International Classroom: A Telecommunicative Project for Foreign Language Learning

1. International Classroom:A Telecommunicative Project for Foreign Language Learning Presented by Chen, I-Jung

2. Successful communication over native like perfection • Increased global contacts • ESL speakers outnumber English as the first language speakers

3. Commnuicative Competence • Communicative competence refers to the ability to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts (Brown, 2000). “Culturally Literacy” — the awareness and understanding of those underlying cultural differences, which may give rise to problems (Truscott & Morley, 2001).

4. Computer-mediated Communication • e-mail, instant message, chat room, forum, bulletin board, and blog • connected with people worldwide • without being confined to certain place and time, • at no extra expense. • engaging in direct and meaningful communication with real readers • flexibility, affordability and authenticity • boost English communicative motivation • increase the writing production in target language • enhance the development of cultural awareness

5. Challenges of English Learning in Taiwan • lack of opportunities for real communication • large EFL class sizes →CMC as an effective tool for providing an authentic English learning environment and materials

6. This study investigates the effects of CMC on • English communicative motivation • Learners’ reading and writing behaviors • overall perceptions

7. Method • Participants • 52 Taiwanese English majors • “Multimedia English Learning” • met with instructors once a week for 100 minutes each time • a lower intermediate language level • 52 American pre-service teachers (PSTs) • “Curriculum and Teaching” • None had prior teaching experience

8. Procedure(1/3) • The instruction tool : a website created by the authors • Project length: twelve weeks • First two class sessions : project orientation, student pairing, e-mail addresses and IM account collecting • The third class meeting : students tried to answer the first mail with guidance from the instructor.

9. Procedure(2/3) three tasks • a formal and an informal letter • an invitation letter • key message from a film clip

10. Procedure(3/3) • The dyads first had to discuss the main content of the assignment. • EFL students created a first draft of the writing assignment for their US key pals to revise and edit. • The drafts went back and forth until the US key pals considered the writing acceptable. • The authors posted the final work of each dyad on the website for all participants’ reference.

11. Data Collection a student survey(5 parts): • general interaction with key pals • reading and writing behaviors • learning performance • English communicative motivation • overall perceptions of the whole project

12. Results General interaction between key pals

13. Reading and writing behaviors

14. Learning performance

15. English communicative motivation

16. Overall perceptions of this projectStudents’ reflection on how they thought about this experience • task topics being useful • anxious first • relieved after they had successfully exchanged the first few mails with the key pals • making foreign friends online was fun • a good way to learn English • multifaceted advantages of interacting with native speakers • they did not know what to talk with the key pals • anxious because of their lower English ability

17. Discussion(1/3) advantages • enhancing the communicative motivation • Supplementing the interpersonal interaction lacking in the large size class • Developing communicative competence through negotiation and interaction

18. Discussion(2/3) • customized lessons • reducing the anxiety caused by the immediate response and promotes the participation of this online correspondence • native key pals as the best resource of target language and culture

19. Discussion(3/3) Reasons for discontinuing corresponding • Workload • Lower language abilities • No common interests • Unequal contribution • Personal reasons • Different schedules

20. Suggestions(1/2) • carefully design tasks • supporting activities in the class meetings to facilitate and sustain correspondence : • Providing topics or questions for students to find out from the key pals. • A presentation to share with the whole class about what students found from their key pals. • Reading short articles as discussion topics and prerequisite knowledge for discussions.

21. Conclusion • a fun and innovative experience • collaborative task completion. • positive stimuli in communicative motivation • the readiness for the communication

22. ~The End~