International Classroom: A Telecommunicative Project for Foreign Language Learning

Presented by Chen, I-Jung

Successful communication over native like perfection

Increased global contacts ESL speakers outnumber English as the

first language speakers

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).

Computer-mediated Communication e-mail, instant message, chat room, forum, bullet

in board, and blog connected with people worldwide without being confined to certain place and time, at no extra expense. engaging in direct and meaningful communicatio

n with real readers flexibility, affordability and authenticity boost English communicative motivation increase the writing production in target language enhance the development of cultural awareness

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

This study investigates the effects of CMC on

English communicative motivation Learners’ reading and writing behaviors overall perceptions

MethodParticipants

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

Procedure (1/3)

The instruction tool : a website created by the authors

Project length: twelve weeks First two class sessions : project orientation, stu

dent pairing, e-mail addresses and IM account collecting

The third class meeting : students tried to answer the first mail with guidance from the instructor.

Procedure (2/3)

three tasks a formal and an informal letter an invitation letter key message from a film clip

Procedure (3/3)

1. The dyads first had to discuss the main content of the assignment.

2. EFL students created a first draft of the writing assignment for their US key pals to revise and edit.

3. The drafts went back and forth until the US key pals considered the writing acceptable.

4. The authors posted the final work of each dyad on the website for all participants’ reference.

Data Collection

a student survey (5 parts):1. general interaction with key pals 2. reading and writing behaviors3. learning performance4. English communicative motivation5. overall perceptions of the whole project

ResultsGeneral interaction between key pals

General InteractionPercentage (%) of

agreement

Weekly correspondence under one time 22

Weekly correspondence between 1-2 times 61

Weekly correspondence over 3 times 12

Feel excited when getting mail from key pal 67

Answer key pal’s mail as soon as possible 60

Used IM with key pals 1-3 times during the project 49

Used IM with key pals over 10 times during the project 15

Time zone difference made IM connection difficult 70

Never used speech function 82

Writing gave me more time to think 55

No difficulties understanding the mail contents from key pals 85

New vocabulary caused problems with understanding 37

Lacking knowledge of American culture caused problems with understanding 21

CMC caused less stress than face-to-face conversations 52

Reading and writing behaviors

Reading and writing behaviorsPercentage (%) of

agreement

Consult the dictionaries when meeting the new words 79

Consult the dictionaries for spell check 90

Worried about key pal not getting the meaning of my mail 88

Drafted before sending the mail 58

Looking into the dictionaries for miscommunication 55

Guess the meaning from the context for miscommunication 48

Asking for help from my key pal for miscommunication 45

A mail took me 11-30 minutes 64

Learning performance

Learning performancePercentage (%) of

agreement

Comprehension of the topic enhanced by the Discussion with the key pals

72

Have learned many new expressions of English 75

English writing ability was improved 41

English writing speed was improved 38

English communicative competence was improved 53

English reading ability was improved 32

English communicative motivationEnglish communicative motivation Percentage (%) of

agreementmean

The willingness in extra reading was increased by the collaboration with key pals.

55 3.56

Discussing articles with key pal increased my knowledge about the United States.

58 3.66

Discussing articles with key pal helped him/her know more about my country.

67 3.84

This project increased my willingness to communicate in English.

73 3.97

This project increased my confidence in communicating through English.

64 3.84

I would like to make friends online to practice English. 61 3.84

This project gave me an interesting experience 85 4.44

I will keep in touch with my key pals after this project is over. 61 3.88

Participating this project is a good way to learn English. 88 4.44

In general, I like this project. 79 4.19

Overall perceptions of this projectStudents’ reflection on how they thought about this experience

1. task topics being useful 2. anxious first3. relieved after they had successfully exchanged the first few

mails with the key pals 4. making foreign friends online was fun 5. a good way to learn English6. multifaceted advantages of interacting with native speakers 7. they did not know what to talk with the key pals 8. anxious because of their lower English ability

Discussion (1/3)

advantages1. enhancing the communicative motivation 2. Supplementing the interpersonal interaction

lacking in the large size class 3. Developing communicative competence through

negotiation and interaction

Discussion (2/3)

4. customized lessons5. reducing the anxiety caused by the immediate re

sponse and promotes the participation of this online correspondence

6. native key pals as the best resource of target language and culture

Discussion (3/3)

Reasons for discontinuing corresponding Workload Lower language abilities No common interests Unequal contribution Personal reasons Different schedules

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.

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

~The End~