Language Learning Social Networks (LLSNs): Playing tennis with the net down?

Language Learning Social Networks (LLSNs): Playing tennis with the net down?

Gabriel Guillén

Brown Bag Series Custom Language Services (CLS)

3/30/2015

WHO > WHAT > WHY > HOW > QUESTIONS

Thesis about blogs and tandem learning (2008)

Dissertation: Expanding the language classroom: linguistic gains and learning opportunities through e-tandems and social networks (December, 2014)

500 words abstract: http://www.gaguillen.com

1) Assessed students’ knowledge and attitudes in regards to tandem learning and LLSNs, by means of a survey administered to 155 students and a preliminary experiment with e-tandems. The results encourage instructors and institutions to implement tandem projects and the use of LLSNs at the curricular level.

2) Measured and described proficiency development through a 10 week hybrid Spanish course with an e-tandem requirement, in contrast with a traditional course. The study found that both groups improved in the overall proficiency score. Furthermore, the hybrid learners outperformed the traditional course participants in regards to vocabulary, an indicator of fluency potential. A closer examination of the tandem recordings from a qualitative perspective showed that tandem participants increased language learning awareness and autonomy over time. In particular, learners who are more engaged and inquisitive from the first encounter seemed to progress at a faster rate.

3) Gave recommendations for using and developing LLSNs and explained the state of the art of what I called social Computer Assisted Language Learning (sCALL), an overarching term that includes not only LLSNs but tellecolaboration platforms and networks that connect instructors and learners.

LLSNs should focus on strengthening the longevity of tandems, ensuring that users find the most appropriate partners in terms of language level, interests, and location (connecting language learners in the same town). They should enhance feedback, translation tools, rating of users, tasks and projects, recordings, asynchronous and synchronous audiovisual features, and overall usability. The ideal LLSNs could be seen as an extension of the classroom, allowing learners to develop life-long learning skills. The dialogue between developers and the language profession should flow naturally from the core of the common interests.

http://www.gaguillen.com/2015/03/tandems-language-learning-social-networks




http://go.miis.edu/tandem




“as challenging as this task may seem, it potentially enables L2 speakers to free themselves from the role of language learner and assume another role of language user, projecting new selves through their language and discourse in virtual social spaces” (Klimanova & Dembovskaya, 2013, p. 70).

“an interactive, authentic, and meaningful language learning environment that many traditional language instruction contexts cannot provide” (Liaw 2011, p. 39).


NOT


“Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down” (Robert Frost)

We need the net We need scaffolding


● Train students or train yourself 1. Pay attention: what they say, how they say it. 2. Ask for clarification! Ask for corrections.3. Correct if your partner is ok with it. . But don’t overcorrect! Let the conversation flow. 4. Elicitation is better than explicit correction. Let the other person self-correct…5. Finish your sentences!6. Ask questions in your target language! 7. Rephrase, if you are not understood or you don’t find the right word. 8. Use comprehension checks. 9. Use examples… 10. Repeat what the other person says. Repeat what you say.

http://www.gaguillen.com/2013/03/tandem-rules




● Create weekly tasks that are relevant for your goals or the goals of your language course. Also, create tasks or projects that trigger collaboration and intercultural understanding. Be specific! Personalize your tasks. Get inspired here (intercultural projects): http://cultura.mit.edu http://unicollaboration.eu

http://cultura.mit.edu/

http://cultura.mit.edu/

http://unicollaboration.eu/


Ask your students to write weekly reports or keep a journal. “You will write a brief paragraph with your findings (no more than 8 lines) for each conversation…”What happens if they never meet up with their partners, if they don’t

hand in their dossiers, if they do not attend the final examination? Remember that after the early meetings, there is no more face-to-face contact with tutors. We had to learn to trust the students, to relinquish our control and to hand over responsibility. And we have been rewarded in our trust. Out of the several hundred students who have now participated in the scheme [tandem project], only a handful have not met the challenge – and they would probably have proved problematic in the more conservative class-based course unit as well. (Truscott & Morley, 2004, p. 157).


References, feedback, materials

[email protected] presentation

www.go.miis.edu/llsns

Next talk: April 20 Intercultural Communication, Cultural Relativism, and the Language Classroom (Professor Netta Avineri)

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.go.miis.edu/llsns

Education

Language Learning Social Networks (LLSNs): Playing tennis with the net down?