Developing and Assessing ICC in a Telecollaborative ELF Exchange
Marta GuardaUniversity of Padova
3rd International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence
Tucson , January 26-29 2012
Presentation outline
� Telecollaboration
� ICC (Byram 1997)
� Aim of study
� Padova-Innsbruck exchange:
� structure and characteristics
� topics and themes
� students
� ICC assessment:
� data sources
� method
� examples
� ICC in an ELF exchange
Telecollaboration …
… is
� Internet-based intercultural exchange (emails, wikis..)
� between students with different cultural/national backgroundsorganized in institutional contexts (Helm & Guth 2010: 14)
� an alternative to mobility programmes (O’Dowd 2011: 372)
… aims to develop
� language skills (Belz 2003; Belz & Thorne 2006; O’Dowd2006)
� online literacies (Helm & Guth 2010)
� intercultural communicative competence (ICC) (Byram 1997)
Intercultural Communicative Competence
Aim of study
� to explore the effects of an ELF telecollaborationexchange on the development of students’ ICC
Why an ELF exchange?
� the number of English NNS speakers now outnumbers that of NS (Crystal 2003) and “most ELF interactions take place among non-native speakers of English” (Seidlhofer 2005: 339)
� …and yet, so far only a small number of projects using a lingua franca have been described (Al-Jarf 2006; Basharina2007; Guth 2008; Liaw 2009; Genet 2010; Kohn and Warth2010; Helm et al. 2011)
� common language as a “resource for building interpersonal relationships of significance” (Thorne 2010: 141) and exploring different cultures
Padova-Innsbruck exchange
� 10 weeks – 20 hours� weekly 2 hour-Skype sessions in small groups + homework
� Hosted on a wikipage with links to personal blogs
� Individual and collaborative assignments� pre- and post-questionnaires� weekly readings� reflective diaries� online forums on Facebook� final collaborative project: film analysis� for students in Padova, meeting with EFL teachers for feedback
on language use
Topics (based on Giles and Middleton 2008)
� Culture
� Intercultural communication
� Intercultural misunderstanding
� Identity/identities
� Stereotypes
� Difference, Labeling and Power
� Discrimination
� Intercultural Christmases
The students: Padova
� 18 students:� 21-22 years old
� BA in Foreign Languages, third year
� Average level of English proficiency (self-assessed): B1-B2 of the CEFR
� All of Italian origins, except for one Romanian girl
� Not widely travelled: only one had spent one year abroad; the majority only a few days
“I've never had the opportunity to interact constantly with people from other countries. I've always felt this as a limit and that's why I chose to start this experience”
(girl, pre-questionnaire)
The students: Innsbruck
� 14 students:� 19 – 22 years old� BA degree in English, first and second year� Average level of English proficiency (self-assessed): B2-C1
of the CEFR� More varied cultural background: 1 girl of Kurdish origins, 1
Bosnian girl, 3 girls born and raised in the South-Tyrol� More interculturally experienced: the majority had spent at
least 1/2 months abroad; only one had never been abroad
Assessment of Italian students’ ICC
� Analysis of:
� each student’s written output
� in-class observation
� informal interviews
Triangulation of data:
“increasing the validity of qualitative research by getting and comparing multiple perspectives of the same phenomenon”
(Holliday 2007: 76)
Methodology
� Primary source: weekly diaries (coded forqualitative and quantitative data)
� Researcher’s interpretation of data checkedagainst:
� students’ self-assessment
� responses to pre- and post-questionnaire
� posts to wiki and FB forums
� in-class observations (Skype)
� informal interviews
Coding diaries
� Starting point: Byram’s savoirs
� New codes emerged related to specific context and researchaims coding book
� Multiple and embedded codes were accepted (example)
� Quantified codes to identify emergent patterns betweenlearners, and over course of exchange
� Weekly distribution of codes tells us something about the students’ intercultural learning process (Excel file)
Examples of ICC development (1): Matteo
� <ATT> and <DIS>: from a need for external stimuli toincreased autonomy� “…we didn’t know what else to say” (1° diary)
� “...this time we had no problems at all with time, meaning that we finished the discussion without any empty-spaces” (4° diary)
� “Many times I used to ask my peer some more specific questions, in order todiscover something more or just because I was curious” (self-assessment)
� <INT> and <CCA>: the difficulty of reflecting criticallyon the learning process� “the words association game has been interesting, it gave us the possibility to
share more information about our cultural point of view” (2° diary)
� 'We had a discussion on (…) the situation of women in both countries. (…) the situation is quite similar, in both countries we see the most important forms of women descrimination…” (5° diary)
Examples of ICC development (2)
“Pizza and Museums”?
