The Role of Multiliteracy and Telecollaboration in Language Learning

S.Ammu Ph.D Research Scholar (Part Time) & Assistant Professor of English, Mount Zion College of Engineering & Technology, Pudukkottai, E-Mail: [email protected]

Dr.L.D.Easter Raj Densingh Research Supervisor & Assistant Professor of English H.H.The Rajah’s College(Autonomous) Pudukkottai.

Abstract: In language learning contexts, telecollaboration is understood as internet- based intercultural exchange between people of different cultural/national backgrounds set up in an institutional context with the aim of developing both language skills and intercultural communicative competence. Generally students interact with one another on ‘safe’ topics and subsequently reflect on and discuss their interactions with teachers and peers. As will become evident in this short paper, there are some milestones in the development of this tradition, which we will be briefly touches upon, in an attempt to reveal the importance of research in the selection and implementation of the optimal methods and techniques for language teaching and learning. Introduction: ‘Communication’ is one of the primary purposes behind language teaching which greatly influenced ELT during the third phase. The preparation of curriculum and text books, evaluation was based on this premise. Initiation of new language learning theories lead to the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which became the most acceptable language teaching method for ELT professionals. New text books became a necessity because both learners and teachers wanted activities related to real-life experiences and communication. Two categories of English language learners are identified by Van Ek (1980): the first group was general threshold level, who has a basic need of English language. The teaching materials and teaching method should help them achieve it. The second category of learners required English for special purposes (ESP). Various branches originated from ESP like, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Occupation Purposes (EOP), English for Science and Technology (EST), etc. The English language teaching tradition has been subject to tremendous changes, especially throughout the twentieth century. Perhaps more than any other discipline, this tradition has been practiced, in various adaptations, in language classes all around the world for centuries. JETIRAG06011 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 43

© 2019 JETIR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 3 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) While the teaching of Maths or Physics, and their methodology of teaching Maths or Physics, has, to a greater or lesser extent, remained the same. This is hardly the case with English or language teaching in general. Multiliteracy: Multiliteracies is a term coined in the mid-1990s by the New London Group and is an approach to literacy theory and pedagogy which expanded the traditional language-based view of literacy to take into account the many linguistic and cultural differences in society. The term ‘Multiliteracies’ refers to two major aspects of language use today. The first is the variability of meaning making in different cultural, social or domain- specific contexts. These differences are becoming ever more significant to our communication environment. This means that it is no longer enough for literacy teaching to focus solely on the rules of standard forms of the national language. Rather, the business of communication and representation of meaning today increasingly requires that learners are able to figure out differences in patterns of meaning from one context to another. These differences are the consequence of number of factors, including culture, gender, life experience, subject matter, social or subject domain and the like. Every meaning exchange is cross-cultural to a certain degree. The second aspect of language use today arises in part from the characteristics of the new information and communications media. Meaning is made in ways that are increasingly multimodal—in which written-linguistic modes of meaning interface with oral, visual, audio, gestural, tactile and spatial patterns of meaning. This means that there is need to extend the range of literacy pedagogy so that it does not unduly privilege alphabetical representations, but brings into the classroom multimodal representations, and particularly those typical of the new, digital media. This makes literacy pedagogy all the more engaging for its manifest connections with today’s communications milieu. It also provides a powerful foundation for a pedagogy of synaesthesia, or mode switching. The theory of multiliteracy encourages the engagement with multiple literacy methods – linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, spatial, and multimodal – to learn and communicate. In reading, we don’t just read letters; we understand how they are arranged to convey meaning. In the context of technology, we are no longer just readers; we are users and navigators. “Reading” as an act no longer is simply the comprehension of words but a method of navigating through various methods of understanding. If you think about it, most ways of communicating are multimodal and understanding these kinds of communication involved becomes a multiliterate experience: speaking is both linguistic and auditory, while body language is at once gestural, visual, and spatial. In the context of engineering, “reading” math uses spatiality as well as linguistics and visuals.

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© 2019 JETIR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 3 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) Being multiliterate is not anything new; what is new, however, is how technology, like the multimodality of the Internet, brings these literacies and people together. Online social networking promotes flexibility with various types of (often collaborative) communications, such as YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, Facebook, wikis, and so on. Due to the regular contributions on these online multimodal tools, it is generally expected—in the workforce, in the classroom— that we become adaptable and receptive problem-solvers through a diverse means of communication. The best way to promote this functionality is through multiliterate learning. Telecolloboration: Telecollaboration in language learning contexts is internet-based intercultural exchange between groups of learners of different cultural/ national backgrounds set up in an institutional blended-learning context with the aim of developing both language skills and intercultural communicative competence. The goal for language learners is to become intercultural speakers or mediators who possess the linguistic skills and intercultural awareness necessary to allow them to interact effectively in a foreign language with people from cultures that are different from their own. Traditionally, telecollaboration exchanges are bilingual and based on the concept of nationally defined cultures. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make this distinction between two ‘national’ cultures as even in binational exchanges the students involved may be from a variety of national, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. A more recent trend is to carry out exchanges using English as a lingua franca (ELF) between non- native speakers of English with a focus on different cultural perspectives on local and global issues. Telecollaboration is based on a sociocultural view of language learning, whereby learning takes place in social contexts through interaction and collaboration. It is a blended approach, with the online environment providing the ‘field’ for experiential learning and the classroom a place where guided critical reflection takes place and where teachers provide ongoing scaffolding for learning. For researchers, a sociocultural approach sees the learner as ‘situated’ in social, institutional, and cultural settings that need to be considered in order to better understand if and how learning takes place. In this paper, we focus on task design for telecollaboration and how this can take into account the online environments and tools used and the online literacies required of learners. Telecollaboration projects have evolved from written and asynchronous communication such as email or discussion forums to multimodal environments that offer both synchronous and asynchronous communication and oral, written, and media-sharing communication among learners. Researchers and practitioners argue that these new modes of online communication, rather than serve as ‘practice’ for real-life communication or poor

