Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen
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2005
341
Gnutzmann Küster SchrammEnhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media into foreign language teacher education
121
2005
Michael K. Legutke
Dietmar Rösler
The main research topics which featured in the debate on the strong version of communicative language teaching in the early 1980s are revisited here and applied to the current discussion of computer-mediated communication. Key CLT issues such as group composition, development of positive interdependence between group members, development of social skills, autonomy and self-direction, or the acquisition of procedural and negotiatory language, are still of vital importance for foreign language learning int this new learning environment.
The analysis of data from two current research projects on the computer-mediated training of teachers of foreign languages shows both continuity – the results being within the communicative framework – and variance brought about by the new technological possibilities. Variance is shown, amongst other aspects, in the changing role of the tutor and the avoidance of available CMC tools for cooperation due to a perceived lack of privacy.
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Michael K. LEGUTKE, Dietmar RÖSLER * Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media into foreign language teacher education Abstract. The main research topics which featured in the debate on the strong version of communicative language teaching in the early 1980s are revisited here and applied to the current discussion of computer-mediated communication. Key CLT issues such as group composition, development ofpositive interdependence between group members, development of social skills, autonomy and self-direction, or the acquisition of procedural and negotiatory language, are still of vital importance for foreign language ]earning in this new leaming environment. The analysis of data from two current research projects on the computer-mediated training of teachers of foreign languages shows both continuity the results being within the communicative framework and variance brought about by the new technological possibilities. Variance is shown, amongst other aspects, in the changing role of the tutor and the avoidance of available CMC tools for cooperation due to a perceived Jack of privacy. 1. lntroduction: dimensions of change The steady increase of access to computers in educational settings has enhanced the possibilities for leamers and teachers to engage in meaningful interaction in foreign and second language classrooms. lt is also changing the shape of linguistic material used for learning purposes in ways that are both productive and problematic. There are some obvious improvements: there is more room for individualization, certain elements of books traditionally not profitable and hence often neglected by publishers (teachers' manuals, glossaries etc.), can now be distributed in a more cost-effective and differentiated manner, up-to-date digital add-ons can compensate for the loss of topicality of textbooks, the space constraints of the traditional textbook which often lead to a shortage of visual and audio-visual information, differentiated sequences of exercises and so on, become less relevant when textbooks can be digitalized, Korrespondenzadresse: Prof. Dr. Michael LEGUTKE, Univ.-Prof, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Institut für Anglistik, Didaktik der englischen Sprache und Literatur, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10 B, 35394 GIEßEN. E-mail: Michael.K.Legutke@anglistik.uni-giessen.de Arbeitsbereiche: Didaktik des Englischen, Englisch im Grundschulbereich, Neue Technologien. Prof. Dr. Dietmar RÖSLER, Univ.-Prof, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, FB: Sprache, Literatur, Kultur, Fachgebiet Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10 B, 35394 GIEßEN. E-mail: Dietmar.Roesler@germanistik.uni-giessen.de Arbeitsbereiche: Deutsch als Fremdsprache, E-Learning Fremdsprachen, Grammatikvermittlung, interkulturelle Kommunikation. lFL11.! L 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... 175 a concept such as 'textbook on demand' can, in the long term, lead to a new type of textbook being produced which contains a common core element with a multitude of digital material tailor-made for the needs of specific learners (cf. RöSLER 1999). There are problematic aspects, too: the revival of a na1ve version of the concept of authenticity, for example, over-individualization, a reduction of 'Landeskunde' to facts and figures which ignores the progress made as a result of the discussion of intercultural learning since the 1980s, or a constructivist approach which refuses to engage seriously with the intricacies of textbooks for beginners and the function of the classroom as a sanctuary for the learners, to name just a few. The way in which the digital media have contributed to the development of textbooks will not be a focus of this article (cf. the summary of the current discussion in RöSLER 2004). We will focus, instead, on the new possibilities for interaction in the classroom offered by the digital media, discussing them within the context of the debate on communicative language teaching. Such possibilities derive from at least five dimensions of change that the availability of digital media seems to bring about. 