Augmenting Tandem LanguageLearning with the TandemTable

Erik PalukaUniversity of OntarioInstitute of Technology2000 Simcoe St. N.Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4 CanadaErik.Paluka@uoit.ca

Christopher CollinsUniversity of OntarioInstitute of Technology2000 Simcoe St. N.Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4 CanadaChristopher.Collins@uoit.ca

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AbstractIn this paper, we present our computer-assisted languagelearning system called TandemTable. It is designed for amulti-touch tabletop and is meant to aid co-locatedtandem language learners during their learning sessions.By suggesting topics of discussion, and presenting learnerswith a variety of conversation-focused collaborativeactivities with shared digital artifacts, the system helps toinspire conversations and help them flow.

Author Keywordstandem language learning; collaboration; education;multi-touch; interactive; digital tabletop

ACM Classification KeywordsH.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation (e.g.HCI)]: User Interfaces — User-centered design; K.3.1[Computers and Education]: Computer Uses in Education— Collaborative learning.

IntroductionTandem language learning (TLL) is a language learningmethod, in which two or more learners interact andcommunicate to improve their language skills. Based onthe mutual exchange of language between partners, eachperson practices and learns their partner(s) native tongue.Its non-authoritarian and collaborative nature provides a

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comfortable and motivational method of learning. SinceTLL is based on communication, it also allows partners tolearn about each other’s culture and personal life, whichin turn facilitates intercultural learning [4]. TLL can beperformed using different communication media, such asthrough video conferencing, email or in-person. Akin toother learning domains, we see surface computingtechnology as being a tool that can be used to aid tandemlanguage learners during their in-person TLL sessions. Inthis work, we present our design and implementation of acomputer-assisted TLL system called TandemTable.

Figure 1: The main screen ofTandemTable provides a selectionof available conversation topics(central circles) and associatedactivities (rectangles alongedges), and includescolour-coding to show a historyof topics already discussed (lightblue) and the current topic(green).

Related WorkTables create a central location for congregation, andafford peripheral awareness of others, their actions, andthe workspace [9]. These advantages are beneficial forin-person TLL due to non-verbal communication havingan important role in information sharing [7]. Otherco-located collaborative activities are also well supportedby tables, since their form factor promotes face-to-facecommunication and provides comfortable proxemicarrangements. In view of these reasons, researchers haveused digital tabletops for computer-supported cooperativework systems (e.g. [10]).

Supporting collaborative learning using multi-touchtabletops has also been a focus for members of theresearch community. Jamil et al. found that multi-touchtabletops are advantageous for collaborative learning asthey promote on-topic and reflective forms ofconversation [3]. Similar to this work, Morris et al.created collaborative language learning software designedfor interactive tabletops [5]. Our research relates to theaforementioned work as we are investigating the influenceof a multi-touch tabletop system on the conversations oftandem language learners.

Design and ImplementationOver the period of twelve months, we designed andimplemented TandemTable with the use of the SimpleMulti-Touch (SMT) toolkit [6]. TandemTable is acomputer-assisted TLL system for a multi-touch tabletopthat is designed for two co-located learners. To helpinspire and inform the design, one researcher observed areal-world TLL session and interviewed its facilitator andfour participants. Since TLL relies on interpersonalcommunication, the system is designed to act as aconversation facilitator by suggesting topics of discussion,and presenting learners with a variety ofconversation-focused collaborative activities with shareddigital artifacts. These help to ground the conversationsby establishing a theme with related content. When usingour system, tandem language learners face each otherwith the digital tabletop in between them. The interfaceis split in half horizontally with the digital contentmirrored and oriented towards the closest learner. To usethe system, each learner must first select the languagethat they would like to learn (target language). Oursystem currently supports English and French.

IntroductionsWhen starting a TLL session, learners are first presentedwith an introduction phase where the system promptspartners to discuss their interests, and ask each other aseries of non-invasive personal questions. This is meant toencourage learners to become familiar with one another,and create a more comfortable learning session. Learnersare also prompted to discuss their learning goals andexpectations, and how their partner can support them.

Topic and Activity SelectionAfter the introduction phase, learners are presented withan undirected graph where each node represents a

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possible topic of conversation (see Figure 1). A topic ofinterest is selected when both learners select the samenode simultaneously. When selected, the topic’s availableactivity buttons are enabled, and the learners can select anactivity. When both users have selected the same activity,the system transitions to the selected activity screen.

Figure 2: Twitter Activity: Tofurther support serendipity, usersare given the ability to search fortweets related to the selectedword, and tweets from a specificTwitter user or hashtag.

Figure 3: News HeadlineActivity: By performing a verticaldrag gesture on the backgroundof a learner’s screen space, userscan search through the list ofretrieved headlines.

Figure 4: Picture Activity: Highlevel gestures can be used toscale, rotate and translate thepictures.

