1. Models of Telecollaboration:
The Increasing Prevalence of ELF
(and other Lingua Francas)
Sarah Guth
University of Padova, Italy
1 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

2. Outline
 Brief overview of the dominant models of
telecollaboration used in the past decade
 INTENT survey: telecollaboration in Europe today
 New models of telecollaboration
 Challenges for teachers, affordances for learners
 ELF beyond English as a lingua franca?
2 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

3. Telecollaboration and ELF
 The majority of ELF research has focused on F2F
communication.
 The use of ELF (and other languages as a lingua franca)
in online communication, not only written, but
increasingly spoken, is becoming ever more
predominant.
 Telecollaboration is the activity of collaborative project
work between groups of learners across time zones and
geographical distance through the use of commonly
available social networking tools, and encompasses the
development of language proficiency, intercultural
communicative competence, and multiliteracies.
3 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012
 Telecollaboration is an institutionalized form of this

4. „Traditional‟ models
Cultura
institutio institutio
n n
Communication in L1
eTandem
individua individua
l l
Reciprocation: 50% in L1
50% in L2
University telecollaboration
institutio institutio
n n
Mix of L1 and L2 based on
institutional requirements
4 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

5. New needs, new opportunities
FL teacher trainees
Difficulty finding classes of
NSs
Outgoing Erasmus students
Telecollaboration
2.0
Lingua Francas
greater Interent access
more familiarity with tools
5 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

6. An Erasmus Multilateral Project promoting
virtual intercultural exchange between
university classrooms in Europe and beyond.
Universities across Europe are increasingly turning
their attention to the themes of internationalisation,
student mobility and the development of students'
foreign language and intercultural competencies.
The INTENT project (Integrating Telecollaborative
Networks into Foreign Language Higher
Education) aims to support university educators and
policy makers in these areas by developing a
network of telecollaboration for universities in
6 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012
Europe and beyond.

7. What are our Aims
 Establish a clear overview of the levels of use of
telecollaboration, explore attitudes to the activity among
key stake holders across European Higher Education
Institutions, and identify practical barriers to the take-up
of telecollaboration.
 Develop a set of tools, telecollaborative models and
partner networks to overcome barriers and facilitate
telecollaboration practice.
 Develop a set of workable solutions to address the lack
of academic recognition which telecollaboration receives
at Higher Education level.
 Publish an online training manual with models of
telecollaborative exchange which enable a closer
integration of virtual and physical mobility.
 Engage decision makers at institutional, regional and
7 national levels in a collaborative dialogue as to how
ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012
telecollaboration can be effectively employed as a tool for

8. Main Activities
 Survey of online intercultural exchange projects which
are currently being carried out across Europe
 6 case studies describing telecollaboration in university
contexts
 Virtual platform (www.uni-collaboration.eu) where
educators can find partner classes as well as information
and training for their telecollaborative projects.
 Tools for telecollaborative teachers including an e-
portfolio to evaluate students' projects, databanks of
telecollaborative tasks, and case studies which teachers
can use to help them set up their own exchanges.
 Regional workshops and an international conference on
the theme of telecollaboration for university education.
8 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

9. The survey
4 versions:
 English version: November 17
 French version: December 4, 2011
 German version: December 4, 2011
 Italian version: December 7, 2011
 All versions were „closed‟ on January 21, 2012
9 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

10. Respondents
Questionnaires completed:
 210 teachers, primarily FL teachers and FL teacher
education teachers
 142 universities/HEIs
 22 European countries
 102 teachers with experience of telecollaboration
 108 with no experience of telecollaboration
 131 students who had participated in at least one
telecollaboration project
10 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

11. Sts:
configurations
Telecollaboration „models‟ or „configurations‟ based on
open answers:
 bilingual exchanges involving discussion of topics in both
bilingual
languages
primarily
monolingal
 translation projects
Monolingual
(often not
English)
 teacher trainees and foreign language learners
 a multi-disciplinary project focusing on conflict resolution
ELF
11 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

12. Teacher
s Bilingual - two languages are used 56%
Monolingual - only one language is
33%
used
Lingua Franca - foreign language for all
20%
partners
Multilingual - more than two languages
10%
are used
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Student
A foreign language that we could all
s speak
31%
A combination of our native languages 24%
Only my partners' native language 28%
Only my native language 8%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
12 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

13. Partners: how many and where
13 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

14. New Trends in Telecollaboration
 Soliya & Exchange 2.0 (US – Europe – Middle East – Asia)
 COIL Institute (US – Belize, US – North Korea, US –
Japan, US – Canary Islands, etc.)
 Teacher training
 Netherlands-Chile using Spanish,
 France-USA using French,
 Spain-USA using English
 Erasmus (pre, during, post)
 Padova-Boston, Bilingual
 Padova-various countries, multilingual & ELF
 „into the wild‟
 gaming (e.g. Thorne & Black, learning Russian to game)
 blogging (e.g. Guth, using English to blog)
 online discussion forums (e.g. Hanna & de Nooy, French)
14 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

15. Challenges for teachers,
affordances for learners
But…
• opportunities to move beyond cultural
comparison of two countries and discuss culture at
• more profound level colleagues, heads of
a difficulties convincing
department and to focus on subject-related content
• opportunities decision-makers that lingua franca
exchanges are valid learning experiencesnature of
• opportunities to focus on the authentic
• assessmentcommunication, e.g. code-switching
lingua franca (what? how?)
• difficulties providing and/or how to manage
(empowering the NNS) recognition (credits) for
participation
miscommunication with words such as
•student belief that only NSor culturally-based
„education‟, „individualism‟ are valid partners
concepts
15 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

16. Discussion
 Arguments from the socio-cultural, cultural, ecological, etc.
points of view regarding English as a Lingua Franca should not
only play a greater role in field of ELF, but be expanded to any
use of a language as a lingua franca.
 The definition of a linguathen, is a mismatch between“the main
“The problem, franca as a context where
[…] has happened of the (only) English in
objective whatis to make use to the role of language shared by all
interactants, […] in orderthe achieve the fullest it is
the world on to one hand and how communication
possible” (Seidlhofer, as
thought of 2011, p. 18) should include a languages
„a language‟ and all
used as a lingua franca. subject on the other.”
language
 English is undoubtedly the most2011, p. 9)
(Seidlhofer, widespread language
currently, but other languages are gaining weight in international
communication, e.g. Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese.
 To conclude, the research into ELF from a socio-cultural and
ecological standpoint should invite and welcome research into
other lingua francas if we want to not necessarily transform, but
increase the variety of FL teaching in today‟s globalized context.
16 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

17. Questions? Discussion?
17 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

18. contacts
sarah.guth@unipd.it
INTENT: intent-project.eu
COIL Institute:
http://coilcenter.purchase.edu/page/about-coil-
institute-globally-networked-learning-humanities
18 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012

19. Thank you.
Teşekkür ederim.
Grazie.
19 ELF5, Istanbul, Turkey 13/08/2012