Ciara R. Wigham

Interactions between text chat and audio modalities for L2 communication and feedback in the synthetic world Second Life

This paper reports on a study of the interactions between text chat and audio modalities in L2 communication in a synthetic (virtual) world and observes whether the text chat modality was used for corrective feedback and the characteristics of the latter. This is examined within the context of a hybrid content and language integrated learning design workshop. This course involved 17 students of architecture whose L2 was either French or English and for which the synthetic world environment Second Life was employed for distance language sessions. Using multimodal transcriptions of the interaction data from these sessions, it was found that text chat was employed for content-based interaction concerning the task as well as for feedback concerning non-target-like errors in the audio modality. Feedback predominantly concerned lexical errors and was offered in the form of recasts. The multimodality of the environment did not appear to cognitively overload students who frequently responded in the audio modality to corrective feedback offered in the text chat. The study highlights the need to train language tutors who wish to exploit synthetic worlds to use the text chat in parallel with the audio to support learners’ verbal production with respect to verbal participation and proficiency.

A semiotic perspective on webconferencing-supported language teaching.

In webconferencing-supported teaching, the webcam mediates and organizes the pedagogical interaction. Previous research has provided a mixed picture of the use of the webcam: while it is seen as a useful medium to contribute to the personalization of the interlocutors’ relationship, help regulate interaction and facilitate learner comprehension and involvement, the limited access to visual cues provided by the webcam is felt as useless or even disruptive. This study examines the meaning-making potential of the webcam in pedagogical interactions from a semiotic perspective by exploring how trainee teachers use the affordances of the webcam to produce non-verbal cues that may be useful for mutual comprehension. The research context is a telecollaborative project where trainee teachers of French as a foreign language met for online sessions in French with undergraduate Business students at an Irish university. Using multimodal transcriptions of the interaction data from these sessions, screen shot data, and students’ post-course interviews, it was found, firstly, that whilst a head and shoulders framing shot was favoured by the trainee teachers, there does not appear to be an optimal framing choice for desktop videoconferencing among the three framing types identified. Secondly, there was a loss between the number of gestures performed by the trainee teachers and those that were visible for the students. Thirdly, when trainee teachers were able to coordinate the audio and kinesic modalities, communicative gestures that were framed, and held long enough to be perceived by the learners, were more likely to be valuable for mutual comprehension. The study highlights the need for trainee teachers to develop critical semiotic awareness to gain a better perception of the image they project of themselves in order to actualise the potential of the webcam and add more relief to their online teacher presence.

Architecture Students’ Appropriation of Avatars — Relationships between Avatar Identity and L2 Verbal Participation and Interaction

The synthetic (virtual) world Second Life (SL) can be defined as a social networking (SN) environment: it allows users to network informally by initiating relationships with other users, often strangers, with whom they share no previous offline connections. Users can also connect with people with whom they have previously established offline relationships. In SL, networking can occur by interacting and later friending, other users whose avatars are proxemically close inworld. This is facilitated by a feature allowing public audio and textchat channels to be heard/read by other nearby users. Users can also initiate relationships through interest groups and create a public profile, albeit relating this profile to that of their avatar or their physical world (first world) identity. Users who friend each other can view the newsfeed and interest groups as well as the list of connections of one another and can navigate the latter.

A multimodal analysis of lexical explanation sequences in webconferencing-supported language teaching.

Abstract Higher education institutions are increasingly interested in offering more flexible teaching and learning delivery methods that are often independent of place. Where foreign language learning is concerned, telecollaboration is gaining ground. This paper focuses on synchronous webconferencing-supported teaching and examines how different semiotic resources are used during lexical explanation sequences. The context is a telecollaborative exchange between Business students learning French and trainee teachers on a Master’s programme in Teaching French as a Foreign Language. Using multimodal transcriptions of interaction data from two sessions, the sequential analysis provides access to different combinations of semiotic resources. These include using the visual mode to project active listening strategies and the complementary role of the text chat to secure common ground concerning the target item. The analysis sheds light on a ‘thinking break’ strategy employed by the trainees. Descriptive examples demonstrate how verbal explanations were accompanied, firstly, by deictic and iconic gestures and, secondly, by metaphoric gestures used to help forefront different properties of the target item. Finally, changes in gaze and proximity were observed as playing a role in interaction management and in signalling which verbal modality was forefronted. The study illustrates emerging pedagogical and multimodal communication strategies for ‘doing vocabulary teaching’.

La pédagogie de l’EMILE en questions : modalités et enjeux pour le secteur LANSAD

Ce Cahier est consacre a l’Enseignement d’une matiere par l’integration d’une langue etrangere, plus connu sous son acronyme (EMILE). Il contient cinq articles et notes de recherche, deux notes de pedagogie, et une fiche pedagogique sur le theme, ainsi qu’une fiche pedagogique hors theme et deux recensions. Avec un certain recul depuis l’introduction d’EMILE dans les universites europeennes (notamment a cause du programme ERASMUS, demarre en 1987), les didacticiens et les pedagogues commencent a pouvoir evaluer le concept et les opportunites qu’il offre pour l’enseignement/apprentissage des langues dans les formations professionnalisantes. Deux questions, en particulier, parcourent les differentes contributions de ce volume : le concept d’integration, et le recrutement des enseignants. L’EMILE est fonde sur une approche methodologique double : une discipline non linguistique est enseignee a travers une langue etrangere. Le concept d’integration, central dans cette approche, met l’accent sur le fait que la langue et la matiere non linguistique sont toutes deux objets d’enseignement/apprentissage, sans qu’il y ait preseance de l’une par rapport a l’autre. Cet equilibre delicat semble si difficile a atteindre que plusieurs auteurs se demandent s’il est veritablement possible de parler d’EMILE dans les dispositifs des cursus en anglais qui se sont multiplies ces dernieres annees. La question de la formation et du recrutement des enseignants disciplinaires et des enseignants de langue est egalement cruciale. La realisation du double objectif (apprentissage simultane de la discipline et de la langue) implique la mise en œuvre d’une approche particuliere, transversale et collaboratrice, de l’enseignement et exige, de la part des etablissements comme des enseignants de la discipline et des enseignants de langue, une reflexion specifique, non plus exclusivement sur l’enseignement des langues, mais sur le processus d’enseignement en general.