Live communication using interactive technologies for young learners: a French-German EFL tandem task

Live communication using
interactive technologies for young
learners: a French-German EFL
tandem task
Shona Whyte
Université Nice Sophia Antipolis
Euline Cutrim Schmid
University of Education Schwäbisch-
Gmünd

• live video communication
• young learners of English
as a lingua franca
• IWB for interactional
support
Whyte & Cutrim Schmid
(forthcoming)
Live communication using interactive
technologies for young learners: a French-
German EFL tandem task
EuroCALL Evora, Portugal 11 September 2013

projector
touch sensitive screen
computer

• SMART board
• Notebook software
• Bridgit plug-in
• video link +
screensharing
Video communication
video insert
IWB page

IWB-supported video
communication with
young learners
• rationale
• background literature
• French-German tandem project
• discussion
• further research

IWB research
• increased
motivation
• faster pace
• digital hub
advantages
Cutrim Schmid & Whyte, 2012
drawbacks
o easily integrated into
any pedagogical
approach (e.g., teacher-
fronted)
o need for ongoing teacher
support

http://itilt.eu

7 countries
6 languages
website with video
examples of IWB-
supported classroom
practice with additional
materials
Dutch
English
French
Spanish
Turkish
Welsh
Belgium
France
Germany
Netherlands
Spain
Turkey
UK
primary
secondary
university
vocational
4 sectors
44 teachers, 81 ﬁlms,
267 clips

Iimited interactional
opportunities
• one learner at IWB in
front of whole class
• technical rather than
pedagogical interactivity
• pedagogical exercises
rather than tasks
iTILT: Alexander, Beauchamp, Cutrim Schmid, Hillier, van Hazebrouck & Whyte

new research question
How can we support teachers in exploiting IWB affordances
with more impact on classroom interaction?
• authentic communicative situation
• synchronous oral communication
• task-based approach
• visual support for listening and speaking
• pair/small group learner-learner interaction
“The Sneaky Way”
De Bot, 2007

VC = video
communication
1. videoconferencing: special equipment for video
link (e.g., PolyCom)
2. video calling or video chat: desktop software or
internet browser (e.g., Skype, Google hangout)
3. web conferencing (e.g., Adobe Connect)

VC pedagogy
TEACHING
OBJECTIVE
TEACHING/LEARNING
ACTIVITIES
ROLE IN
TEACHING
PROGRAMME
access to remote
expertise
instructional presentation familiarisation
session
class to class
exchange
whole-class activities substitution for
face-to-face
teaching
learner-to-
learner
interaction
task-based teaching enhancement of
face-to-face
teaching

VC pedagogy
TEACHING
OBJECTIVE
ACTIVITIES ROLE IN TEACHING
PROGRAMME
access to remote
expertise
Macrory et al: TELLP
instructional
presentation
Pritchard et al:
MustLearnIt
familiarisation
session
Whyte
class to class
exchange
Favaro; Gruson; Macrory
et al
whole-class
activities
Gruson; Pritchard et al;
Whyte
substitution for face-
to-face teaching
Macrory et al; Pritchard et al;
Whyte
learner-to-learner
interaction
Favaro; Le Bian
task-based
teaching
Develotte et al; Gruson;
Macrory et al
enhancement of face-
to-face teaching
Comber et al; Jauregi et al;
O’Dowd

VC research
•
technical problems with sound/image
quality
•
practical difficulties establishing
exchange
•
familiarisation and whole-class
sessions less effective than
integrated enhancement programmes
•
predominance of “practised routines”
and “teacher mediation”

present study
extreme test of IWB and VC affordances
● young beginner EFL learners
● English as a lingua franca
● whole-class familiarisation session

action research
design

Participants: Teachers
French teacher German Teacher
Generalist primary school
teacher
Generalist primary school
teacher
20 years of classroom
experience
5 years of classroom
experience
Technologically ﬂuent
(experienced IWB user)
Level of IWB technology
expertise relatively low
Previous experience with VC First experience with VC
Bilingual (French-Spanish)
with special motivation for FL
teaching
Recent pre-service training
in FL teaching (communicative
and task based approaches)