1 These are (1) Encounters beyond classroom walls: teachers and learners can overcome traditional constraints of classroom learning, because digital media provide them with various channels for interacting with speakers of the target language through e-mail, web-conferencing, and chat. (2) Enhanced access to a great variety of resources: the traditional textbook will not lose its significance. For the first time, however, learners have unlimited access to a wide rage of target language resources. Therefore they can play an important role in co-creating a rich and meaningful learning environment by contributing texts and topics according to their needs and interests. (3) Learning formats: the chances for learning the digital media afford cannot be unlocked within the confines of teacher-centered methods. Rather, they require cooperative learning formats and project work. This entails not only effective modes of division of labor (pair and group work) but also the taking over of teaching functions by the learners. (4) Learner roles: the chance for learners to co-create the learning environment and thus being allowed to participate in negotiating the curriculum greatly expands the role of learners. They simultaneously need to act as researchers, co-producers of diverse texts, as managers of their own leaming, and, of course, as peer teachers. (5) Teacher roles: the shift of responsibility to the individual learners and/ or small cooperative groups, and the use of project formats require a high degree of flexibility on the part of the teacher, because the leaming process is far less predictable. Even if managerial competencies are of great importance, the teacher will not cease to function in his pedagogical role promoting interest in relevant topics or supporting critical authorship, and, of course, in his role as language instructor providing language resources and monitoring language use. Although the challenges implied for teachers and leamers in each of these five dimensions pertain to the issue of integrating digital media into the leaming environment, they go beyond the computer and can be traced back historically to the early times of Commu- For each of the five dimensions we could refer the reader to recent publications. In order not to inflate the bibliography, we only mention the comprehensive survey of current research provided in RöSLER (2004). lFLUJL 34 (2005) 176 Michael K. Legutke, Dietmar Rösler nicative Language Teaching (CLT). In the following paper we will narrow our perspective and we will focus on issues of cooperative leaming in teacher education. We will start by exploring the notion of collaborative work by, first of all, revisiting CLT, followed by focusing on cooperative work in computer-supported leaming environments. This will pave the way to a discussion of two current projects in teacher education, which will indicate that collaborative work needs to be re-conceptualized in order to do justice to affordances and constraints of language teacher education with digital media. 2. The collaborative language classroom: CL T revisited 2.1 The strong version of CLT In his History of English Language Teaching, HOWATT (1984) characterizes two fundamentally different versions of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which had emerged as an approach in the 1970s and rapidly gained prominence among theoreticians, textbook authors and practitioners in Europe and North America. 2 Whereas the 'weak version' attempts to integrate a communicative coi: nponent into a traditional language program following a basically grammar-oriented approach, the strong version takes a more radical stance: "The strong version of the communicative approach, on the other hand, advances the claim that language is acquired through communication, so that it is not merely a question of activating an existing but inert knowledge of language, but of stimulating the language system itself. If the former could be described as 'leaming to use' English, the latter entails 'using English to leam it"' (HOWATI 1984: 279). In 1980 the newly founded joumal Applied Linguistics had joined the debate by publishing two programmatic articles on CLT: both of them can be interpreted as supporting a 'strong version' of CLT. In the first one, CANALE/ SWAIN (1980) presented a critical framework for the consideration of communicative competence, which led them to identify various shortcomings of the emerging approaches. They called for classroombased research to investigate among other things the following issues: ( 1) the manner in which and extent to which communication is focused on in different second language classes, (2) the suitability of CLT for young leamers, (3) the interpretation ofthe significant differences between and among groups of leamers with reference to implementing a communicative approach, and (4) the relationship between CLT and motivation. The second programmatic article presented the potential characteristics of CLT in terms of a curriculum framework (BREEN/ CANDLIN 1980). The authors called for a radical departure from objectivist curriculum models, which had tumed the language classroom into a hierarchically structured, teacher dominated arena of knowledge and skill transmission, whose procedures and forms of interaction were neither compatible with what we had come to know about leaming, nor with educational values of democra- 2 Fot the development in Germany, see LEGUTKE/ SCHOCKER-V. DITFURTH (2003). IFLlllL 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... 177 tic societies. The objectivist model sui generis could not provide, as was argued, for the development of communicative competence and participatory citizenry. The language classroom is the main focus both of Canale/ Swain's rigorous research agenda and Breen/ Candlin's work within the discussion of the curriculum framework. The classroom is understood as a unique social environment with its own activities and conventions. lt is an environment where a particular cultural reality is constructed, which implies a communicative potential to be exploited for leaming rather than constraints which have to be compensated for. In other words: If it is the goal of the classroom activities to enable learners to communicate in the target language outside of the classroom, then communication needs to be experienced, practiced, experimented with and analyzed in the classroom itself while the L2 is the main means through which these activities are managed and realized (CANDLIN 2003). This radical turn towards the classroom as the location where the ability to communicate had to be fostered raised a number of crucial questions, such as: What are the appropriate topics for leamers to engage in? What are the appropriate texts for learners tobe exposed to? What are the most suitable tasks and activities which could help to unlock the communicative potential of such texts? What are the conditions in terms of task and task