Teaching and Learning in Multimodal Web-conferencing Environment

Iryna KozlovaCarleton University

iryna.kozlova@carleton.ca

February 7, 2015

Albert Street Education Center, Ottawa,

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.

Presentation Outline1. Synchronous multimodal web-conferencing

environments (MWCEs) and their opportunities for engagement of multiple students;

2. Relationship between student engagement and learning from the socio-cultural perspective;

3. Purpose of the study, Method, Participants, & Data Collection;

4. Instructors’ use of multimodal communication tools and its effect on language learning;

5. Factors affecting instructors’ use of multimodal tools

6. Implications of the findings for teacher-training.

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.

Multimodal Web-conferencing Environment (MWCE)

Interactive Whiteboard :

GraphicsTypingImages or PPTs

Introduction

1. Do online instructors use multiple modalities to engage multiple students in instructional conversation?

2. What factors influence instructors’ use of multi-modal tools for this purpose?

BackgroundKozlova, 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.

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.

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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)

Wimba and 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.

Method and Participants Instructors Language

sCourses Experienc

e f2fExperience online

Training to teach online

Anna Russian 1st year, HS

>10 yrs ≥ 5 yrs BSN training;no formal training;

Daniel German 3rd year, HS

< 5 yrs < 1yr BSN trainingno formal training;

Ghada Arabic 2nd year, HS

> 10 yrs ≥5 yrs BSN training; formal training; Use of MM

Julia Japanese 2nd semester, College

> 10 yrs < 5 yrs BSN training;no formal training;

Olga Russian 1st year, HS

< 5 yrs <1yr BSN trainingformal training

Data AnalysisMultimodalities 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

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 achievedtypes of mediation used by the

instructors

Data Analysis & ResultsAnalysis of the archived task-based activities shows:

1. Not all of the instructors used multimodalities.2. Not all of the instructors used instructional

conversations in the socio-cultural sense.3. Instructors’ use of multiple modalities seems to

depend on their theoretical perspective on student performance and learning.

Olga: Performance as an Imitation of the Target Language Structure

Olga: Performance as an Imitation of the Target Language Structure

1 Olga: If you wanna talk about a tiger, you would say Где тигр? Где тигр?/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)) 10 Nick: 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:::::23 Peter: ((Peter raises his hand.))24 Olga: go ahead, Peter!25 Peter: На стуле/On the chair26 Olga: Точно, на стуле/On the chair

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

Ghada:Performance as a Final Product

Ghada:Performance as a Final Product65 Ghada: Good, Caitlin! You don’t need و /’and’ here. It says, 66 ‘They are pleasant’ 66 Jack: ((writes))67 Ghada: ‘hom la te fat’, so you don’t need [ و/ and here67a OR [((crosses out و /and68 Helen: are pleasant/لطيفات] 69 Ghada: They [a:::re pleasant=70 OR [((writes ‘are’(above و)) 71 They are pleasant, plural72 OR ((adds one letter to the adjective حميمات ((best friends/هم73 [But adjectives in Arabic must follow the numbers,74 Helen: [((writes))75 OR Ghada: if you say they, then you must put ((adds plural ending)) 76 Also here ((draws an arrow to point to the ending))77 Nice/ لطيفات 78 [excellent word, excellent sentence79 [((puts a check mark next to the sentence))

Ghada:Performance as a Final ProductGhada’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.

Daniel: Performance as a Collaborative Effort

DanielPerformance as a Collaborative Effort

((The instructor is on the video))

1 Daniel: Eber, mien freund, Eber/Eber, my friend Eber is a Hispanic name

2 Eber

3 Eber wohnte in einem Studentenheim, studentenheim, na ?/Eber lives in one dorm, dorm, well?

4 OIR [What Studentenheim/dorm would be? Think about universities,

4a [wohnte in einem Studentenheim/Eber lives in one dorm, dorm, well

5 OIR what that building would be? Eber wohnte in einem Studentenheim.

6 Was 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 OISR Kate: 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

Julia: Performance as a Collaborative Effort

Julia: Performance as a Collaborative Effort1 Julia: OK, I am still waiting for most of you to do number 82 [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 up5 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 late7 (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 Nicole16 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 up20 TISR Yes Jenny21 Because you need to use the short form to look at everything at the back

Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort

Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort1 Anna: We have a couple of more minutes, so we can do one more2 slide, so who is now? Now, I remember Jack [Brown3 Terry: [PARIS!!!!4 Anna: um [wanted to ask a question 5 Terry: [CHINA!!!!6 Anna: and who will help him?7 (3)8 OR Sam: france and 9 (2)10 Terry: EVAN!!!!!11 Anna: YEAH! Harry! […]12 ok, Jack and Harry, which one do you choose?13 OR Sam: asia 14 OR Nick: that’s Japan, not China15 Terry: :P16 (5)17 Anna: Jack

Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort

18 Anna: Jack 19 Jack: Hold on, I am trying to think how to say Paris20 OIR Anna Oh, 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 now22 Anna: [((underlines Франция/France))] 23 Anna: ok, who can help, what does it say? The underlined word, who can 24 read it?25 OISR Jack: Франци-ция/Fran-nce 26 Anna: молодцы! Франция/good job! France27 (4)28 Фран[ция/France30 Jack: [кто живёт в [ER] [Франция [ER]/Who lives in France31 Sean [Terry it doesn’t deal with class so stop say Evan 33 OR Anna: Кто живёт во Франции?/Who lives in France. (.) Uh-huh, Harry34 Harry: Он [ER] o(живёт)o во Франции/He lives in France35 OIR Anna: ((circles Мишель/Michelle))36 OIR It’s not он/he, see, I said it’s a girl37 OISR Harry: она живёт во Франции/she live in France38 Anna: очень хорошо/very well done, but

Anna:Performance as a Collaborative Effort

38 Анна: but 39 OIR [what if I ask you, где живёт Мишель/where does Michelle live40 Terry: [he wants to read russian thats hot it has to do with class so :P41 OIR Anna: 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 …49 Kevin: to be honest with you, I am not sure50-51 …52 OIR Anna: ok, it’s still the first picture, it says Франция/France53 Terry: japanjia54 Anna: Kevin, can you try again? Can you say she lives in France? 55 In Russian56 OISR Kevin: Он/he, no она живёт вo Франции/she lives in France SR

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.

Analysis & ResultsSurvey:

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.

Applications

Training online instructors Use of technology SLA theories Language pedagogy

Thank you!

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Transcription conventions T: Jack Voice-based utterances are typed in regular fontTerry: EVAN Utterances from text-based chat are in italicsHelen: are pleasant Utterances written on the whiteboard/لطيفات]are in bold

italics T: YEAH!!! Utterance pronounced in a loud voice

(5) The pause lengthT: Фран[ция square brackets indicate the onset of overlappingJack: [кто utterances or actions

на::::: semicolon indicates prolongation of a vowel soundФранция ((ER)) double parentheses include transcriber’s

commentГде?/Where? slash separates a foreign word and its

translation and/or Romanization “hom la te fat” quotation marks include Romanization of a foreign

utterance

References

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