Using Blogs and Podcasts for Online Intercultural

Exchanges

Lina LeeUniversity of New Hampshire

Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign LanguagesApril 17, 2009New York, NY

Online Intercultural Exchange

• Use web-based learning between two institutions from different cultures – E-tandem learning: Cultura project (1997)

• Online communication tools – Web 1.0 and 2.0 technology

• Equal opportunities and benefits – Use of both L1 and L2

• Exchange of language and culture – Task-based activities

Why?

• Intercultural communicative competence (ICC)– Cross-cultural awareness and understanding

(Wade & O’Dowd, 2008)

• Virtual social networking community • Collaborative Interaction (Lee, 2004)• Active and autonomous learning (Lee, 2005)• Affordances (VanLier, 2000)

– Linguistic and cultural constructions

• Scaffolding via peer feedback (Lee, 2008)– Language accuracy via focus on form

How?

• Institutional context– How can technology enhance learning and

teaching? – What technology and support are available?

• Partnerships – IECC: Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connections:

http://www.iecc.org/– Blogs-Exchange (BE): www.blogs-exchange.com

• Discussion with partner teacher – Objectives of the project – Structure of the exchange; task design – Evaluation and feedback

León - NH Online Exchange • January 20 - May 10, 2008• Student groups

– 10 UNH graduate students – 23 León students with advanced English skills

• Course syllabus with three major tasks – 30% of final grade

• Tools – Bloggers for group blogs – Audacity and iMovie for podcastings– Message board of Moodle for feedback and

comments

Moodle site in Blackboard

Three Major Tasks

• Blogs– Young people’s lives – A minimum of three articles

• Podcasts/Vodcasts– Controversial issues– Global warming, political system, capital

punishment, euthanasia, same sex parents

• Ethnographic interviews – Spanish and American culture – To post a list of 6-7 questions in Moodle message

board.

Topics for Group Blogs

Topics Chosen by American Students

Topics Chosen by Spanish Students

Blog #1: University Life; Stereotypes;

Global Warming Blog #1: A City Tour of León University of León and Technology

Blog #2: Super Bowl; Crossword

Puzzles; Cyberlanguage Blog #2: Night Life in León University Life; Brief Guide to Spanish Music

Blog #3: Political Figures—Obama and Romney; Economics in USA

Blog #3: Spanish Films; A Famous

Place in León Spanish Music

Blog #4: University Life; Presidential

Debates; Seacoast Areas Blog #4: University Festivals; Smoking; Interview with a University Professor

Topics for Interviews

Topics Chosen by American Students

Topics Chosen by Spanish Students

Flattering Capital Punishment

Educational System in Spain Cinema

University Student Life Free Time

Politics in Spain Life in New Hampshire

Student Exchange and Travel Weapons in the USA

Advanced Technology Iraq War

Super Bowl from NH

Blog - UNH

Road to Presidency from UH

Blog - UNH

Blog - UNH

Blog - León

Blog from León

Blog - León

About Old Part of León

Blog - León

Tapas and Nightlife

Blog - León

Blog - León

Interviews with León Students Blog - León

Vodcast in Blog from NH

Podcasts from León in Moodle

Ethnographic Interview: Questions from León

Responses from NH

Vodcast: Capital Punishment

Questions from NH

Responses from León

Post-Task: Peer Feedback

• Read blogs and listen to podcasts • No specific instructions on “how” to

provide feedback• Peer feedback by

– Written comments or voice recordings – Use of both English and Spanish

• Focus-on-form – Linguistic problems

Feedback in Message Board

Podcast Feedback from NH

Podcast Feedback from León

Feedback Strategies (1) Comment on the content and then the linguistic problems(2) Direct Feedback without explanations

--junta con 1,400 otras comunidades; This should be... junto con otras 1.400 comunidades.--impede --> impide [León student]

(3) Feedback with explanations --When you say 'nos disfrutamos del ambiente' you have to include a subject and 'nos' is not a subject but a reflexive pronoun, so you could say: nosotros disfrutamos del ambiente or simply disfrutamos del ambiente.” [León student]-- Be careful with the spelling - "hole" is "agujero" pero "whole" means "entero" o "total” [NH student]

Feedback on Content and Form

“Hi girls!!! Interesting topic about global

warming. I like the way you introduce us to this

issue because you did it in a clear and organized

way. By the way, your Spanish accent is quite

good but take care with the Verb "to be”

(ser/estar) I know that this may be weird for you

but it is very important to distinguish them.”

(León Student)

Feedback on NH Podcasting

“Hi again!! We think that the idea of the fish and

the joke is very original !! we are so amazed

about your ability for making people laugh

because it's too difficult to tell a joke in a

different language. There is a difference between

your pronunciation and ours with "r” sound. It

should be vibrant. The rest is very spontaneous,

but you have done a great work!!! Well done!!”

(León Student)

Comments on León Blogs

• I liked how you presented different perspectives from the students of Erasmus. In this way, it presents a better way to talk about the life in León.

• I have to say that the blog is super fun to read. I liked the way you presented your city and how you described the events and the culture.

Comments on León Podcast

• The podcast is very informative. It was interesting to learn what you think about the topic. I was born in Massachussets. It was always a very polemic topic during my childhood. But it was very interesting to hear international voices and your opinions. I agree with you. The appearance of the family does not matter because the definition of the family is changing.