ActivitiesTo inspire conversations, the system includes five differentmedia activities: Twitter, news articles, pictures, videos,word-to-picture matching game. To reduce the cost ofcontent creation, we decided to create activities whichdraw content from web-based sources rather thanrequiring teacher-curated content. The learners can freelyexplore activities, and switch topics to change activitycontent. Within the Twitter and News Headline activities,words can be selected, which will cause them to behighlighted and displayed in the center of the screen forboth learners to see and discuss. These words can beautomatically translated as well.

Twitter ActivityThe Twitter activity allows learners to view what otherpeople are discussing in real-time, and exposes learners toslang and idioms (see Figure 2). When the users selectthis activity, tweets in the target languages that relate tothe selected topic of discussion, are downloaded fromTwitter, and a manageable number of them are displayedin each of the personal interaction areas [8]. We rely onlearning partners to assist one another in discovering whenthere is informal language use or spelling mistakes.

News Headline ActivityIn this activity, up-to-date news articles in the targetlanguages that relate to the chosen topic, are retrievedusing a news feeds distributor [1]. The news headlinesfrom these articles are displayed for the learners in both of

their screen spaces (see Figure 3). When a learner selectsa news headline, the author, date, associated picture(s),and the article are shown.

Picture ActivityWhen users select the picture activity, pictures related tothe chosen topic are downloaded from Flickr, and four ofthem are displayed for the learners to discuss. Newpictures are retrieved when learners drag an existing oneinto a garbage bin (see Figure 4).

Video ActivityIn the video activity, videos in one language that relate tothe chosen topic of discussion are retrieved from YouTube(see Figure 5). Learners can select a button to retrievevideos in the other target language. Each personalinteraction area contains an interface current [2], wherethumbnails of the videos travel along. If both learnersselect the same video for viewing, then the video isdisplayed in each of the learners’ personal screen space.To enable discussion, the video can be paused as well.

Picture Game ActivityThe picture game activity is a collaborativeword-to-picture matching game. Six pictures are displayedin the center of the screen, and each of the personalinteraction areas contain a list of words in their respectivetarget language (see Figure 6). The learners must worktogether to match the words to their associated picture.

Preliminary EvaluationTo evaluate our system, a preliminary exploratory studywith 16 participants was conducted. The participantswere university students comprising of 4 females and 12males with ages ranging from 18 to 31 (M = 22, SD =4). In groups of two, participants used TandemTable for atotal of 35 minutes to learn a language, while a researcher

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observed and made notes. Pre- and post-interviews andquestionnaires were used to gather additional data.

Results

Figure 5: Video Activity: Whena learner selects a thumbnail, alarger sized image and the title ofthe video are displayed with theability to select the video forviewing.

Figure 6: Picture Game Activity:Learners drag each word to theirappropriate picture.

All of the participants stated that there were lulls in theirconversations, and that aspects of TandemTable helped tobridge awkward moments through inspiring new topicsand discussion content. These aspects include the manytopics to choose from, the different activities and theshared digital artifacts. All, but one, participant thoughtthat our system helped to increase the amount ofdiscussion between partners, and found that it helpedthem find new things to talk about.

When asked what aspects of the software were helpful forlanguage learning, participants stated that the visualcontent, translation ability and the features that inducedmore interaction between learning partners helped themost. These features included the ability to highlightwords for discussion and having them appear in the centerof the screen, how the system suggested topics forconversation, and the content of the activities, withspecial attention to the collaborative picture game. Thepicture game was found to be the most popular due to itscollaborative and playful nature, and its visual content.

Future WorkOur next steps are to use the insights gained fromconducting our exploratory evaluation to improve thedesign and implementation of TandemTable. Since ourevaluation was only preliminary and resulted in mostlyqualitative data, we plan to conduct a full comparativeevaluation study to discover what kind of impactTandemTable has on TLL sessions when compared totraditional means.

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Evaluating the effects of fluid interface componentson tabletop collaboration. In Proc. AVI, ACM Press(2006), 27–34.

[3] Jamil, I., O’Hara, K., Perry, M., Karnik, A., andSubramanian, S. The effects of interactiontechniques on talk patterns in collaborative peerlearning around interactive tables. In Proc. CHI,ACM Press (2011), 3043–3052.

[4] Little, D., and Brammerts, H. A guide to languagelearning in tandem via the internet. Tech. Rep. 46,Trinity Coll. Dublin - Centre for Language andCommunication Studies, 1996.

[5] Morris, M. R., Piper, A. M., Cassanego, A., andWinograd, T. Supporting cooperative languagelearning: Issues in interface design for an interactivetable. Tech. rep., Stanford University, 2005.

[6] Paluka, E., Cook, Z., Hancock, M., and Collins, C.The Simple Multi-Touch Toolkit. http:

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[8] Scott, S. D., Sheelagh, M., Carpendale, T., andInkpen, K. M. Territoriality in collaborative tabletopworkspaces. In Proc. CSCW, ACM Press (2004),294–303.

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[10] Tuddenham, P., Davies, I., and Robinson, P.Websurface: An interface for co-located collaborativeinformation gathering. In Proc. ITS, ACM Press(2009), 181–188.

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