Participants: Learners
French learners German Learners
25 pupils - aged 8-9 – third of ﬁve
years of formal primary schooling
25 pupils - aged 7-8 – second of
four years of formal primary
schooling.
One single 90 minute-session of
English per week (ﬁrst year of EFL)
Two 45-minute sessions of English
per week (second year of EFL)
General pattern of EFL activities:
● whole class teacher-led
presentation,
● carousel activities, individual
listening exercises, worksheets,
● short closing plenary session
Varied EFL activities:
● lessons taught in English
● storytelling,
● singing,
● role plays, games,
● arts and crafts.
Used IWB regularly in all subjects Beginner users of IWBs
Previous experience with VC
exchange (one Skype session)
No previous experience with VC

VC Sessions: Classroom Organization
German set up: In the
German class the VC sessions
were run as a whole-class
activity with rotating
individual activity at the IWB
or camera observed by the
other learners.
French set up: In France the
VC activity was one of three
separate carousel activities,
observed only by the small
group at the interactive
display (session 1) or IWB
(session 2).

ID Card: First Session
Aim: Learners introduce
themselves. Their interaction is
supported by a prepared IWB ﬁle
with learners’ names and photos.
90-minute VC activity: Each set
of learners introduced
themselves in turn while a learner
in the remote class dragged and
dropped image and text elements
on the IWB page to construct and
identity card for each speaker.
Follow-up session: learners
pooled their knowledge to
identify the pupils in a large
photograph of the whole
exchange class.

ID Card Session: First Exchange
Isabelle (FR) talks to Sophia (DE)

French learner Isabelle introduces
herself to German learner Sophia. The
exchange takes two minutes and Isabelle
takes nine turns.
For six of these turns she’s
prompted verbally in French or
through gesture by the teacher.
She speaks loudly and ﬂuently, with
some pauses between a few chunks.
Isabelle’s participation is largely
structured by the teacher, who
supplied the missing opening and
closing routines.
However, the learner also takes her cue
from Sophia, checking her camera feed
and her actions at the IWB.

German learner Sophia explicitly
requests help (what do I do) in the
beginning, and like Isabelle, is guided
throughout the exchange by gesture
and verbally.
Both adults repeat the English
utterances, and ratify her actions (very
good, super) on three occasions. .
Sophia also takes the initiative when
she selects and positions Isabelle’s
photographs before attending the
following information.
In end there is no closing salutation
from the German learner (who is too far
from the camera and microphone to
make this feasible).

Funny Animals: Second Session
Aim: Learners describe the “funny
animals” they had drawn in a previous
lesson. Their interaction is supported
by a prepared IWB ﬁle with body parts
(head, body and legs) of ten different
animals.
90-minute VC activity Learners
described their “funny animals”,
while a learner in the remote class
dragged and dropped the correct
body/animal combinations to the IWB
page to construct the correct funny
animal. Learners then showed their
drawings via the Webcam so that the
remote class could check if their IWB
picture was correct.
Follow-up session in Germany:
learners carried out the same
activity with their peers.

Funny Animal Session: 8th Exchange
Silvester (DE) talks to Louise (FR)

This sequence is part of a longer
exchange in which Silvester (a German
pupil) is describing his funny animal. The
sequence shown in the video takes 01:40
minutes and Silvester takes 8 turns.
Silvester speaks loudly and fluently
and has to repeat his sentences
several times to the French pupils,
who interact directly with him by
using confirmation checks (e.g. Is
this correct?), to which he replies:
“yes” or “no”.
Silvester’s participation is only
structured by the teacher in the end
when she asks him to show his
drawing. In the other parts of the
exchange he interacted confidently
and independently with
with the remote class.

