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�Low-tech for the Autonomous Learner: The Use of �Recordings in Face-to-Face Intercultural Exchanges

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Dr. Gabriel Guillén & Dr. Thor Sawin

gaguillen@miis.edu & tsawin@miis.edu�This presentation → go.miis.edu/lowtech

May 19

Flagstaff, AZ CALICO 2017

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Tandem learning is “one of the oldest learning methods in the world”, according to Brammerts (1996, p. 121)�
• The academic-practitioner field of tandem learning seems to privilege Online Intercultural Exchanges (OIE) �
• It was originally meant to be face-to-face, emphasising learning partnership over conversational practice (Little, 2001, p. 31)�
• How can we improve face-to-face tandems, incorporating the affordances of OIE (O’Dowd & Lewis, 2016) and field learners’ methods (Thomson, 2012)?

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• Started Team Tandem in 2015 (now Recicle.org), connecting MIIS Spanish students with ESL learners in Monterey County, California�
• Partnered with Mujeres en Acción (a women’s empowerment group) in Soledad and the Salinas Adult School (ESL) in Salinas �
• Created the curriculum for the �Spanish in the Community course, �based on a flexible language �learning notebook for both �English and Spanish learners�(see Team in Recicle.org)

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CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

Spanish in the Community course

Spanish in the Community course

• So far, 43 of 44 participants had mobile devices with recording capabilities (and most of them had smartphones)
• We wanted to leverage familiar mobile features…

VoiceMemos, Notes, WhatsApp (+ Quizlet for grad students)

… to enhance face-to-face tandems and move beyond conversational practice

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CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Recording tasks, adapted from the Growing Participator Approach (Thomson, 2012), allowed learners to focus on language and culture

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

Data collection

• Recordings of collected narratives...

… and attempts to retell these narratives

• Weekly reflections from learners
• WhatsApp conversations among tandem learners
• Quizlet vocabulary list
• Instructors’ observations

Data analysis

• Thematic coding of participants’ metacommentary
• Interlanguage analysis of learners’ retellings

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CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

Affordances of Face-to-face

• Learner agency (Ahn, 2016) and long-lasting partnerships
• Embodied & “ensouled” cognition (paralanguage, tangible objects, heart- level sharing, deeper human connections)
• Fewer technical problems than OIE... (Kramsch & Malinowski, 2014)
• … Yet logistical challenges, which paradoxically added value!

Affordances of Online

(Lewis & O’Dowd, 2016)

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• Multimodality and digital skills
• Internationalization within reach: global is also local
• Focus on tasks
• Possibility for asynchronous practice and reflections on own linguaculture learning (focus on form) �+ Record of long-term language development��

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Combined affordances of face-to-face and online intercultural exchanges

Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

Both: proficiency and IC development

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Whatsapp as the partnership “glue” (agency) �
• Bonding and contextual language use, �beyond course assignments and time �constraints (learners are still �communicating 5 months after the end of the �Spanish in the Community course) �
• Shared 192 artifacts �
• Still, Pareto’s principle applies (20/80)

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Embodied (edible) affordances of face-to-face intercultural exchanges �
• “...En definitiva, fue una clase buena. La comida era muy rica y aunque mi compañera original llegó tarde, ella me trajo horchata. Y yo le traje almendras” ... she brought �me horchata. I brought her almonds�
• “...Cuando nosotros pusimos la mesa, algunos de nosotros empezamos a comerla. Me pregunto si esto se considera grosero, contes antes de llegar las mujeres” ...When we set up the table, some of us started eating. I wonder if this is considered rude, to eat before the women arrive

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Embodied (edible) affordances of face-to-face intercultural exchanges �
• “Cuando nos íbamos, ella preguntó si alguien quería tomar la comida a casa; de otro modo tendría que tirarla a la basura. A partir de esto (from this?), aprendí cómo decir ‘no me gusta desperdiciar la comida’. También aprendí muchas maneras diferentes a decir…” ...When we were leaving, she asked if someone wanted to take food home, otherwise she would have to throw it away. From this, I learned “I don’t like to waste food”�
• Food was central in both projects. Several final projects focused on shared recipes: arroz chino, sopes… and enchiladas as a cultural product from the US. There also has been a hiking trip, final presentations, exchange of diplomas ceremonies... and dancing.

