Online cafés for heritage learners

Day 2: Content/tasks/sequence/

media for online intercultural exchanges

---Gilberte Furstenberg

NFLRC Workshop

University of Hawai‘i

June 18, 2008

The projects presented

The three projects:The original Cultura Project (between MIT and other universities/institutions in France)

The Italy-Padova exchangeThe Spanish High School exchange

These three projects all take place within a language class

Topics (on which students base their online discussions)

General statement: the goals will greatly define the topics

The choice of topics: some important considerations: The topics need (ideally) to be chosen by both partners

They need to fit the stated goals They need to cover a wide range The choices will be made mostly by teachers but to some extent by students

General statement: the content needs to be pertinent to the two cultures involved

The Cultura goals and content

The goals: Understand the values, attitudes, beliefs and concepts inherent in another culture - discover how people in the other culture interact, look at the world and frame their thoughts and ideas, and why.

The content of the original Cultura site: Responses to three questionnaires National polls/statistics Films Media Texts (founding texts and texts written by “experts” - historians/sociologists/literary writers)

Images (photos and videos)

The connections between class and

online work Students work in and outside of class, both on their own and in groups.Outside of class, students work individually on specific documents (ex: answer the intercultural questionnaires (in their “native” language), analyze the responses, research national surveys, watch the films, read articles, upload images and write and send comments in the on-line discussion forums, based upon assignments given by the teacher

Inside the classroom, students share their observations with each other.

The sequence of events : a closer look

Stage 1: Students analyze a document individually (ex: the responses to the questionnaires) based upon a worksheet provided by the teacher.

Stage 2: Students come back to class and share their observations with their classmates, then go on the board trying to make connections between the different documents. This leads to whole class discussions.

The sequence of events (continued)

Stage 3: Outside of class, students go on the online forums, posting individual comments, based on their own observations and the class discussions and asking their partners many questions (add example)

Stage 4: They come back to class with a selection of comments by their peers from abroad which they share with each other in groups. Some of the comments are discussed in the class as a whole

Stage 5: Students go back to the website to explore other/new materials, gradually refining their understanding in the light of every new data analyzed, in a continuous growing circular motion

A summary of the process

Step 1

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A summary

Step 2

QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video decompressorare needed to see this picture.

A summary

Step 3

QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video decompressorare needed to see this picture.

The choice of language for the online

discussion forums Our choice: students write in their “native” language.

Rationale for using one’s native language in the on-line forums No linguistic dominance by any person or any group.

Everyone is on an equal footing. Students can express their thoughts fully (not limited

by their linguistic abilities). They are thus equally able to write about complex issues

In return, students: read completely authentic texts (in French/Spanish/

German, etc.) written in a very contemporary language Use the language of the other when they speak in class

and write their essays and projects And the differences in discourse become yet a new

cultural object of analysis

The place of language learning

The discussions focus mostly on the differences students perceive in terms of cultural attitudes but language is also an integral part of their learning.Students use their “native” language in the online discussion forums but the target language in class and in their assignments, essays, etc..

By virtue of the French students writing in French in the on-line forums, students constantly read French and learn a lot about:

vocabulary (contemporary and authentic) grammar (in context). Ex: the use of the pronoun (direct/indirect) Ex: the ways of expressing agreements/disagreements (indicative/subjunctive)

the discourse markers

The different media used

In terms of content: texts, websites, photos, vidéos, films

In terms of communication modes:Essentially: text-based discussion forums

Combination of photos (students select and upload photos or videos) and texts (to accompany the photos and comment on their partners’ photos)

Occasionally: videoconferences

New tools, new pedagogical practices

Such a project changes the role of the teacher and the students.

We are not the only voice of authority in the classroom

Our main role as teachers is to give students as many opportunities as possible to share with others what they have discovered, to reflect, discuss, confront points of view and allow multiple voices and perspectives to emerge in the classroom

The classroom becomes…

… a highly interactive place where students, taking center stage and interacting with their classmates, develop more insights, co-construct and expand their own knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.

What this changes (continued)…

This obviously clearly brings the process (of constructing knowledge) into the limelight, not the finished product. Students are like “cultural archeologists”, trying to make initial connections which they will then try to confirm or revise in the light of new materials they will analyze, trying to bring patterns to light and put together the cultural puzzle.

Incidentally, I would also argue for an extensive use of black/white boards (our old staple!). They play a vital role as they make the students’ observations visible to the whole class and thus provides them with the ability to reflect further. They act as wonderful mirrors of the students’ thought processes and as springboards for further general reflection, interpretation and discussion.