management which would help learners to invest their energy into finding ways to express their view of the world, their feelings and beliefs while trying to use the L2. In short, the key question was: What conditions would help to authenticate L2 practice and use as a way towards genuine communication in the classroom? lt comes as no surprise that teachers and researchers alike began to question the traditional separation of the classroom from the outside world by searching for ways in which the two worlds could be connected by Living Language Links, so that leamers could test themselves in real-life communicative situations, such as visits to international locations, explorations of target language communities in the immediate environment, but also in letter and cassette exchanges. These Living Language Links were seen as important supplements to the unavoidable simulation of target language use in the classroom. After all, the staple diet of classroom activities required the students to embark on 'playing the game' of speaking the L2. 2.2 Project work and issues in cooperative language learning A substantial corpus of 'retrospective syllabus accounts' (CANDLIN 1984), which has been published since the late 1970s, provides evidence for the way teachers and leamers have realized different forms of the strong version of CLT, given the particularities of diverse contexts. 3 Retrospective syllabus accounts are, according to CANDLIN (1984: 36), ways to gain access to both teachers' theories and classroom practice. They consist of a great variety of documents such as video and audio recordings, lesson plans, teacher comments and learner texts. A comprehensive overview of such retrospective syllabus accounts for the late 1970s and 1980s can be found in LEGUTKEITHOMAS (1991); also see LEGUTKE (1993). IFLIIL 34 (2005) 178 Michael K. Legutke, Dietmar Rösler In spite of their diversity two salient features of these attempts can be extracted from these reports. (1) Almost all ofthem can be conceptualized as examples of 'leaming in projects'. They are a collection of a large variety of tasks, each of which have a specific objective, focusing on either topic information (e.g. researching into the history of a famous landmark) or contact with native speakers (e.g. interviewing native speakers) or working with literary texts (e.g. exploring and writing poetry). How these tasks are sequenced and relate to one another depends on the main objective of the project, a central task or 'target task' (LEGUTKE/ TH0MAS 1991: 167). Typical target tasks are: to produce and sell an anthology of student poetry, to interview passengers at an international airport, to design a feature film on the basis of a novel, to design a brochure for foreign tourists about one 's home town, or to stage a play for the school audience. 4 (2) The second common characteristic is the complex balance of leaming formats centered on the cooperative group: Hardly any central project task could be dealt with by forms of individualistic leaming organized in the lockstep-formation of the transmission classroom. On the contrary, their successful completion requires leaming groups whose members collaboratively seek outcomes that are beneficial to all those with whom they are cooperatively connected; they have to meet the challenges among others to divide their labor, to negotiate goals and procedures, to give presentations and function as peer teachers. Although these retrospective syllabus accounts on experimental classrooms give evidence of a strong version of CLT as realized in cooperative projects, they simultaneously highlight a range of the key issues of the cooperative classroom that had not yet been addressed appropriately. The most important of them that emerged with CLT in the 1980s 5 are: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) 4 5 the problem of group composition: Who is to work with whom? Who makes the decisions about group composition? the development of positive interdependence between group members: What makes leamers rely on each other and support each other in reaching group goals? How does a community of leamers come about? How is a climate of trust built and maintained? How are group goals negotiated, how is work divided, how are roles assigned and leamers awarded? the development of sufficient social skills; autonomy and self-direction; group assessment; the accountability ofboth the individual and the group and the do-ability of task; and finally Regarding the relationship between language learning and project work, also see ST0LLER (2003). See LEGUTKE/ TH0MAS (1991: 219-236). lFJLl.llL 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... 179 (7) language in face-to-face encounters: whereas content language is given ample treatment in the accounts, the issues of procedural and negotiatory language is widely ignored. Unless the question of how the cooperative teams go about organizing their learning linguistically, i.e. by using the target language, is addressed, the potential of the language classroom for authentic communication cannot be utilized to its füllest extent. All of these 'old' issues have re-emerged in connection with the use of digital media, and, therefore, need to be reconsidered, and require special attention in foreign language teacher education. 2.3 Collaborative work and the digital media If, as in 2.2, key issues of the collaborative classroom are described without reference to digital media, it is a powerful reminder of the fact that the debate about their introduction into foreign language leaming is only meaningful within the ongoing discussions of foreign language leaming and not as a 'point zero' which takes the advent of digital media as a pretext to ignore what is already known. 