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• 1st person stories - inhabit someone else’s perspectives�
• Introductions and re-telling from recordings & posters�Whatsapp comment: [8:21 PM, 9/8/2016] “Me gustaba cuando �introducimos* nuestra compañera en español y ella nos �introducio* en ingles” I liked when we introduced our �partner in Spanish and she introduced us in English
• Some of the final projects focused on telling �the story of their partner in the first person �(i.e. exchanging the story of the daughter of a �baker in Mexico and an Afghanistan veteran who �got injured during training)�

Female expert: yo recuerdo cuando era niña

Male learner: Recuerdo que cuando era una niña

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Marginalized learners become expert teachers �
• “Una cosa que nosotros enseñamos a María es cómo palabras en español que termina* en “mente” son las palabras que termina* en “ly” en inglés. Y ella corregió* mi uso de condicional cuando debería haber usado el futuro” ��Something we taught María is how words in Spanish that end with -mente are words that end with -ly in English. And she corrected my use of conditional when I should have used the future�

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Learners decide language objectives based on arising needs �
• “Esta vez, ella dio la tarea para Francis y yo podríamos* ayudarla. Fue una ensayo de planificar un viaje en carro. (...) Hemos ayudado a entender cómo decir "deseo" o "quiero" más con un infinitivo. Estaba bien ayudar con su tarea de inglés. Hicimos una conexión más profunda ayer. Nos reímos mucho. También me encontré con sus hijas” �
• This time, she showed us her homework so we could help her. It was an essay about planning a road trip (...) We helped her with how to say “I would like to” and “I want” plus infinitive. It was good to help her with the English homework. We made a deeper connection yesterday. We laughed a lot. Also, I met her daughters�

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Course instructor becomes a coach�
• “Una pregunta de clarificación que tengo es la palabra o la frase para ‘to beautify’ porque Lola no supo. Ella dijo ‘hacerlo mas hermoso’ pero Spandict dice ‘embellecer’. ¿Los dos son correctos?” �
• A clarification question I have is the word or sentence for “to beautify” because Lola did not know. She said “to make it more beautiful” but Spandict says “embeceller”. Are both correct?�
• Yes, they are! The role of the language instructor is also to legitimise language variation and problematize direct translations. �

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language
• Natural contexts for use of new expressions:
• Negotiation of form (phonology/orthography), meaning, AND use
• Need, search & evaluation (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001)
• Multiword expressions with lexical syntax + collocations
• No longer “what’s the word for”
• Learning TL expressions via other TL expressions
• Not relying on L1 translating
• Multimodal encounters with new expressions
• face-to-face, notes, audio, chat, quiz

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: more effective lexicon building �
• “Me gusta la actividad de ‘Scripts of Life’ porque hay mucho vocabulario que no sabemos y que necesitamos usar cuando hablamos de los detalles de actividades. Por ejemplo, en la escuela, los profesores enseñan palabras como ‘huevos’, pero no enseñan cómo se llama* las partes del huevo (....) Este ejercicio nos ayuda aprender unas palabras específicas” ��At school, instructors teach words like “eggs”, but don’t teach the words for parts of the egg (...) This exercise helps us to learn specific words��

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: active listening and contextualized grammar
• “Me gustó tener esta grabación para reproducción. En silencio, puedo comprender lo que ella dijo en casi todo. Ella usaba imperfecto en su cuento” ��I liked to have this recording for playback. In silence, I can understand almost everything she said. She used imperfect in her story��

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: contextualized multiword expressions �
• “Aprecio la oportunidad a oír una historia dicho por una hispanohablante nativa. Especialmente me gusta el* parte de la actividad ‘Historia del Puente’ cuando nosotros notamos los colocaciones y palabras que no conocemos para clarificación después de la grabación” ��I particularly like the part of the activity “bridge story” where we took notes of the collocations and words we didn’t know for clarification after the recording

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: contextualized multiword expressions �
• “Primero, yo dije la historia de Calvin y Hobbes y* hice una grabación. Entonces, escuchábamos* la grabación. Mi compañera supo mucho, pero ella tuvo buenas preguntas también. Por ejemplo, hablamos sobre la significa* de las frases ‘He missed the bus’, ‘He is very irritated’ y ‘He is soaking wet’...” ��First, I told the story of Calvin and Hobbes and did a recording. Then, we listened to the recording. My partner knew a lot but she also had good questions. For example, we talked about the meaning of “He missed the bus,” “He is very irritated,” y “He is soaking wet”...��

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: contextualized multiword expressions�
• “En nuestra próxima* conversación acerca de un problema que vemos en nuestra comunidad, he aprendido algunas palabras / frases como ‘viviendas publicos’ y ‘vienes* raises’ para describir el problema de “homelessness” y el desalojo en lugares como San Francisco y Hawai’i”��In our next conversation about a problem in our community, we learned some words/sentences about “public housing” and “real estate” to describe the problem of “homelessness” and eviction in places like San Francisco and Hawai’i��

