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Drawing on existing research with a holistic stance toward multimodal meaning-making, this paper takes an analytic approach to integrating eye-tracking data to study the perception and use of multimodality by teachers and learners. To illustrate this approach, we analyse two webconference tutoring sessions from a telecollaborative project involving pre-service teachers and learners of Mandarin Chinese. The tutoring sessions were recorded and transcribed multimodally, and our analysis of two types of conversational side sequences shows that the integration of eye-tracking data into an ecological approach provides richer results. Specifically, our proposed approach provided a window on the participants’ cognitive management of graphic and visual affordances during interaction and uncovered episodes of joint attention.

International audience

Our study focuses on a teletandem (Telles) environment for pre-mobility language and intercultural development. The telecollaborations’ main pedagogical objective was the development of the intercultural competence with a shift from more savoir-based culturalist development (Abdallah-Pretceille and Porcher) to a development in terms of savoir-apprendre (Byram and Zarate). This aim was pursued by the design of six teletandem tasks. Moreover, to enable students to reflect on their learning and to share their learning strategies and reflections, within the telecollaborations we set up two collective reflective blogs (Cappellini, “Du carnet”) where the students had to post an entry after each teletandem session. By analyzing the students’ posts in these blogs, we observe convergence and divergence between the pedagogical intentions of the telecollaboration designers (or task-as-workplan, “Divergent perceptions”) and the actual outcomes (or task-as-process). Finally, we draw some pedagogical suggestions on how to improve task design for autonomous intercultural learning. Notre étude se focalise sur un dispositif télétandem (Telles) pour le développement de compétences langagières et interculturelles avant une mobilité. L’objectif principal de la telecollaboration était le développement de la compétence interculturelle, avec un passage du développement culturaliste fondé sur les savoirs (Abdallah-Pretceille et Porcher) à un développement en termes de savoir-apprendre (Byram et Zarate). Cet objectif a été visé par la conception de six tâches télétandem. De plus, afin de permettre aux étudiants de réfléchir sur leurs apprentissages et de partager leurs stratégies d’apprentissage, dans le cadre de chaque télécollaboration nous avons créé deux blogs réflexifs collectifs (Cappellini “Du carnet”) où les étudiants devaient poster un article après chaque session télétandem. En analysant les articles des étudiants dans ces blogs, nous avons observé une convergence ou une divergence entre les intentions des concepteurs (ou task-as-workplan, Dooly) et les réalisations effectives (ou tasks-as-process). Enfin, nous tirons des suggestions pédagogiques concernant la manière d’améliorer la conception de tâches pour l’apprentissage autonome interculturel.

Our study focuses on a teletandem (Telles) environment for pre-mobility language and intercultural development. The telecollaborations’ main pedagogical objective was the development of the intercultural competence with a shift from more savoir-based culturalist development (Abdallah-Pretceille and Porcher) to a development in terms of savoir-apprendre (Byram and Zarate). This aim was pursued by the design of six teletandem tasks. Moreover, to enable students to reflect on their learning and to share their learning strategies and reflections, within the telecollaborations we set up two collective reflective blogs (Cappellini, “Du carnet”) where the students had to post an entry after each teletandem session. By analyzing the students’ posts in these blogs, we observe convergence and divergence between the pedagogical intentions of the telecollaboration designers (or task-as-workplan, “Divergent perceptions”) and the actual outcomes (or task-as-process). Finally, we draw some pedagogical suggestions on how to improve task design for autonomous intercultural learning. Notre étude se focalise sur un dispositif télétandem (Telles) pour le développement de compétences langagières et interculturelles avant une mobilité. L’objectif principal de la telecollaboration était le développement de la compétence interculturelle, avec un passage du développement culturaliste fondé sur les savoirs (Abdallah-Pretceille et Porcher) à un développement en termes de savoir-apprendre (Byram et Zarate). Cet objectif a été visé par la conception de six tâches télétandem. De plus, afin de permettre aux étudiants de réfléchir sur leurs apprentissages et de partager leurs stratégies d’apprentissage, dans le cadre de chaque télécollaboration nous avons créé deux blogs réflexifs collectifs (Cappellini “Du carnet”) où les étudiants devaient poster un article après chaque session télétandem. En analysant les articles des étudiants dans ces blogs, nous avons observé une convergence ou une divergence entre les intentions des concepteurs (ou task-as-workplan, Dooly) et les réalisations effectives (ou tasks-as-process). Enfin, nous tirons des suggestions pédagogiques concernant la manière d’améliorer la conception de tâches pour l’apprentissage autonome interculturel.