'Inventing' collaborative work as a trademark of a constructivist-humanist approach which transcends the traditional instructivist approach conveniently 'forgets' that all the activities suggested by this approach as new did, in fact, previously exist, going back to 'Reformpädagogik', FREIRE, FREINET and others (cf. RöSLER 1998). The seven key issues raised in 2.2 are therefore not surprisingly also key issues of collaborative work when using digital media. An interesting research angle involves the new questions and insights into these issues which might arise from the changes brought about by digitalisation. At first sight it may seem that the added digital dimension which enables collaborative projects between individuals and groups in different places, raises new challenges to be overcome. The difficulties related to the composition of groups and the development of social skills and of interdependence between group members (issues 2 and 3), challenging enough in face-to-face leaming environments, can multiply if a project involves a group recruited from members of classrooms in two different cultures, because serious intercultural interferences as well as superficially banal constraints such as time-tables can be an additional hindrance to collaboration. Issues such as group assessment and accountability (issues 5 and 6) can hit a dead end if the specific interpretation of these concepts differs significantly in the respective cultures of the leamers (BELZ/ MÜLLER- HARTMANN 2003). The discussion of the procedural and negotiatory language (issue 7) is traditionally not an essential element in textbooks (cf. the survey in RöSLER 1985) and frequently not given enough focus in face-to-face cooperative work due to the implicit understanding that the shared frames ofthe face-to-face group make an elaborate analysis superfluous. lt is given heightened attention in CMC-collaboration due both to the crossing of geographical/ cultural boundries which demands an awareness of different norms and to the fact that complex negotiations through CMC demand a meta-communilFLIIIL 34 (2005) 180 Michael K. Legutke, Dietmar Rösler cative clearing of procedures and modes of negotiation, especially if the negotiations are predominantly in written form. As long as this does not find its way into the learners' awareness, a potential source of failure in cooperation is not being adequately addressed. Issue 4, the development of autonomy and self-direction, has always been a key factor in bringing about successful cooperation. lt took centre stage in current debates within the constructivist framework partly for the wrong reasons when autonomy was equated with self-learning and the individualization of the learning process, and partly because of the vital role played by the self-directedness of the learners in negotiating process and products within cross-cultural digital learning environments, especially in projects in which the parties involved initially join the cooperation with fairly different ideas as to what the product should or could look like and how it might be achieved. The ensuing discussion of the collaborative dimension of two teacher training projects which Giessen university participated in will address some of these issues in greater detail. The following chapter will use the analysis of email exchanges within one-to-one tutorials straddling two continents to discuss: the way in which cultural knowledge can be acquired during the interaction of tutors and tutees, the factors contributing to the success of an email collaboration and, finally, the subtle interplay of the expectation of tutors/ teachers of themselves having to set tasks for their tutees/ learners and their refusal to set tasks when the interaction is perceived by them tobe too personal to do so leading, arnongst other things, to their setting 'masked' tasks. lf online-tutoring is to develop into something more than a human correction service which compensates for the shortfalls of prograrnrned feedback, then the questions raised here about the balance between professional distance and (penpal) friendship between tutors and tutees are of vital importance. The other project presented here will allow us to explore how teacher trainees working in groups of three (tridems), whose members are located in different parts of Germany, use a virtual learning environment (VLE) to cope with cooperative tasks provided within the VLE. These tasks are an integral part of a Blended-Learning master's course which aims at qualifying students to teach English or French as a foreign language to young learners. 3. CMC as basis for integrated work experience The use of digital media in work experience integrated into the Giessen degree Course for teachers of German as a foreign language will be discussed from three angles factors contributing to successful collaboration of tutors and tutees, incidental acquisition of knowledge about the target language during the collaboration and the tutors' perception of exercises and tasks deemed by them to be either necessary or not for the ongoing cooperation. lFJLIIJlL 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... 181 3.1 Setting the scene: the Giessener Elektronisches Praktikum Reflection on individual foreign language learning and teaching processes is the point of departure for the Giessen electronic work experience 6 , in which future teachers of German as a foreign language are confronted with individual learning processes and their own role as teacher, advisor or tutor. Using the possibilities offered by the internet, they communicate with learners of German who are based in a far-away place (Hongkong, Wisconsin). They experience their role as being somewhere on a sliding scale between penpal and teacher, and the range of behavioral modes of teaching, advising and communicating is wide. Their own work is the subject of an accompanying seminar in which topics are addressed, such as assessing of language learning difficulties, initiating and carrying out corrections, evaluating teaching and learning material, the function of specific tasks and exercises and, of course, the whole area of how to deal with problems posed by taking on the role of tutor. Media-related questions are also considered. All possible means of communication and distribution beyond the traditional form of email communication used by those involved in the process can be reflected by the tutors in the accompanying seminar. In the process, general and technical media competence is acquired through almost incidental learning which runs parallel to dealing with questions of foreign language teaching and learning. One of the