� ‘Decentering’ through negotiation of meaning:
� I think museums are associated to Italy because Italy has a hugecultural heritage (ANNA)
� I don't think that ‘Museums’ for Italy is a good definition because I think that there are a lot of museums all over Europe and not only in Italy. But maybe, as Anna said, they mean that in Italy we have the biggest cultural heritage of all Europe! But I'm not so convinced yet (ELISABETTA)
� I think we should be proud of being seen the nation of ‘pizza and museums’ (...) Maybe Italy differs from other countries famous for their museums because here they lie around all Italy, almost allregions. While, in other ones, you can find them only in the capital cities, or in the major 2 or cities (MARIA)
ICC in an ELF exchange
“Speaking in a LF is better because I didn‘t feel embarassed” (Luigi)
“We helped each other, as Englisj is not our native language” (Maria)
� ELF seen as a “language for communication, a medium that is given substance with the different national, regional, local and individual cultural identities its speakers bring to it“ (House 2001)
Through mutual help and negotiation of meaning students able to convey their own cultures.
Thank you!
Marta Guarda
University of Padova
via Beato Pellegrino 26
35137 Padova - Italy
References
� Al-Jarf, R.S. (2006) “Cross-Cultural Communication: Saudi, Ukrainian, and Russian Students Online”. Asian ELF Journal, 8(2), p. 7-32
� Basharina, O.K. (2007) “An activity theory perspective on student reported contradictions in international collaboration”. LLT, 11(2), p. 82-103
� Belz, J.A. (2003) "Linguistic Perspectives on the Development of Intercultural Competence in Telecollaboration". Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), p. 68-117
� Belz, J.A. and Thorne, S.L. (2005) Internet-mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education. Boston: Heinle& Heinle Publishers
� Byram, M. (1997) Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
� Churchill, D. (2009) “Literacy in the Web 2.0 world”. http://www.slideshare.net/zvezdan/new-literacy-in-the-web-20-world. Last retrieved: 3 January 2012
� Crystal, D. (2003) English as a Global Language. Cambridge: CUP
� Genet, R. (2010) “The Soliya Connect Program at ENSIMAG, France”. In S. Guth and F. Helm (eds.) Telecollaboration 2.0: Language Literacies and Intercultural Learning in the 21st Century, p. 399-412, Bern: Peter Lang
� Giles, J. and Middleton, T. (2008) Studying Culture: a practical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
� Guth, S. (2008) “The Multi-Faceted Focus of International Collaboration”. Presentation given at the COIL Conference, Purchase College SUNY, 14 November 2008 [PowerPoint slides]. http://www.slideshare.net/lamericaana/themultifaceted-focus-of-international collaborations-presentation/. Last retrieved: 8 May 2011
References (2)
� Guth, S. and Helm, F. (eds.) (2010) Telecollaboration 2.0: Language Literacies and Intercultural Learning in the 21st Century. Bern: Peter Lang
� Helm, F. et al. (forthcoming). “Promoting Dialogue or Hegemonic Practice: Power issues in Telecollaboration”
� House, J. (2001) “A stateless language that Europe must embrace”. Guardian weekly, 19 April 2001. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2001/apr/19/languages.highereducation. 3 January 2012
� Kohn, K and Warth, C. (2010) ‘Intercultural Communication in Europe: a Comenius Web Collaboration Project to forster intercultural communication in English’. http://www.slideshare.net/CWarth/iceurope-project-web-collaboration-intro. Lat retrieved: 3 January 2012
� Liaw, M.L (2006) “E-learning and the development of intercultural communicative competence”. LLT 10(3), p. 49-64.
� O’Dowd, R. (2006) Telecollaboration and the Development of Intercultural Communicative Competence. München: Langenscheidt-Longman
� O’Dowd, R. (2011) “Online foreign language interaction: moving from the periphery to the core of foreign language education?”. Language Teaching 44/3, p. 368-380
� Seidlhofer, B. (2005) “Key concepts in ELF: English as a Lingua Franca”. ELT Journal 59/4, p. 339-341
� Thorne, S.L (2010) “The ‘Intercultural Turn’ and Language Learning in the Crucible of New Media”. In S. Guth and F. Helm (eds.) Telecollaboration 2.0: Language Literacies and Intercultural Learning in the 21st Century, p. 139-164, Bern: Peter Lang