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© 2019 JETIR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 3 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) substitutes for study abroad, are high-stakes contexts in themselves. These new environments offer affordances and constraints for language learning that are different from face-to-face classroom contexts and thus need to be taken into account in task design. In language learning contexts, there has been some recognition of the importance of multiple literacies for successful learning, particularly in online contexts but there has been little investigation of how to include literacies development in task design for telecollaboration. The three dimensions the operational, cultural, and critical suggested by Lankshear and Knobel can be adapted to the telecollaboration context to aid practitioners in developing tasks that take into consideration not only language learning but the development of online literacies as well. Although the three domains are developed simultaneously in telecollaboration the focus is on how to foster learner competence in online literacies in telecollaboration. Communicating and collaborating in online context can be quite different from face-to- face situations and requires students to acquire multiple literacies in addition to foreign language skills and intercultural communicative competence. The development of multiliteracies can be included in the EFL classroom through the practice of telecollaboration, that is internet-mediated intercultural exchange. Stage 1: (Methods) The main aim of the first stage of any telecollaboration exchange is familiarizing students with one another and with the online environments that will serve as the virtual space for the communication. Communication skills are an essential component in the education of engineering students to facilitate not just students’ education but also to prepare them for their future careers. Communication skills are require modern engineers, to acquire foreign language skills. There are various elements of communication skills education, such as oral, listening, written, visual, interdisciplinary and intercultural. In language teaching and learning, we have a lot to choose from the world of technology: Radio, TV, CD Rom, Computers, the Internet, Electronic Dictionary, Email, Blogs and Audio Cassettes, Power Point, Videos, DVD’s or VCD’s. The last two decades have witnessed a revolution due to onset of technology, and has changed the dynamics of various industries, and has also influenced the industries and the way people interact and work in the society. This rapid rising and development of information technology has offered a better pattern to explore the new teaching model. As a result technology plays a very important role in English teaching. Using multimedia to create a context to teach English has its unique advantages. It tries to analyze the necessity of multimedia technology to language teaching and also aims to make English teachers aware of the strategies to use it in an effective manner.

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© 2019 JETIR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 3 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) Stage 2: (Findings and Comparison) In order to move beyond mere information exchange, Stage 2 of telecollaboration engages students in a series of comparison and analysis tasks. The input can involve different cultural artefacts, for example parallel texts, class responses to questionnaires, or the same news story in different online resources. Collaboration on product creation is the most challenging task as in addition to the online literacies required to operate effectively online in a foreign language. Learners need the intercultural competence and collaborative skills necessary to engage in team work. In order to help learners develop these competences, task design needs to build in positive interdependence and place emphasis on the process, not just on the final product. The ‘product’ may be anything from a co-constructed web page to a collaborative short video project. Conclusion: Telecollaboration is undoubtedly a challenge and, as we have tried to lay out in this proposal, requires consideration of the specificities of the online context in order to be effective. The competences developed through telecollaboration extend beyond the domain of foreign language skills and encompass other areas necessary for successful participation and collaboration in today’s online world. In an attempt to provide indications as to how tasks may be designed, we have provided an example of how the categorizations proposed by O’Dowd and Ware (op.cit.), combined with attention given to developing online literacies, can serve as guiding principles for developing students communication.

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References: 1. Byram M.1997. Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

2. O’Dowd, R. (ed.). 2007. Online Intercultural Exchange. An Introduction for Foreign Language Teachers. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

3. O’Dowd, R. and P. Ware. 2009. ‘Critical issues in Telecollaborative Task Design’. CALL Journal 22/2: 173–88.

4. Thorne, S. 2003. ‘Artifacts and cultures-of-use in intercultural communication’. Language Learning and Technology 7/2: 38–67.

5. Hampel, R. 2006. ‘Rethinking task design for the digital age: a framework for language teaching and learning in a synchronous online environment’.ReCALL 18/1: 105–21.

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7. Lankshear.C and M.Knobel. 2006. New Litercies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning. (Second Edition), Maidenhead. Open University Press.

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