particularities of this work experience is that the tutors' perception of the interaction is one of being rather unstructured and not task-led, the 'openness' of the initial task 'help the learners at the other end of the line and negotiate the way, scope and contents of your interaction' leads to a great variety of interaction (which forms a perfect base for the ensuing discussions in the accompanying serninar) but also to frustration about rnissing guidance. The data from the work experience the actual emails, interviews with the tutors, tutors' diaries and data from the accompanying serninar have been and are being analyzed from different points of view. 3.2 Tutor-Tutee-Collaboration TAMME 2001 analyzes 465 mails which passed between tutors and tutees with a total volume of 85,688 words. Special attention is paid to four areas: the topics addressed, frequency of writing and length of mails, the role of emotions and correction (see TAMME 2000 on emotions and TAMME/ RöSLER 1999 on corrections). Tue results ofthe analysis of the length of mails and frequency of writing, an area which initially seemed to be of mere formal interest and relatively harmless, turned out to be extremely interesting in terms of the development of positive interdependence as discussed in issue 2 in chapter 2.2. On the basis of the statistical details, the interpretation of lengthy passages of text and the interpretation of an entire exchange between a tutor and a tutee in regard to the 6 See RöSLER (2003) or WüRFFEL (2002) for a more detailed introduction. IFLlilllL 34 (2005) 182 Michael K. Legutke, Dietmar Rösler speed of response and the length or brevity of the emails, TAMME (2001: 102) was able to formulate concrete recommendations for writing strategies for email tutors: In her analysis of the data, TAMME provides interesting facts about the topics addressed by tutors and tutees and the similarity and differences in the degree of intensity of the communication on the topics (see TAMME 2001: 111). She also establishes that a special form of learning about the target culture can develop as a result of extended interaction between two individuals. 3.3 Personalized 'Landeskunde' 7 Tue new forms of cooperation which entered the classroom in connection with CLT inevitably led to increased attention to classroom interaction, which in turn meant that less or even too little energy was spent on the subject matters dealt with in the classroom. This in turn led, especially in the so-called 'weak' version of CLT, to the 'banalization' of the contents due to the dubious claim that everyday topics as such were 'learner centered' 8 and to the unnecessary antagonism of 'grammar vs. communication' (RöSLER 1994), both of which were detrimental to specific groups of learners, in particular prospective university students (cf. the analysis by TOWNSEND/ MUSOLFF 1993). This focus on interaction and exciting new forms of cooperation in CLT with its concurrent reduction of interest in subject matters can also be observed in research in applied linguistics as demonstrated by the seven issues listed in 2.2. However, this smoldering indifference towards non-interactional matters is short-sighted: a fresh look from a CLT and CMC perspective at traditionally 'endless' debates like the .one on appropriate forms of teaching and acquiring Landeskurule shows how closely progress in the analysis of traditional teaching conundrums can be linkedwith the choice of forms for working together. 7 We won't go into the details ofthe discussion about 'Landeskunde', 'cultural studies' etc. here. An attempt to deal with the terrninological difficulties can be found in DOYE (1999). 8 Cf. RöSLER (1994: 104 ff) as a criticism of this assumption with which the newly reigning CLT approach claimed a kind of universal scope, ignoring that this version of CLT was everything but centered on the needs of quite a few groups of Iearners with specific aims. fLlllL 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... 183 Collaboration via the intemet offers a form of intercultural learning which, in the long term, can liberate cultural studies from the circular debate between exemplification and broad survey. Through personal interaction with a partner in one of the countries of the target language, it is possible for learners to experience, in a narrative context, the complexity of another part of the world. In the exchange process between Giessen students and leamers of German in other places we could repeatedly observe sequences of conversations in which a mixture of telling about one' s experiences, subjective assessment, amazed questions etc. lead not only to a topic being dealt with in depth and being contextualized, but also to the partners trying to anticipate and consider each other' s perspective and to relate it to their own cultural context. TAMME (2001: 128-130) 9 provides extensive documentation and analysis of a lengthy exchange of this nature between a Hongkong student and her tutor in Giessen on the topic of men and women. These two correspondents do not write to one another in order to leam or teach facts about the target culture. Such facts that are leamt are incidental; what happens here is a dialogue about their own prior knowledge and about themselves and others. Despite grave linguistic problems, the topic itself is the central issue and the acquisition of facts and information about the target culture is constantly accompanied by assessments and an emotional component. If the potential of the digital media can be used to develop this kind of 'personalized cultural studies', then the old distinction between the different types of cultural studies: factual information, communicative person-based information and intercultural studies 10 will become irrelevant because in this kind of 'personalized cultural studies' with its subjective narratives, facts, everyday life and assessment are mingled and accepted as a natural part of a dialogue across borders. 