The French pupils worked in pairs: in
the ﬁrst part of this exchange,
Charlotte is at the IWB. Now it is
Louise’s turn. The French teacher is
close behind (out of shot).
Although the classroom is quiet, the
sound quality is poor and the pupils have
difficulty understanding Silvester. The
French teacher scaffolds their
contributions by suggesting
compensatory strategies in French (trial
and error, conﬁrmation checks) and
repeating Silvester’s utterances.
The French pupils are thus less
independent than Silvester, but take
initiatives to help each other and to
create a pleasing animal shape using
IWB tools for resizing. They are pleased
to check their result against Silvester’s
drawing.

Discussion: interaction
• Teachers tried to allow the pupils to interact
directly with the remote class to foster pupil-pupil
interaction without teacher intervention.
• In the second session the pupils were provided
with less language support on the IWB page (only
pictures). As a result, they had to draw more on
their syntactical and lexical knowledge to create
utterances on the spot.
• The French pupils had practiced with animals and
body parts that did not exactly match the ﬁnal
materials. As a result, they invented new animals
on the spot using the images on the IWB page.

Discussion: participant feedback
• Learners were enthusiastic, (over)conﬁdent about
own communication skills, interested in intercultural
aspects
• Teachers appreciated VC and IWB software
affordances, but highlighted technical and practical
difficulties
• Teachers expressed desire to foster interactivity and
learner autonomy, although their activity design and
classroom behaviour was sometimes in
contradiction with this goal
Intention to continue project with more integrated,
open, small-group activities over school year
(cf O’Dowd, 2010)

Limit teacher mediation?
I can supervise both ends because
I’m only there for supervision purposes.
If the communication breaks down
because they can’t understand each other,
I have to chip in and help, but I don’t
actually say: “Now you speak … now you
speak,”they do it on their own.
Comber et al, 2004: Le Bian, 2007

Alexander, J. (2013). The IWB in EFL, the IWB for EFL: using the IWB to teach EFL in French educational
settings. (Unpublished master's thesis). Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.
Comber, C., T. Lawson, J. Gage, A. Cullum-Hanshaw, and T. Allen. (2004). Report for schools of the DfES
videoconferencing in the classroom project. University of Leicester, University of Cambridge.
Cutrim Schmid, E. & Whyte, S. (2012). Interactive Whiteboards in School Settings: Teacher Responses to
Socio-constructivist Hegemonies. Language Learning and Technology 16 (2), 65-86.
De Bot, K. (2007). Language teaching in a changing world. The Modern Language Journal, 91(2), 274-276.
Develotte, C., Guichon, N., and Kern, R. (2007) «Allo Berkeley? Ici Lyon... Vous nous voyez bien? Etude d'un
dispositif d’enseignement- apprentissage en ligne synchrone franco-américain à travers les discours de ses
usagers. ALSIC, 11 (2), 129-156.
Favaro, L. (2012). Web-Videoconferencing, a Tool to Motivate Primary School Children Learning a Foreign
Language: Two Case Studies. EL. LE Educazione linguistica. Language education, 1(2). http://
edizionicf.unive.it/index.php/ELLE/article/view/249/220
Favaro L. (2011). «Videoconferencing as a Tool to Provide an Authentic Foreign Language Environment for
Primary School Children: Are We Ready for It?», in Rata G. (ed.), Academic Days in Timisoara: Language
Education Today, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Gruson, B. (2011). Analyse comparative d'une situation de communication orale en classe ordinaire et lors
d'une séance en visioconférence. Distances et savoirs, 8(3), 395-423.
Gruson, B., & Barnes, F. (2012a). Case study investigation of CMC with young language learners. Journal of e-
Learning and Knowledge Society, 8(3).
References