The specific role of the teacher

Sharing goals and means with the students (ex: what language to use and when)

Providing appropriate materials and a sequence (ex: calendar)

Assigning tasks/projects and designing worksheets

Ensuring good quality intercultural exchanges (providing appropriate prompts)For a more detailed look at the teacher’s role in the classroom, see: The Teacher’s role (Word document)

And… >

Evaluating students’ intercultural understanding

Important question: how to evaluate a process?Carnets de bord or PortfoliosSynthesesAnalyses of new materials

For assessment of asynchronous forums, see the LLT June 2008 issue, Vol.2, Number 2: Asynchronous forums in EAP: assessment issues

The US-Italy ExchangeThe partners:

Masters’ level students in an advanced English class in “Foreign Languages for International Communication”, at the U. of Padova, Italy

Undergraduate students in an Italian intensive writing course focusing on the history and culture of Italy, at Dickinson College in

The exchange was the major part of the course for the students at Padova, but only a component of the writing course at Dickinson.

For more information, see the website (under partner classes)

A closer look at the Padova - Dickinson

exchange contentThe main website

The aims

The topics explored (choice driven mostly by the Dickinson College syllabus)

The Padova-Dickinson exchange (continued)

Weekly calendars and activitiesIntroductionsQuestionnaires

Word associationsSentence completions

Other materials used (under Resources)

Articles: Italy seen from the USArticles: the US seen from the USVideos from YouTube

The means of communication

Asynchronous online discussion forums, some based on: The answers to the questionnaires (ex: about lifestyles)

Articles and videos The questions posed (chosen by both teachers on the basis of questions posed by students in the class)

Skype conversations (once a week) Based on the conversations they had in class (about the diverse materials and subjects), students prepared a series of questions (cf week 5) which would become the basis of their conversations on Skype). Conversations not recorded.

Blogs

Collaborative writing of a wiki-based final project (as a end-of-semester final project)

Language(s) used in the exchanges

For the online discussion forums: one forum a week in English from the Italian students and one in Italian from the American students per week + English used for article about the US and Italian used for articles about Italy One interesting observation (from the American teacher in Padova): the Italian students who tend to use complex vocabulary and structures when writing in their own language simplified their writing when addressing themselves to the American students

For the Skype exchanges: the first half-hour everyone speaks English, for the second, everyone speaks Italian.

For the wiki final project: 50% in Italian, 50% in English. 25% will be written by the American student in Italian, 25% by the Italian students in Italian and 50% by the Italian students in English.

Final projects

Description and guidelinesThe different stages:

Selection of final project topics (below Week 7)

TasksCalendarPeer feedback (voting)

Assessment

This is the final activity self-assessment in terms of:

the exchange itself their own intercultural learning their own language learning

example of student self-assessment

The High School Spanish exchange:

topicsThe context: preparing for a physical exchange

The WebsiteThe topics (chosen mainly in terms of the textbook used by the school in Spain)FamilyEnvironmentArts and TravelImmigration

The High School Spanish exchange:

materials used Questionnaires (administered in class on a piece of paper and compiled by the instructors) formed the basis of the exchange.Questionnaires for each topic.

Ex: familyEx: environment

Results of the questionnaires about the environment

Answers from the American studentsAnswers from the Spanish students

How students worked with the materials

After the questionnaires were administered, (at the beginning of the terms) students: 1. went back to their textbooks and studied relevant vocabulary

2. discussed the results in class (in the target language): the similarities and differences they noticed

3. went on the online forums to share their observations with their foreign partners and ask questions

4. discussed the postings of the partners in class, looking both at content and language.

Modes of communication used

Online discussion forums: to talk about the topics (sometimes the teacher in Spain would interfere and participate in the discussions. The teacher in the US never would)

Chats : to talk about anything they wanted

Videoconferences were planned but never happened due to technical problems on the Spanish side

The language(s) used

A bit of everything In the online discussion forums:

Sometimes in their native languageExample 1 (The… environment)Example 2 (Problemas en Espana)

Sometimes a mixtureExample: Que se prefiere..playa o montana?

In the chatsSometimes all in English (ex: the exchange)

Sometimes all in Spanish (ex: la voz de la experienca)

To summarize Content is crucial (this is what will give substance and

meaning to the online discussions). Not a single recipe:

A variety of topics, content Different language choices Different things can happen in the respective classrooms. What is important is to try and make that third, common and shared space truly interactive and to ensure that it will generate real intercultural learning and understanding.

Choices will depend on cultural constraints (priorities, syllabi) in each institution and country. Compromises will always need to be made

But what cannot be compromised are the goals and the following question always needs to be asked: do the choices we make help us achieve our goals?