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: contextualized pragmatics �
• “Me gusta tener esas grabaciones para practicar escuchando. Nosotros aprendimos muchas palabras de este ejercicio. En particular, yo aprendí que agua puede correr, similar a inglés. También, cuando hablando sobre una persona vieja es más respetuoso decir ‘hombre mayor’ en lugar de ‘hombre viejo’…” ��I like to have these recordings for listening practice. We learned many words in this exercise. In particular, I learned that water can run, similar to English. Also, when we talk about an old person, it’s more polite to say “elderly man” instead of “old man”��

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: naturalness of expressions �
• “Una* de las problemas que le afectan a Fernanda es la* problema de cigarrillos en su vecindad. (...). También, sus ninos jugan* con los colillas de los cigarillos y le dice a su mama, “¿porque* el señor fuma tanto y tira las colillas en nuestro* casa?” ��One of the problems that affect Fernanda is the problem of people smoking in the block (...). Also, her kids play with the cigarette butts and ask her mom: “why this sir smokes so much and throw the butts in our house?”

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Intensive focus on language: naturalness of expressions �
• ��Colloquial language helps me immerse myself

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

Imperfect aspect

me frustraba… quería… daba… estaba frustrada… ��Emergence of new wordings

E: quería enseñarme a andar en bicicleta y me daba miedo

L: quería enseñarme a andar en bicicleta y me daba miedo

E: y tomó muchos golpes, pero me enseñé

L: y tomé muchos golpes, pero me enseñé

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E: el olor de la tierra

L. el olor que tiene la tierra

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Emerging discourse markers

Pues, luego, ni modo

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Focus-shifted word orders

E: es buen recuerdo que tengo yo

L: y es un recuerdo que tengo yo

Still hard to reproduce some novel wordings

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E: que tenía como cuatro, cinco años

L: tena cinco o seis años

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E: cortar flores en el campo

L: encontrar flores en el campo

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E: Regresamos a casa

L: Rega- regra. SA. ba. mos a casa

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Healthy tension between conversational practice and language focus �
• “También, fue difícil, a veces, concentrar en la actividad en lugar de conversación natural” �Also, it was sometimes difficult to focus on the activity instead of (having) a natural conversation�
• “Ojala que continuemos con la estructura y con el espacio para más conversación” �I hope we continue with the structure and with the space for more conversation�
• A veces me concentro en la conversación y me olvidó tomar notas. Pero creo que es útil para tener notas, así que puedo verlas más tarde y reflexionar en mis experiencias. También creo que más notas me ayudaran con mi presentación final” �Sometimes I focus on the conversation and I forgot to take notes. But I believe it’s useful to have notes, so I can see them later and reflect about my experience. I also think they are going to be useful in my final presentation�����

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Combined Affordances

New Roles

Focus on Language

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Best uses of technology are often simplest: accessibility �
• New uses for simple and already familiar technologies (voice memo) still require significant learner training �
• Learners need to be trained to ask more culture-related questions, not just language-related�
• More re-telling, also greater focus on pronunciation and prosody �
• Instructor as a language learning coach, with a critical role (Beltz, 2003)

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CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Use recording as the core input for the course (data-driven learning) �
• Tension between recording tasks, conversational practice, community building tasks, and personal/professional needs �
• Mindset changes not just about culture, but also about language learning�
• Autonomous, reciprocal, and lifelong learners ����

CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Future projects
• Unpack Second Language Confidence (SLC) �����

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“Me gustó cuando podía hablar una historia (del evento que cambió mi vida) en español porque fue una buena práctica para mí. Ahora tengo más confianza que puedo contar una historia completa en español”

“We made great connections when we got to go deeper into our lives and hopes and wishes. I definitely feel more confident speaking and having conversations in Spanish as a result of this class”

“Mis compañeras (...) me tuvieron mucha paciencia, GRACIAS, espero que siga habiendo más reuniones”

Spanish learners

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English learners

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CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

IMPLICATIONS

• Future projects �
• A language learning app or open curriculum for autonomous learners who want to participate in face-to-face intercultural exchanges, recycling recordings: recicle.org
• REciprocal InterCultural Language Exchanges = Recicle�
• Immersive Tandem Program�����

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CONTEXT

DESIGN

AFFORDANCES

FEEDBACK

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Recicle.org ��Gabriel Guillén gaguillen@miis.edu Thor Sawin tsawin@miis.edu