3.4 Exercises and tasks The open way in which the tutors of the Giessen electronic work experience are introduced to their activity allows interesting insights into their concept of tutor-tutee collaboration and the role tasks play within that collaboration. Tue tutors of the second cohort were asked which tasks and exercises they set for their tutees and how they would assess the success ofthese tasks and exercises. The tutors' answers clearly show how low they rate what they regard as tasks and exercises in their tutorials. In their own opinion the majority of tutors never set any tasks and exercises as, for them, the tutorials are mainly about contact and they regarded tasks and exercises as belonging to the area of traditional teaching or felt they might demotivate tutees. They primarily associate "tasks and exercises" with grammar. One of the tutors wrote in her leamer diary: 9 Welches meiner Ziele habe ich erreicht? Ihm macht das tutorial Spaß Welches Ziel hab ich nicht erreicht and warum? Er macht meine exercises nicht, womöglich weil er keine Zeit hat, oder weil er andere Bedürfnisse hat and sich von dem tutorial etwas anderes verspricht, als seine Grammatik zu verbessern ... Reprinted in RösLER (2004: 146-148). IO Cf. the survey in PAULDRACH (1992). FJLIIIL 34 (2005) 184 Michael K. Legutke, Dietmar Rösler Which of my goals have I achieved? He is enjoying the tutorial Which of my goals have I not achieved and why not? He doesn't do any of my exercises, probably because he doesn't have any time or because he is keener on other aspects and his expectations ofthe tutorial do not include improving his grammar ... (RösLER/ WüRFFEL 2005: 326). The analysis of the emails both confirms and contradicts the self-assessments of the tutors. They are confirmed by the fact that the explicitly set exercises in the tutorials are primarily grammar exercises. However, beyond that there are some exercises on listening comprehension, reading comprehension, cultural studies and on intercultural learning. When the exercises and tasks are clearly the kind which focus on form, then it is more likely that the tutors will refer to them as exercises; if the tasks are more open, then it is more likely that they are implicit tasks which aren't tasks at all in the self-assessment of the tutors. RöSLER/ WüRFFEL (2005) analyze a lengthy sequence which shows that the conversation esteemed by the tutors can actually involve setting tasks, even if they don 't regard them as such due to their concept of exercises as having something to do with imparting forms. And when tasks are perceived as such, the tutors try to play them down. In the following excerpt the tutor notices that her question could be taken for a task and she immeditely plays it down by saying that the tutee shouldn't answer it because otherwise their communication might seem like a teaching situation. Although a task is being set here, the tutot tries to mask the task character either because she shouldn't set a task according to her own assessment of the tutor-tutee relationship or else because she may think that declaring the task invalid might lead to it being clone. "[... ] Jetzt bin ich aber abgeschweift, habe rumphilosophiert and mehr von meinen Ansichten als dem Text geschrieben. Was meinst du denn zu dem Text? Was meinst du, kann man daraus lernen? (Vielleicht vergisst du die Frage besser, sonst hast du noch das Gefühl, du sitzt im Deutschunterricht...)" "[ ...] But now I've gone off on a tangent, I've written more about my thoughts and opinions than about the text. What do you think about the text? Do you think you can leam anything from it? (Maybe you shouldjust forget about the question straight away, otherwise you might feel like you are sitting in a German dass ... )" This passage is, however, an excerpt from a longer sequence, in which the tutor's ability to gently lead in a collaboration (see issue 3 in 2.2.) is the precondition for the task being dealt with successfully. In reflecting on their own activities, the tutors learn that the technical brilliance of the way tasks are presented is not the decisive factor goveming the success or otherwise of the exercises they offer. Far more significant is the fact that they found or produced exercises in the course of their dialogue with their tutees which are actually tailored to the needs of the tutees at that point in time in their leaming process, something which has to be negotiated explicitly or 'read between the lines' in an ongoing cooperation. IFI.m.. 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... 185 4. Collaborative work in Action Research Projects of future language teachers in the primary school In the following section we will address the collaborative work of future primary school teachers of English in a blended-leaming environment from two angles. Taking a curricular perspective, we will first of all present some of the cooperative tasks which make up the action research project, one of the pivotal components of the master' s course. This will secondly be followed by a closer look at how the students so far have used the potential of the VLE to negotiate their plans of action and to carry out these group tasks. 4.1 Setting the scene The Blended-Learning master's course 'E-LINGO - Teaching Languages to Young Learners' represents work in progress, because it is still being developed and continuously evaluated. lt seeks to prepare students for a career as cultural and language mediators for leamers at the pre-school, kindergarten and primary level. 