Teaching and Learning in Multimodal Web-conferencing Environment

1. Teaching and Learning in Multimodal Web-conferencing EnvironmentIryna KozlovaCarleton Universityiryna.kozlova@carleton.ca February 7, 2015 Albert Street Education Center, Ottawa,

2. Introduction • Kozlova, I, & Zundel, E. (2013). Synchronous online language teaching: Strategies to support learner development. In C. Meskill (Ed.), Online Teaching and Learning. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.

3. Presentation Outline • Synchronous multimodal web-conferencing environments (MWCEs) and their opportunities for engagement of multiple students; • Relationship between student engagement and learning from the socio-cultural perspective; • Purpose of the study, Method, Participants, & Data Collection; • Instructors’ use of multimodal communication tools and its effect on language learning; • Factors affecting instructors’ use of multimodal tools • Implications of the findings for teacher-training.

4. Multimodal web-conferencing environments (MWCEs) • Synchronous multimodal web-conferencing environment is an online collaboration platform with communication tools which provide opportunities for communication in several communication modes such as voice, text, video, and graphics.

5. Multimodal Web-conferencing Environment (MWCE) Interactive Whiteboard : Graphics Typing Images or PPTs

6. Introduction • Do online instructors use multiple modalities to engage multiple students in instructional conversation? • What factors influence instructors’ use of multi-modal tools for this purpose?

7. Background Kozlova, I., & Zundel, E. (2013). Synchronous online language teaching: Strategies to support learner development. In C. Meskill(Ed.), Online Teaching and Learning. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.

8. Teaching and Learning From the Socio-cultural Perspective • Learning is • socially mediated • rooted in interaction • dialogical in nature • Learning occurs within a zone of proximal development (ZPD)when an expert assists a learner to achieve the learning goal by scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1978). • ZPD is a distance between what learners can do on their own and what they can do with the help of an expert (more experienced peer or instructor). • What kind of help do experts provide to learners? • Scaffolding, or instructional conversation, is “the questioning and sharing of ideas and knowledge that happen in conversation” (Tharp and Gallimore, 1991, p. 5). • Learning is an assisted performance (Tharp and Gallimore, 1991) • learning and teaching occur “when performance is achieved with assistance” (Tharp & Gallimore, p. 4, italics in original) within a ZPD.

9. Method and Participants Data came from 3 sources: (1) Instructor background survey (SurveyMonkey) (2) Archives from 5 online FL courses taught by 5 different instructors 4 languages: Arabic, German, Japanese, Russian (2) Wimbaand Elluminate Live! random selection of 5 live sessions from each instructor (5x5=25) (3) Interviews in which instructors were asked to view specific recordings before the interview and explain the choice of the modalities in relation to the goals of the task-based activities.

10. Method and Participants

11. Data Analysis Multimodalities were used for • routines (e.g., greetings, leave-takings) • reporting technical problems • making off-task comments • asking instructors questions not directly related to the task • task-based activities that require student performance interactions were transcribed

12. Data Analysis Evidence of learning: learner target response prompted by an expert; learner’s self-repair initiated by someone other than the current speaker (CA). Instructional Activity: how assisted performance is achieved types of mediation used by the instructors

13. Data Analysis & Results Analysis of the archived task-based activities shows: • Not all of the instructors used multimodalities. • Not all of the instructors used instructional conversations in the socio-cultural sense. • Instructors’ use of multiple modalities seems to depend on their theoretical perspective on student performance and learning.

14. Olga: Performance as an Imitation of the Target Language Structure

15. Olga: Performance as an Imitation of the Target Language Structure 1 Olga: If you wanna talk about a tiger, you would say Где тигр? Гдетигр?/Where is the 2 tiger? Right? Где тигр? Does anyone want to ask the question? Where is the tiger? 3 (5) 4 OK, How about umm Nick? Где тигр?/Where is the tigert? 5 (8) 6 Nick: ((says something but the sound is bad)) 7 Olga: ok, I did not really hear umm ok 8  Nick: What was that? What do you want me to say? 9a Olga: [Где тигр? Where is the tiger? 9b [((points to the question on the slide)) 10Nick:Где тигр? 13 Olga: ok, да, где тигр?/yes, where is the tiger? … 21 Ok, does anyone remember how we say on the chair? 22a На::::: [it’s right here 22b  [((points to the phrase on the slide)) 22  on the chair is what? На::::: 23Peter: ((Peter raises his hand.)) 24Olga: go ahead, Peter! 25  Peter: На стуле/On the chair 26Olga:Точно, на стуле/On the chair