[Same sex parents]

Positive Appraisal from León• Interesting; great; a lot of interesting

information; well-written; very well-done;great job!

• I think you have done an excellent podcast!You have both a very good Spanish, and yourconversation about politics is very interesting!!You give a lot of information about the elections in America in a very interesting way, I enjoyed a lot listening to it!!

Positive Appraisal from UN

• Me gustó mucho; interesante; fantástico• !Felicitaciones! Su podcast es bien

pensado y lo presentan con muchaclaridad.

• Sobre León Focus, diría que su sitio es presentado de una manera muy formal y meticulosa. El lenguaje es muy preciso y descriptivo, y el formato facilita lanavegación de la página.

Direct Feedback from NH

Direct Feedback from León

Feedback with explanations to NH

Feedback on León Blogs

Feedback with explanations to León

Lexical Comment from León

“By the way,"mirar la tele" it is not use in

Spain,we say "ver la tele". Why is that? I

don’t know and besides, I think you’ll

never find a logical answer because it

should be "mirar la tele" because you are

paying attention while you are watching

the TV, isn’t it?”

Lexical Comment from León

“One interesting thing about your spanish is

that sometimes (not often, I must say) it

seems more "mexican" than "spanish" due of the

use of the diminutives and because words like

"ahorita” "linda" or "usted/es" (we spanish

people are not so polite as latinoamerican

peolple, actually). Don’t get me wrong, I find

this pretty cool.”

Lexical Item Debate

--“Also there are words we do not use as "maestrías” that is not the name we use.” (León Student)

-- “Perdón, pero tengo que decirle que sí en algunos países se dicen "maestría". Supongo que en España existe otra palabra, como posgraduado. Pero, "maestría" vale igual porque es parte del léxicoespañol y se la usa en otras partes.” (UNH Student)

Lexical Comments from NH--It was the School of Agrarian Engineering, in the

decade of the 80’s.** normally we would just say in the 80's--you have a free day to spend ** instead of free day, use day off --cultural activities during all the day ** the entire day is how we usually express

this thought(focus on form by comparing the original againstthe “more native-sounding” rephrasing)

Survey Results Item Mean

I enjoyed writing to my peers in Message Board. 4.34

Using blogs/podcasts is an effective way to communicate online.

4.22

Creating blogs and podcasts was beneficial to me. 4.52

Reading blogs/posts and listening to podcasts enhanced my understanding of the target culture.

4.14

Topics were interesting to me. 4.31

I found tasks time-consuming. 3.82

I found peer feedback useful. 2.83

Overall, it was a positive experience for me. 4.24

General Comments

• I was able to try some new things and will incorporate some new ideas using blogs and podcasts in the classroom as a teaching tool.

• I found the experience helpful and very applicable to what I will teach next year at the secondary school level.

General Comments

• I enjoyed the exchange though it seemed somewhat impersonal. At times our partners did not seem very invested in the exchange. It made it a little frustrating to spend time on something knowing that you may not get a response in a timely fashion.

Comments on Blogs

• In my view, blogging was an effective way of sharing thoughts because it allowed me to interact with my peers beyond the classroom walls. I must say that online publishing made my writing more enjoyable.

• I liked how we wrote for multiple readers; not just for a sole instructor. Having a real audience made me more conscious of my own writing.

Comments on Podcasts

• Podcasting allowed us to become active knowledge creators through publishing our oral work online.

• Podcasting is an exciting way of practicing speaking because it exposed to me to the real-world use of communicative language skills.

• I found making podcasts challenging. I ended up spending a lot of time editing recordings. I think we should receive more training on how to use imovie o Audacity.

Comments on Tasks

• I think that it's a great idea to focus on specific topics. I was also excited to answer the Spanish students' questions because I knew that they really wanted to know the answers. They were authentic questions that came straight from the students

• Ethnographic interviews were more engaging and interactive, because the topics were generated by both groups based on our personal interests and global concerns.

Comments on Feedback

• Feedback and error correction are crucial in language learning.

• Because it is always helpful to know your grammatical weaknesses.

• The comments we did get were useful although I’m not sure that any of us are too likely to remember what the corrections were.

• I received almost no feedback and there was not a good format for giving meaningful feedback. It is a limitation of the Moodle site.

Comments on Feedback

• I did take the time to make error corrections, but I don’t really know how useful they were for the León students. They didn’t change any of the Blog entries and couldn’t really change the Moodle entries after posting them. They may have looked at our suggestions, but I doubt they had much of a lasting effect.

More Comments on Feedback

• I was reluctant to give feedback because it was not easy to explicitly correct my Spanish partners’ mistakes in an open space. I did not want to embarrass them.

• I had no problem giving feedback, though I am not sure how useful it was. It is difficult to describe with clarity in a few paragraphs what the mistakes were. I think it requires a dialogue.

Conclusion

• Web 2.0 tools for intercultural exchanges• Blogs for longer time span (make comments) • Podcasting to build oral fluency• More training

• Interpersonal communication • Get to know each other using E-mail or Skype

• Cultural and linguistic issues from multiple perspectives

• Native-speaker feedback; informal and less threatening; different levels of proficiency

• Error corrections as follow-up activities

• Contact information– Lina Lee

llee@unh.edu• Download PowerPoint

http://www.unh.edu/spanish/lina – Recent presentations/workshops– NECTFL 2009