11 The t~o-year coursework includes 12 thematic modules covering issues from the language acquisition of children and intercultural leaming to working with different text types and implementing a multi-skill approach to language learning. Special emphasis is placed upon the integrated development of pedagogical content knowledge and practical language teaching. Both the content and tasks of the modules and the face-to~face meetings at the beginning of the course and at the end of each semester are in the target language. Furthermore, it is understood that all communication in the VLE should be done in the target language. Each semester has a key module which follows the same structure of four distinctive phases. (1) Always taking the students' experiences as language learners as a point of departure, the modules then (2) ask the students to read a selection of essential texts from the field with a three-fold goal. Students should be helped to critically review their experiences, they should familiarize themselves with core texts of language teaching theory, and they should recognize goals and develop their own exploration of and performance in particular language classrooms. (3) Focusing on the personal experience and practical knowledge of teachers the third phase of the key modules incorporates teachers' expertise. Students may be asked to analyze an interview with a teacher or a video recording of a lesson. (4) Adding to this preparation students finally concentrate on the development, implementation and analysis of a mini action research project (ARP) to be carried out in a complex mixture of individual and group work in three different classrooms. There are two different types of project work: (a) planning and teaching a lesson based on a particular question students want to research on the basis of their readings and the analysis of different experiences, (b) researching a 11 The project was commissioned and is sponsored by the Baden Wuerttemberg Foudation (Landesstiftung Baden Württemberg gGmbH). The State of Hesse has joined the project and is co-sponsoring it. E-LINGO is currently being jointly developed by the University of Education of Freiburg and by the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen. For more details see www.e-lingo.de lFLwL 34 (2005) 186 Michael K. Legutke, Dietmar Rösler particular aspect of a lesson given by an experienced teacher. In both cases, findings are documented and presented to the other students of the course at a face-to-face meeting concluding this module and the semester. 4.2 Cooperative tasks as workplans Since the basic working unit of the online and face-to-face sections of the course consists of three students (tridems) from different locations, and since the quality of several joint products is assessed as part of the final grade, successful cooperation is called for throughout the course. How forms of individual and cooperative work constantly intertwine can best be demonstrated through the action research project (ARP). Following a classical project mode of leaming (see LEGUTKE 2003a; LEGUTKE/ THOMAS 1991: 157 ff), the ARP ends with a target task, the joint presentation of the research findings in the faceto-face session. Since the three group members will not only have to explain the research question(s) in the presentation, but also include video and/ or audio data from the different contexts, the presentation is, undoubtedly, very demanding and presupposes a number of steps clearly outlined in the course material. 12 Having explored personal experiences and reviewed these within the framework of core theoretical texts which have been worked through individually and partly discussed with group members, students are asked to formulate and negotiate a research question that all group members agree to. Once the question(s) has/ have been accepted, each student will plan a lesson tobe taught either by the student himself/ herself or by a cooperating teacher. Each lesson is to be recorded on video and analyzed from the angle of the research question. Findings have to be discussed in the group with the aim of selecting issues tobe presented in the face-to-face meeting whereby the theoretical texts read in the module's content section should be taken into consideration. Activities and working formats in the ARPs are summarized in table 1 [---+ page 187] The deliberate inclusion of these cooperative tasks into the blended leaming environment follows the insight that they not only help to overcome the isolation of students in traditional distance leaming programs, but also enable them to engage in multi-perspective discourse on language learning, such as considering the impact of diverse contexts. Last but not least they should provide ample opportunity for extended and differentiated use of the target language (issue 7). 12 The online materials provide a detailed "Classroom Research Guide" spelling out 8 steps starting with formulating the research question(s) and leading up to the preparation of thejoint presentation. lFLirnL 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... Exploring personal experiences Reading key texts from the professional Iiterature with individual hand-ins to tutor Reviewing selected issues from literature Developing a research question Negotiating a joint research question Planning a lesson (including analysis of contextual factors) Teaching and documenting a Iesson Data analysis Planning the presentation Delivering a presentation (target task) Individual group sharing individual individual group sharing individual group task individual individual individual; group sharing group task group product Table 1: Tridem cooperation in the action research project 4.3 Cooperative tasks in action 187 To enable students to handle the cooperative tasks, the VLE offers two channels for communication. Each tridern has its own private forurn for discussions which can be read only by the tutors but not by other students. Secondly, each tridern has its own chat-roorn, which is private and therefore cannot be entered by the tutors and/ or other students. Group rnernbers are, however, encouraged to save their chat-logs for inclusion into their portfolios. lt is understood, though, that chat-logs are being saved for research purposes and for prograrn evaluation by prograrn cornputer staff. Both, the forurn and chat-roorns can be activated at the task level when students are working with the rnodule's content and independently of specific tasks. A review of the forrun entries frorn the first 2 ½ sernesters of the course has shown that the groups have so far not used the forurn for task negotiation. If used at all, the forurn rnainly serves as a tool to distribute attachrnents arnong the group rnernbers, send group products to the tutor and receive feedback frorn her. In sorne cases the forrun is additionally used to boost group rnoral and give feedback to group rnernbers. This use will be elaborated upon below in conjunction with the third sernester ARP on issues of assessrnent and portfolio work. Feedback reports during the face-to-face session corroborate this finding, because