Gruson, B., & Barnes, F. (2012b). What is the impact of video conferencing on the teaching and learning of a
foreign language in primary education? Eurocall Review, 20(1). http://www.eurocall-languages.org/review/
20/papers_20/15_gruson.pdf
Hillier, E., Beauchamp, G., & Whyte, S. (2013). A study of self-efficacy in the use of interactive whiteboards
across educational settings: a European perspective from the iTILT project. Educational Futures, 5 (2)
Jauregi, K., & Bañados, E. (2008). Virtual interaction through video-web communication: A step towards
enriching and internationalizing language learning programs. ReCALL, 20(2), 183-207.
Le Bian, P. (2007) Compte-rendu et analyses d’échanges linguistiques entre des écoliers brestois et des
écoliers anglais grâce à un système de visioconférence. [Summary and analysis of language exchanges
between Brest and English pupils via videoconferencing] http://sanquer. brestecoles.net/images/
dossiervisiosite3b
Macedo-Rouet, M. (2009). La visioconférence dans l'enseignement. [Videoconferencing in teaching] Distances
et savoirs, 7(1), 65-91.
Macrory, G. 2010. Technology-enhanced language learning pedagogy (TELLP) 134244-2007-UK-COMENIUS-
CMP. Final report to EACEA.
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/projects/public_parts/documents/comenius/acc_mes_ﬁnal_report_2007/
com_mp_134244_tellp.pdf
Macrory, G., Chrétien, L., & Ortega-Martín, J. L. (2012). Technologically enhanced language learning in
primary schools in England, France and Spain: developing linguistic competence in a technologically
enhanced classroom environment. Education 3-13, 40(4), 433-444.
Macrory, G., Chrétien, L., & Ortega, J. (undated). Technology-enhanced language learning pedagogy (TELLP):
a project report and handbook for teachers
http://www.tellp.org/docs/project_outcomes/TELLP%20Book.pdf

O’Dowd, R. (2010). Online foreign language interaction: Moving from the periphery to the core of foreign
language education?. Language Teaching,44(3), 368-380. http://www3.unileon.es/personal/wwdfmrod/
LTJ.pdf
Pritchard, A., Hunt, M., & Barnes, A. (2010). Case study investigation of a videoconferencing experiment in
primary schools, teaching modern foreign languages. Language Learning Journal, 38(2), 209-220.
Whyte, S. (2011). Learning to teach with videoconferencing in primary foreign language classrooms. ReCALL
23(3): 271–293.
Whyte, S., & Alexander, J. (2013). Learning to Use Interactive Technologies for Language Teaching: Video
Diaries for Teacher Support in the iTILT Project. Atelier didactique, SAES, Dijon, 18 May.
Whyte, S., Beauchamp, G., & Hillier, E. (2012). Perceptions of the IWB for second language teaching and
learning: the iTILT project. In L. Bradley & S. Thouësny (Eds.), CALL: Using, Learning, Knowing, EUROCALL
Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-25 August 2012, Proceedings (pp. 320-6). © Research-publishing.net
Dublin.
Whyte, S., & Cutrim Schmid, E. (forthcoming). A task-based approach to video communication with the IWB: a
French-German primary EFL class exchange. In Cutrim Schmid, E., & Whyte, S. (Eds.). Interactive whiteboards
and language teacher professional development. Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching
(Series editors: Michael Thomas, Mark Warschauer & Mark Peterson). Continuum.
Whyte, S., Cutrim Schmid, E., & van Hazebrouck, S. (2011). Designing IWB Resources for Language Teaching:
the iTILT Project. International Conference on ICT for Language Learning, 4th Edition. Simonelli Editore.
Whyte, S., Cutrim Schmid, E., van Hazebrouck, S., & Oberhofer, M. (2013). Open educational resources for
CALL teacher education: the iTILT interactive whiteboard project. Computer Assisted Language Learning.

Live communication using
interactive technologies for
young learners: a French-
German EFL tandem task
Shona Whyte
whyte@unice.fr
http://eﬂ.unice.fr
@whyshona
Euline Cutrim Schmid
euline.cutrim.schmid@ph-gmuend.de
http://www.sjschmid.de/euline/

Live communication using interactive technologies for young learners: a French-German EFL tandem task

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Live communication using interactive technologies for young learners: a French-German EFL tandem task

Similar to Live communication using interactive technologies for young learners: a French-German EFL tandem task (20)

More from Shona Whyte

More from Shona Whyte (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Live communication using interactive technologies for young learners: a French-German EFL tandem task