So What?

Anton “Xandy” van den Berg                                                                        December 1, 2013

REED 461

So What?

Ware, P., & Kramsch, C. (2005). Toward an intercultural stance: Teaching german and english through telecollaboration. The Modern Language Journal, 89. 190-205.

Purpose of article:  Ware and Kramsch want to depict the challenges of Web-based teaching for language teachers, and they want to highlight this depiction through a misunderstanding between learners of German in the United States and learners of English in Germany. They say that discussions of such misunderstandings can be valuable learning opportunities for students and teachers.

What was studied/discussed:

Important terms: telecollaboration, technology-mediated learning contexts, intercultural growth

Results: Ware and Kramsch’s findings came out of a qualitative study of telebollaborative project involving 9 university students in the southwestern United States studying German and 12 students in northeastern Germany studying English. The students interacted for 3 weeks by writing on an asynchronous discussion board, to which they were require to post messages at least twice a week. They found many instances of misinterpreted words such as “little”, colloquial speech that had many topics get lost in translation, and the lack of face-to-face interaction left some of the subjects realizing that some misunderstandings would have been avoided if the tone or inflection of certain phrases could have been heard. Kramsch and Ware realized after conducting the study that the blame can often be thrown on the teacher for some of these misunderstandings. The results can leave them feeling anxious or at fault, but with in making assignments like these, it is important to know that clearly, carefully constructed assignments that are made pedagogical precautions, taken in order to reduce misunderstandings is important. Also, clear instructions and guidelines are necessary.

So What? I chose this specific article, because it fell directly in line with issues and discussions that I have everyday in my school. I work in a 1 to 1 school (Bearden High School), and we are being challenged daily to come up with ways to involve technology and telecollaboration as it is defined by this article, communicating with other language learners or speakers of the target language using technology. This article critiques the traditional role of the teacher and notes that it is coming in to question in this current day and age. What should the teacher do with all the resources that they have available to them, and how should they facilitate the instruction using those materials? In the 21^st century it is becoming more common to have students using all kinds of technology in schools, and it is even becoming a norm to have schools instructed in large part using technology. This means for certain subjects, especially foreign language, teachers are finding ways to communicate with technology and find ways to reach out to native speakers of the language they are teaching. Some teachers see it as a respite from teacher-led instruction, and a way for the students to be independent and control their learning. What episodes of misunderstanding can occur in a telecollaborative, technology-based learning environment? What might that do to a students’ ability or willingness to learn new things in the target language? In the project designed by Ware and Kramsch, the objective was to examine how participants on both sides of technology-based exchanges engaged with language learning online and how they evaluated experiences in the exchange.

I am left wondering after reading about this study if a face-to-face technology-based interaction could work better in the future. This study was conducted before Skype or FaceTime became tools that teachers could use in their classroom. But, with these things available to us, is it more beneficial to allow students to have these telecollaborative interactions in a face-to-face technological environment?