students consistently report that, although they enjoy the content and the way it is being delivered in the VLE, they prefer to exit the VLE to use JFJLIIIL 34 (2005) 188 Michael K. Legutke, Dietmar Rösler other tools for negotiation. The tools range from private email to telephone and to extra meetings especially before the presentation of the ARP, even if these require long trips by car or train. When the chat-room was introduced at the end of the second semester, course designers were curious as to whether students would turn to their chat-room for task negotiation of at least the easier and shorter group tasks. Since students continued to refrain from using the tools, even when some of them expressed delight that it was made available, course designers decided to make the use of chat-room part of an assignment in the third semester's ARP. Having studied different forms of learner assessment including the use of portfolios in the primary classroom, students were asked to enter the chat-room for a virtual simulation: either taking over the rnle of a teacher trying to convince parents that portfolios should be introduced in their children's classes, or imagining a discussion with a supportive and a very skeptical teacher. Students were to evaluate the introduction and the use of portfolios in the primary English classroom, save the chat and send it to the tutor who would comment on the quality of the arguments and the discussion. Whereas one of the experimental groups did not succeed in saving the chat data, the two other groups opted for a similar procedure: not only did they edit their chat documents, but they also deleted the negotiatory preliminaries leading towards the simulation. What they handed in was not the chat log, but a scripted simulation which had originated from a chat discussion. The following exchange in one of the team forums is worth noting here. The first three messages are followed by an attachment from the continuously edited 'portfolio chat file'. Re: Portfolio chat Author: [s1] Date: 2005-04-28 11: 52: 13 Hi [s2] and [s3] I have edited the script, deleted the comments at the start, corrected typing errors and sometimes moved comments around to where they made more sense. I don't think the product of our long discussion is bad. After all, they asked us to discuss in this way via the chat facility .... This is not a graded assignment and since we are all busy people I would suggest you look through it and unless you find something you would like to see changed, let's send it off. Re: Portfolio chat Author: [s2] Date: 2005-04-28 16: 02: 27 I've found tow repeated lines and cancelled them. That was all. Weil, done. Thanks for editing the work ... a bit stressful to keep up with the conversation and think of saying all the time. But I do think we managed it. Have a nice day [s2] Can you send it off after reading. [s3]? Thanks a lot Re: Portfolio chat Author: [s3] Date: 2005-04-28 23: 29: 46 Read through is all, thought it was o.k. and sent it off to [tutor]. Hated this hand in task. I almost started to cry during it. At least it will not be graded. Have a nice statt for the weekend girls. [s3] lFlLlllL 34 (2005) Enhancing collaborative work by integrating digital media ... 189 Re: Portfolio chat Author: [sl] Date: 2005-04-29 15: 48: 31 Thanks a lot. Relax! Enjoy the sunny weekend. You did very weil although I suppose it was rather stressful for you. [sl] Next time we have to think about shifting the roles in a different way. Within the framework of this article this forum exchange is interesting for at least three reasons. If it was the course designers' intention to raise students' awareness of the chat tool as a means of negotiation, one might critically argue that the task was counterproductive to this intention, because it asked for a hand-in to the tutors, which changed the text type from the students' perspective. At least for this group it seems to have reinforced the practice of excluding the spontaneous, less orderly exchanges from the VLE. The latter, therefore, is seen as a means of academic product and content delivery, and not as an arena for multi-level discourse. Furthermore, one might assume that the processes of negotiation in other private channels will more likely be carried out in German and not in English. The question of why such separation between different modes of communication happens needs further investigation. The issue of grading is certainly important here. With students moving away from the VLE to negotiate their work, the chance for an integrated development of academic and language skills is reduced. Is this integration a viable goal of teacher education that should be pursued? If so, what needs tobe done to keep student discourse within the VLE? On the other hand, the exchange shows in one instance, how a group not only succeeds in redesigning the task according to its needs and understanding (we want to show that we write English well, and therefore we only publish texts which we have revised and which we support unanimously), it also demonstrates how the forum is used to celebrate one's success, deal supportively with the frustrations of one member, and simultaneously foster the coherence of a group (issue 2). Finally, the exchange underscores the need for further research into the complex processes of blended-leaming, in particular into the relationship between public discourse, which in an evaluative environment as a degree course is subject to grading and teacher assessment, and the other more subterranean domains of communication, where, as we assume, group building, maintenance and cooperation are achieved, and lost. Can and should these domains be made accessible to researchers and teachers interested in integrating the digital media into language teacher education? 5. Conclusion The analysis of the projects discussed above shows that the integration of digital media into teacher education environments raises new questions for research into the cooperative dimension. Amongst them are the changing role of the tutor and the avoidance of using available CMC tools for cooperation due to a perceived lack of privacy. 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