1. Task design for intercultural
telecollaboration in secondar y schools
I n s i g h t s f r o m t h e E U p r o j e c t T I L A
Petra Hoffstaedter & Kurt Kohn
Steinbeis-Transferzentrum Sprachlernmedien
www.sprachlernmedien.de
petra.hoffstaedter@gmail.com
kohn.kurt@gmail.com
EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Our topics
 Context and rationale
 Rubbing shoulders with reality
 Waiting for better days?
 Effects of class organisation
 “Notre tête est ronde”
 Case study 1: tandem conversations in OpenSim
 Case study 2: lingua franca conversations in BigBlueButton
 Conclusion

3. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Context and rationale
 The EU project TILA explores the use of telecollaboration for intercultural foreign
language learning in secondary schools – WHY?
1. Successful foreign language learning requires
 extensive small group communication practice
 in ordinary intercultural encounters
2. Telecollaborative communication facilitates authenticated intercultural FL learning
 Asynchronous: forum, wiki, blog
 Synchronous: sound/video conferencing (Skype, BigBlueButton), 3D virtual worlds
(SecondLife, OpenSim)
 TILA task ensembles in blended learning settings
 preparatory: getting to know each other, knowledge development, familiarizing
 face-to-face or online, synchronous or asynchronous, individual or collaborative
 main: intercultural communicative interactions embedding in overall class curriculum
 in synchronous (BBB, OS) and/or asynchronous (forum, blog) environments
 follow-up: securing learning results
 face-to-face or online, synchronous or asynchronous, individual or collaborative
 Innovation focus = synchronous oral communication
 in the 3D virtual world of OpenSim
 in the videoconferencing environment BigBlueButton

4. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Rubbing shoulders with reality
 Technological infrastructures in secondary schools
 sufficient for synchronous (written) chat and asynchronous (written) forum, blog
 far less sufficient for synchronous oral (BBB, OpenSim)
 Teacher feedback and participant observations (from first TILA pilots)
 poor sound quality (disturbances, breakdowns)
 survival communication (“Can you hear me?”)
 Positive feedback from pupils
 YES: encouraging evidence of the high motivation potential of TC
 BUT: first-time effect (which will not last if problems persist)
 Seemingly positive feedback must not distract from sound quality as a necessary
condition for pedagogic success

5. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Waiting for better days?
It would be a serious mistake to expect everything will be fine with just a little bit of more
time and technological development
 Technological development
 can take quite unexpected turns
 and will not necessarily move in our direction
 unless we voice our interests and needs loud and clearly
 Availability of potentially powerful technological infrastructures is increasing
 BUT: effects of “light weight” mobile computing (private)
 BUT: insufficient coverage (in institutions)
 BUT: underuse of potential: lack of expertise and support (e.g. sound settings)

6. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Effects of class organisation
The technological quality of synchronous oral telecollaboration is closely linked to class
(group) organisation
 Traditional face-to-face focus on class times, class locations and class-size groups
 not necessarily suitable for synchronous oral telecollaboration
 Full-class exchanges with VC/data projector offer (only) limited communication
options
 one-to-many
 one-to-one (with rest of class as observers or background support)
 Small parallel telecollaboration groups in PC lab
 lack of communicative privacy
 reduced sound/video quality because of temporary network overload
 class organisation?

7. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
“Notre tête est ronde pour permettre à la
pensée de changer de direction.”
Francis Picabia
(1879-1953)
 We need to
 reconsider and adapt
 our concepts and strategies of class organisation
 to the conditions of telecollaboration

8. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Case study 1:
Tandem conversations in virtual worlds (OpenSim)
Four successive telecollaboration sessions between a French and a German class via school PC lab
 Learning objective: communication practice in French and German;
intercultural awareness
 Thematic focus: waste disposal, vegetarian diet,
fashion, and Europe
 Pedagogical approach:
 tandem French/German
 learning stations with posters in French or German
 French/German pairs of pupils walk from poster to
poster and discuss a topic in the poster or session language
 BL arrangement: preparatory and follow-up activities in F2F, forum, blog or wiki
Level: A2/B1
Age: 14/15

9. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Case study 1:
OpenSim tandem sessions with PC lab support
Sessions A1 and A2
• 6 French/German tandem pairs in OpenSim via school PC lab
• French pupils together in same PC lab
• German pupils in one PC lab together with 6 classmates for background
support
• 3 posters in French and 3 posters in German
• French/German language shift within one session determined by poster
• Topic: “waste disposal” (session A1) and “vegetarian diet” (session A2)
Session C
• 4 French/German tandem pairs
• Same PC lab setting as in A1/A2, but no “supporting” classmates in
German PC lab
• Topic: “Fashion” (posters /pictures of participating pupils)
• Posters & communication only in German (=> no language shift)
Session B
• 4 French/German tandem pairs
• Same PC lab setting as in A1/A2
• Topic: “Europe” (posters created by the German students)
• Posters & communication only in French (=> no language shift)
Session variables:
• Different topics
• Language shift vs. no language shift
• No. of students (6 vs. 4 pairs)
• With/without “supporting” classmates
Developmental set-up: to find out what works best
and make improvements from one exchange to the next

10. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Case study 1:
Teacher and student feedback
• Topics: preference to talk about personal experiences, likes, dislikes,
habits and opinions (favorite topic: fashion)
• Posters: flexible means to provide stimuli for communication and
discovery of intercultural differences and similarities
• Language of communication: preference for focus on one language
• Students as background support: distracting and causing language
switches
• Lab situation: lack of communicative privacy
(> disturbing background noise due to parallel telecollaboration pairs)
• Technical problems: network overload (> sound problems; avatars
only visible as clouds)
• Class organisation: challenge to take care of the rest of the class
Topics
Posters
Language
Background
support
Lab situation
Technical issues
Class
organisation

11. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Case study 2:
Lingua franca conversations in BigBlueButton and forum
Telecollaboration sessions between a Dutch and a French class to explore outside-class
exchanges using the videoconferencing (BigBlueButton), Skype) and forum
 Learning objective: communication practice in German; intercultural awareness
 Thematic focus: 10 topics to choose from, e.g. dress code in school, a day without
mobile phone or computer, is it important to think about where our clothes are made
 Pedagogical approach:
 Lingua franca German (i.e. German is the target language for both partners)
 Pair conversations in BigBlueButton or Moodle forum
 Telecollaborative homework, i.e. access to BigBlueButton and forum from home
 BL arrangement: preparatory and follow-up activities

12. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Case study 2:
Task arrangements
Level: A2/B1 ; Age: 14/15
Time span: two weeks
Preparatory activities:
• Decision on tool (BBB or forum) depending on
pupils’ preference and/or technological
infrastructure (teachers formed matching pairs)
• Partner contact and BBB meeting arrangements by
email (autonomous)
Telecollabration task:
• BBB: “discuss 5 topics and take notes”
• Forum: “discuss 3 topics in the forum”
Follow-up activities
• Summarizing conversation protocols
• Final discussion in class and/or presentation of
results in a wiki (could not be carried out due to
time constraints)

13. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Case study 2:
Assessment – BBB vs. forum
Five pairs using videoconferencing:
• 2 very successful exchanges in BBB
• 1 switch to Skype (technical problems in BBB)
• 2 switches to chat (1 partner with sound problem
Thirteen pairs using the forum
• Contributions ranging between 1 and 11
posts
1
2
3
4
5
I enjoyed the
online task
I found the
online task
interesting for
interaction with
peers of other
countries
I found the
online task
useful for my
language learning
The online task
helped me
discover new
things about the
other culture
I would suggest
to a friend to
take part in this
kind of online
collaboration
I would like to
use online tasks
with students
from other
countries more
often
BBB
Forum
Questionnaire results
• 7 BBB participants
• 8 forum participants

14. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Case study 2:
Teacher and student feedback
Homework
approach
Lingua Franca
Topics
Technical issues
(BBB)
Organisational
issues
• Students liked to communicate from home (BBB): more relaxed, no time pressure,
no pressure from teachers
• According to teachers, this had a positive effect on pupils’ communication
=> natural and fluent conversations
• No disturbing background noise from other students (like in PC Lab)
• Students liked to talk to other learners of German
• The French students were less worried to make mistakes
• The Dutch students made an effort to communicate well and seriously
• Very positive reaction from teachers
• Topics were suitable for spontaneous communication
• Students choose topics they were personally interested in
• Students could talk about own experiences and opinions
• Students helped each other with technical problems
• They used written chat or a combination of sound and chat when sound did not
work for one partner
• They switched to Skype when BBB did not work for them
• Making appointments for the telecollaboration in BBB was no problem
• All students were involved in the task (BBB or Forum)
• Students who did the forum discussion seemed to need more encouragement
to perform the task

15. EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014
Conclusion
Telecollaboration activities offer
 motivating opportunities for natural communication and intercultural exchanges
. . . and acknowledgement
Our study would not have been possible without the creative expertise and enthusiastic
commitment of “our” teachers
 Cathérine Felce, College La Cerisaie, Charenton-le-Pont, France
 Helga Frömming, Berlage Lyceum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
 Hajo Zenzen, Gymnasium Saarburg, Germany
Outside-class / homework activities are
 pedagogicaly valid
 technologically feasible