Telecollaboration and genres: a new perspective to understand language learning

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the first 15 minutes of ten initial Teletandem Oral Sessions (iTOS), which means the first virtual encounter among speakers of different languages who want to study the each other’s language. Our aim is to verify iTOS genre status within a telecollaborative learning environment. We understand genres as communicative events organized in standard structures used by members of a discourse community to achieve their communicative purposes (Swales, 1990) and assume that the teletandem context is composed of a specific community with shared objectives. A study of iTOS had first been proposed by Aranha (2014), who analyzed nine iTOS and identified some recurrence in their discoursal structure. Our data, ten iTOS, are part of a previous version of MulTeC (Multimodal Teletandem Corpus) (Aranha & Lopes, forthcoming) and participants are proficient in Portuguese and English. The video files were transcribed and the sessions were analyzed based on Aranha’s (2014) findings. We identified rhetorical organization for the sessions which was similar to Aranha’s, but varied depending on the learning scenarios, i.e. the learning context in which they occurred.

A Telecolaboração Entre Professores Brasileiros E Estudantes Canadenses

“…Abaixo, apresentamos um quadro (Quadro 1) com os conteúdos temáticos abordados em cada relato e quantificados em relação ao número de menções nos textos: Fonte: Elaborado pelas autoras (2022) Como podemos observar no quadro acima, os sete temas foram mencionados em quase todos os relatos, nos permitindo aproximar ao que Wenger (2010) categoriza como alinhamento, como mencionamos em nosso referencial teórico. Há, pois, aqui, uma relação de coordenação com o contexto, em que as formadoras evocam os temas que são importantes/relevantes para a comunidade de prática na qual estão inseridas.…”

“…Formadora A -Verbos / ações da formadora : participer, donner des cours, animer des ateliers, travailler, connaître (le contexte), apprécier (le feedback), reprendre (les questions), partager, apprendre Formadora E -Verbos / ações da formadora: participer (au projet), exposer (comment on évalue), réfléchir, proposer (des activités) , mettre en pratique, tester, mobiliser, vérifier (les concepts et idées), organiser, alterner (la prise de parole), prendre des notes, construire, organiser (les séances), faire l'expérience, prendre en compte (les contraintes de temps et public), trouver le ton juste pour inviter et stimuler, prendre le temps (de connaître les élèves), présenter (la façon de faire), avoir (une approche vygotskienne), créer (espace d'apprentissage) et gérer (la classe), prendre en compte et aborder (leurs questions) Fonte: elaborado pelas autoras (2022) Tal levantamento nos permitiu identificar nos relatos ações que expressam tanto (i) o fazer e o experienciar, isto é, a preparação e realização dos encontros de formação, que se relacionam tanto ao objeto de ensino (expor (como avaliamos), colocar em prática, testar, mobilizar, verificar (os conceitos e ideias), mostrar, nivelar (os estudantes), mostrar (os exercícios), trazer (as produções)); quanto (ii) a gestão dos encontros (organizar, alternar (o turno de fala), retomar (as questões), tomar notar, construir, organizar (os encontros), levar em conta e abordar (as questões deles), considerar (a restrição de tempo e o público). Também identificamos (iii) o pertencer, isto é, ações referentes ao trabalho coletivo dessa comunidade de prática na formação (examinar, observar (os professores mais experientes), ver, compartilhar, refletir, conhecer (as técnicas), conversar (com as outras formadoras)); e (iv) o tornar-se, ou seja, efeitos da própria participação das formadoras nesse dispositivo (não parar de aprender, melhorar (a prática de ensino), viver (a experiência), ampliar, desenvolver (o sentido da alteridade), sentir-se (mais à vontade)).…”

Investigating telecollaborative genres: analysis of teletandem oral sessions communicative purpose through learners’ diaries

“…Despite being less common in learners' reports, the idea that iTOS serves for learners to find common ground relates to researchers' understanding of the communicative purpose of the genre. According to Rampazzo and Aranha (2019b), the purpose is to establish contact and support the partnership, and one way of doing this is learners' effort to find topics to talk about that are interesting to both students in a dyad.…”

“…Research on teletandem has focused on eight thematic areas: learning in teletandem, culture, context description, teacher education, assessment, mediation, genres, and research databank, being genres still an underexplored topic (RAMPAZZO; CUNHA, 2021 3 ). Despite only few publications concentrating on genres (SILVA, 2012;ARANHA, 2014;ARANHA;BRAGAGNOLLO, 2015;RAMPAZZO, 2017;ARANHA, 2018ARANHA, , 2019b, studies have been advancing on investigating the ones involved in the practice as a community whose members share common goals (SILVA, 2012;ARANHA, 2019a) and the characteristics of the genres that recur in the teletandem community (ARANHA, 2014;RAMPAZZO, 2017RAMPAZZO, , 2021ARANHA, 2018ARANHA, , 2019b. Such studies help with identifying the patterns of action that are effective in this form of telecollaboration.…”

“…Up to this moment, the task that has had part of its generic structure examined is the initial teletandem oral session (iTOS), a genre that connects to others in the realization of TC's goals. Rampazzo and Aranha (2019b) identified that, for the first 15 minutes of iTOS, the discourse is organized in rhetorical argumentative parts, in which participants negotiate certain aspects, exchange information, mostly personal, and discuss the texts exchanged. Based on the conversation between learners and on the fact that they try to find common interests, the authors argue that iTOS communicative purpose is to establish contact and support the partnership.…”