differences between Chinese generations, festivals, food...). 2/3 (18) on private life of the students (self introductions, job description, holiday pictures, and their home village)

Content: AustralianFocused mostly on Australia (11 on tourism, food, animals, educational system, etc). 4 threads of a more personal nature: self-introductions and how they spend their time during Easter

Personal vs. impersonal threads Half of the Chinese threads had titles that could be classified as personal,"My company life, "My home village". Australian titles were more "objective":"Australia's Educational System", "Australian FoodEven personal threads carried impersonal titles such as "Easter Australia".

CommentingChinese: 26 students, average of 6 commentsAustralian: 19 students, average of 3 commentsSimilar amount of comments for video and pictures threads

Differences in CommentingAustralian students commented on Chinese threads (3 vs. 63 comments). Chinese students commented on Australian and Chinese threads, yet 3 times more often on Chinese threads (37 vs. 121 comments).Different interpretations of the activities? Australian students highly interested in communicating with their Chinese peersChinese more interested in communication in general

Differences in Type of CommentsLimitations can be of advantage for learning goals: VoiceThread did not allow typing in Chinese characters Australian students had to use voice for practicing ChineseChinese: writing more secure than speaking English

By Australians By Chinese Spoken 59 36 Typed 7 118

Personal/impersonal Distinction in CommentsChinese students commented on Australian threads with personal focuswatched threads about general Australian topics, but almost never commentedAustralian studentscommented on social threads: "Chinese News Report 3: Large Eyes" (17 comments). No comments by Chinese students.similar high amount of comments in thread about vacation (17 Australian, 18 Chinese comments)

Chinese students perception

completely agree (%) somewhat agree (%) neutral (%) somewhat disagree (%) completely disagree (%) VT motivates me to use English 47 25 23 5 0 VT improves the sense of community in the course 57 22 16 5 0 VT is an interesting and fun way of practicing my English skills 45 33 19 2 2 Using VT, I can improve my English 48 27 22 3 0

What do you like about using VoiceThread in the course?

What do you not like about using VoiceThread in the course?

RecommendationsThird-party service "in the cloudno installation but: no control, latency problemsTeacher: preload used materials do not upload live, but previously recorded documents to avoid repeated recording Developers: allow live creation and upload of previously authored documentscater for slow Internet connections!

Identity, Rights, and Group Management Teachers create several accounts in classshow over and over how to author threads and notify peers. Developers implement easy to use contact and group managementreuse contact lists from other social networksone central place for privacy and rights management settings

Recommendations: StatisticsTeacher:check which data the used tool is collecting, and then decide on a grading schemeDevelopers make sure the tool collects and provides data about all actions possible with the tool, on a per user basis (if allowed by the users' privacy settings).annotate data with a time stamp and a user identifier

Active practiceMost threads were original and of high qualityVirtual presence of native speakers made authoring tasks less artificialStudents produced content that enabled their peers to learn more about each other and each others culture Different input modalities are usedTeachers: make documents as public as possible to increase motivation to deliver high-quality work. Developersenable ways to show-case created documents

CommunicationCommunication between both classes did take place, but not to the degree we hoped for. Questions were not answered, possibly due to the thread authors not noticing themTeachers monitor threads and notify students of unanswered commentsencourage and upload questions Developersprovide ways to notify authors of commentsoffer incentives for commenting

ConclusionPattern for cross-cultural language learning was applied successfullyStudents created significant amount of original, high quality documents and commented on each other's threads. Communicated in the target language and thus had practice opportunities not available otherwise. Students liked being able to communicate, create and share.

Conclusions/SurprisesBut: full potential of our pattern was not exploitedUnanswered questions in the comments

Unexpected: different views on the activitiesAustralian: topic-centered, doing homework, practiceChinese: practice, but from a social perspective

Thank YouQuestions?Contact: ullrich.c@gmail.comhttp://www.carstenullrich.nethttp://twitter.com/ullrich