Dans cet article, nous nous appuyons sur les reflexions concernant l’evolution sociale du concept d’autonomie (Little 2012 ; Lewis 2013) pour etudier les effets sociaux d’une experimentation pedagogique exploitant un outil du Web 2 (Grosbois 2012), le blogue, pour le soutien au developpement des competences metacognitives dans un dispositif d’autoformation accompagnee pour l’apprentissage de l’italien a destination d’un public de specialistes d’autres disciplines (LANSAD). Nous etudions les interactions dans le blogue a l’aide de la grille d’analyse de Garrison et Anderson (2003) pour l’etude de la presence sociale en ligne. De plus, nous cherchons d’eventuelles traces d’un enrichissement du repertoire des strategies d’apprentissage, ce qui represente un des elements du developpement de l’autonomie de l’apprenant (Ismail & Bailly 2011). A partir des resultats de notre analyse, nous elaborons une reflexion autour des ressources et des mediations pouvant favoriser la metacognition dans les centres de langues.

In our study we analyse how the same interactional dynamic is produced in two different pedagogical settings exploiting a desktop videoconference system. We propose to focus our attention on a specific type of conversational side sequence, known in the Francophone literature as sequences of normative evaluation. More particularly, we analyse data from two telecollaborative projects through desktop videoconference: a French-Chinese tandem, and a French-Irish telecollaboration between trainee teachers and learners of French as a foreign language. The comparison of two different pedagogical settings allows us to understand what types of interactional dynamics are co-constructed through the desktop videoconference environment and which characteristics are specific to each pedagogical setting. Within a socio-interactionist perspective, we analysed four hours of interactions, focusing particularly on the transmodal enactment of the sequences under scrutiny and its relation to learners’ uptake. Our results show on the one hand that there are some quantitative differences in the production of sequences of normative evaluation between the two pedagogical settings, and on the other hand that, contrary to our hypothesis, the co-construction of these sequences does not differ in multimodal density across the two contexts. We discuss these results and propose some tentative explanations for them.

International audience; Our paper aims to present students’ interactions in a teletandem – that is, tandem through desktop videoconference [Telles, J., ed. 2009. Teletandem. Um contexto virtual, autônomo, colaborativo para aprendizagem das linguas estrangeiras no século XXI. Campinas, SP: Pontes Editores] – telecollaborative project between third-year undergraduate students in a Chinese university and first-year graduate students in a French university. More precisely, we aim to find possible relations between the sociocultural roles co-constructed during interaction and the language learning possibilities in this teletandem environment. In our study, we adopt a socio-interactionist approach [Mondada, L., and S. Pekarek-Doehler. 2004. “Second Language Acquisition as Situated Practice: Task Accomplishment in the French Second Language Classroom.” The Modern Language Journal 88 (4): 501–518], assuming that learning is situated in social interactions. Our corpus of analysis is formed by 15 teletandem sessions of four partnerships, which result in about 20 hours of interaction. Our analytical approach consists of three steps. First, we analyse role-taking and role-giving in terms of interlocutors’ positioning as experts in relation to different topics of conversation [Reichert, T., and G. Liebscher. 2012. “Positioning the Expert: Word Searches Expertise and Learning Opportunities in Peer Interactions.” The Modern Language Journal 96 (4): 599–609]. Second, we analyse scaffolding [Bruner, J. 1983. Le développement de l'enfant. Savoir faire, savoir dire. Paris: PUF] as it appears in different types of conversational side sequences [Jefferson, G. 1972. “Side Sequences.” In Studies in Social Interaction, edited by D. Sudnow, 294–338. New York: The Free Press] identified in studies on exolingual conversation [Porquier, R. 1984. “Communication exolingue et apprentissage des langues.” In Acquisition d'une langue étrangère III, edited by B. Py, 17–47. Paris: Presses de l'Université Paris VIII Vincennes à Saint-Denis]. Third, we observe the relations between types of role-taking and role-giving and types of scaffolding side sequences. Statistical analysis shows that some conversational phenomena are more common than others. In our opinion, the knowledge of such configurations can enrich task designers’ perspectives on teletandem and possibly on telecollaboration.

International audience; In this article we consider how the roles of learner and teacher are configured in a teletandem exchange between two students working in a university language centre with no external tutor present. Teletandem is a multilateral exchange (Lewis et al. 2011) via desktop videoconferencing. It is based on the tandem method, where two learners with different mother tongues learn each other’s language through multimodal online interaction. It relies on learner autonomy and reciprocity, which means that every learner is supposed to be half of the time learner of one language and half of the time expert in the other. Our study shows that teletandem partners assume expert and learner roles not only in relation to the language spoken, but also according to the topic discussed, generating what we call “crossed expertise”. Moreover, we identify different degrees in the use of multimodality. These findings help us to understand how roles are constructed in a self-guided language learning environment and in this way contribute to the improvement of tandem learning arrangements and the design of tandem learning environments.