16. Olga: Performance as an Imitation of the Target Language Structure Olga’s approach is neither compatible with socio-cultural perspective on language learning, nor an effective use of synchronous MWCE. Learning a language occurs in interaction when learners are forced to mobilize their memory, attention and problem-solving skills to control their performance (Lantolf, 2001). Olga’s students are not engaged in any of the processes, so their language learning is not likely to occur. Imitation: audio channel  one student at a time  no need for an additional modality

17. Ghada:Performance as a Final Product

18. Ghada:Performance as a Final Product 65 Ghada: Good, Caitlin! You don’t need و /’and’ here. It says, 66 ‘They are pleasant’ 66Jack: ((writes)) 67 Ghada: ‘hom la te fat’, so you don’t need [و/ and here 67a OR[((crosses out و /and 68Helen: [لطيفات/are pleasant 69Ghada: They [a:::re pleasant= 70 OR[((writes ‘are’(above و)) 71 They are pleasant, plural 72 OR((adds one letter to the adjective هم حميمات/best friends)) 73 [But adjectives in Arabic must follow the numbers, 74Helen: [((writes)) 75 ORGhada: if you say they, then you must put ((adds plural ending)) 76Also here((draws an arrow to point to the ending)) 77 لطيفات /Nice 78[excellent word, excellent sentence 79[((puts a check mark next to the sentence))

19. Ghada:Performance as a Final Product Ghada’s approach allows for engaging multiple students, but her students are engaged in non-assisted performance. This type of performance demonstrates what learners had developed in the past, but does not focus on learners’ future development as she does not engage them in instructional conversation in the socio-cultural sense. With this type of mediation, students cannot immediately demonstrate that they are able to incorporate her feedback and learn from their mistakes.

20. Daniel: Performance as a Collaborative Effort

21. DanielPerformance as a Collaborative Effort ((The instructor is on the video)) 1 Daniel:Eber, mien freund, Eber/Eber, my friend Eberis a Hispanic name 2 Eber 3 Eberwohnte in einemStudentenheim, studentenheim, na?/Eber lives in one dorm, dorm, well? 4 OIR[What Studentenheim/dormwould be? Think about universities, 4a [wohntein einemStudentenheim/Eberlives in one dorm, dorm, well 5 OIRwhat that building would be? Eberwohnte in einemStudentenheim. 6Was ist das?/What is that? 7((shrugs his shoulders on the video)) 8 OISR Jack: dorm 9 OISR Rick: student dorms 10 Daniel:Yeah, dorm, students dorms. Und in welchem ​​Stockwerk lebte er? It says, In which floor did he 11 live, what did we call this floor? 12 (7) 13 OIR UG = Untergeschoss/basement 14 OISRKate: basement 15 OIR Daniel: yes, basement, what is the logic behind it, someone tell me the logic. As you know, 16 Germans have a lot of logical stuff. What’s the logic here of the sign on this floor? to this floor? 17 (5) 18 OISR Rick: the negative first floor 19 Daniel: Right, it’s the negative first floor. In Germany, when you walk into a building … geschoss geschoss geschoss

22. Julia: Performance as a Collaborative Effort

23. Julia: Performance as a Collaborative Effort 1 Julia: OK, I am still waiting for most of you to do number 8 2 [きゅうばん、おかあさんも　おそく　おきました。/number 9, Mother also woke up late. 2a[((circles 9, underlines words as reads them)) 3 (4) 4 Jenny-san, さん、おきました。/woke up 5 OIR What might you do late on Sunday? Think about context. 6 おかあさんも　おそく　おきました。/ Mother also woke up late 7 (3) 8 OIR What might you do until late on a Sunday or Saturday? 9 (6) 13 Have we had church, any discussion on church in this textbook? 14 (3) 15 yes Nicole 16 then it’s probably not church, if you did not have to go to church, 17 what would you do on a Sunday morning? 18 (3) 19 You can’t find おきます？/wake up 20 TISR Yes Jenny 21 Because you need to use the short form to look at everything at the back

24. Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort

25. Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort 1 Anna: We have a couple of more minutes, so we can do one more 2 slide, so who is now? Now, I remember Jack [Brown 3 Terry: [PARIS!!!! 4 Anna: um [wanted to ask a question 5 Terry: [CHINA!!!! 6 Anna: and who will help him? 7 (3) 8 ORSam: france and 9 (2) 10 Terry: EVAN!!!!! 11 Anna: YEAH! Harry! […] 12 ok, Jack and Harry, which one do you choose? 13 ORSam: asia 14 ORNick: that’s Japan, not China 15Terry::P 16(5) 17Anna:Jack

26. Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort 18Anna:Jack 19 Jack: Hold on, I am trying to think how to say Paris 20 OIRAnnaOh, it’s not Paris, can you read what it says? 21 Jack: Yeah, [I am thinking about it], I am trying to figure really quick right now 22Anna:[((underlines Франция/France))] 23 Anna:ok, who can help, what does it say? The underlined word, who can 24read it? 25 OISR Jack: Франци-ция/Fran-nce 26Anna:молодцы! Франция/good job! France 27 (4) 28Фран[ция/France 30  Jack: [кто живёт в [ER][Франция[ER]/Who lives in France 31Sean[Terry it doesn’t deal with class so stop say Evan 33 ORAnna:Кто живёт во Франции?/Who lives in France. (.) Uh-huh, Harry 34  Harry: Он [ER] o(живёт)oво Франции/He lives in France 35 OIRAnna:((circles Мишель/Michelle)) 36 OIRIt’s not он/he, see, I said it’s a girl 37 OISR Harry: она живёт во Франции/she live in France 38 Anna:очень хорошо/very well done, but

27. Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort 38Анна:but 39OIR [what if I ask you, где живёт Мишель/where does Michelle live 40Terry:[he wants to read russianthats hot it has to do with class so :P 41 OIRAnna:who can answer my question? (1) Now, I am asking 42 Где? Где?/Where? Где живёт Мишель?/Where does Michelle 43 live? (3) Kevin? 44-48 … 49Kevin: to be honest with you, I am not sure 50-51 … 52 OIRAnna:ok, it’s still the first picture, it says Франция/France 53 Terry: japanjia 54Anna:Kevin, can you try again? Can you say she lives in France? 55 In Russian 56 OISR Kevin: Он/he, no она живёт вo Франции/she lives in France SR

28. Daniel, Julia, Anna: Performance as a Collaborative Effort This approach to teaching encourages these instructors to combine the audio channel with the text-based channel because the text-based channel allows all students to participate at the same time. Instructors or peers can assist multiple students with the performance using the audio or text-chat. The three instructors scaffold students’ responses engaging students’ memory, attention, and problem-solving skills thus facilitating language development and learning.

29. Analysis & Results Survey: Teacher training does not seem to affect the instructors’ usage of the affordances of synchronous MWCE Interviews: Daniel, Julia, Anna: utilizing multiple affordances may help teachers materialize students’ attention and to obtain evidence of students’ participation and learning Conclusion: Instructors’ theoretical perspective on student performance and their understanding of how this type of environment can be managed play a decisive role in the use and choice of communication channels in synchronous MWCE.

30. Applications • Training online instructors • Use of technology • SLA theories • Language pedagogy

31. Thank you!

32. Transcription conventions T: Jack Voice-based utterances are typed in regular font Terry: EVAN Utterances from text-based chat are in italics Helen: [لطيفات/are pleasant Utterances written on the whiteboard are in bold italics T: YEAH!!! Utterance pronounced in a loud voice (5) The pause length T: Фран[цияsquare brackets indicate the onset of overlapping Jack: [кто utterances or actions на::::: semicolon indicates prolongation of a vowel sound Франция ((ER)) double parentheses include transcriber’s comment Где?/Where? slash separates a foreign word and its translation and/or Romanization “hom la te fat” quotation marks include Romanization of a foreign utterance

33. References Collentine, K. (2009). Learner use of holistic language units in multimodal, task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication. Language Learning & Technology, 13(2), 68-87. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Foley, J. (1991). A Psycholingistic Framework for Task-based Approaches to Language Teaching. Applied Linguistics, 12 (1), 62-75. Hampel, R., & Stickler, U. (2012). The use of videoconferencing to support multimodal interaction in an online language classroom. ReCALL, 24(2), 116-137. Hampel, R. (2003). Theoretical perspectives and new practices in audio- graphic conferencing for language learning. ReCALL, 15 (1), 21-36. Hampel, R. (2010). Task Design for a Virtual Learning Environment in a Distance Language Course. In M. Thomas, & H. Reinders (Eds.), Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching With Technology (pp. 131-153). London, New-York: Continuum. Hampel, R., Hauck, M. (2004). Towards and effective use of audio conferencing in distance language courses. Language Learning & Technology, 8(1), 66-82.

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