Telecollaboration in Secondary Education: An Added Value?

Lisanne Pol Utrecht University MA Thesis Supervisor: dr. Kristi Jauregi Ondarra 15 July 2013

Table of Contents Introduction 7 Research Outline 8 Methodology 9 Key Terms 12 1. Telecollaboration Projects in Secondary Education Versus Universities 13 1.1. Google Search 13 1.2. Journals 14 1.3. Online Intercultural Exchange 15 1.4. Model Websites 15 1.5. Conclusion 16 2. Projects Carried Out 17 2.1. Aims of the projects 17 2.1.1. Aims of the University Projects 17 2.1.1.1. Engaging Students in an Online Exchange 18 2.1.1.2. Influences, Problems and Benefits 18 2.1.1.3. Students Skills and Learning 19 2.1.1.4. Intercultural Partnerships and Communities 20 2.1.1.5. Participation and Motivation 21 2.1.1.6. Discourse Profiles 21 2.1.1.7. Pedagogical Aspects 22 2.1.1.8. Technology 23 2.1.2. Aims of the Secondary Education Projects 24 2.1.2.1. Students Skills and Learning 24 2.1.2.2. Pedagogical Aspects 25 1

2.1.2.3. Technology 25 2.2. Online Activities 26 2.2.1. Types of Activities 27 2.2.2. Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Activities 28 2.2.3. Text-Based or Audio-Visual Chat 29 2.2.4. Conclusion 30 2.3. Learning Environments 31 2.3.1. Platforms used in University Projects 31 2.3.2. Platforms in Secondary School Projects 36 2.3.3. Conclusion 37 2.4. Tasks 40 2.5. Language Use 41 2.5.1. Function of the Target Language 42 2.5.2. Function of English 43 2.5.3. Conclusion 43 2.6. Time Paths 44 2.7. Results of the Projects Investigated 45 2.7.1. Results of the Secondary Education Projects 45 2.7.1.1. Linguistic and Communicative Skills 46 2.7.1.2. Culture: Online and Offline 47 2.7.1.3. Participation 47 2.7.1.4. Problems and Disadvantages 48 2.7.1.5. Technology 48 2.7.1.6. Conclusion 50 2.7.2. Results of the University Projects 51 2

2.7.2.1. Benefits for Students 52 2.7.2.2. Intercultural Awareness and Relationships 54 2.7.2.3. Participation 55 2.7.2.4. Disadvantages and Problems 56 2.7.2.5. Technology 57 2.7.2.6. Feedback 61 2.7.2.7. Failures in Interaction 61 2.7.2.8. Factors Affecting an Exchange 62 2.7.2.9. Conclusion 63 3. Discussion 64 4. Conclusion and Implications 67 4.1. Conclusion 67 4.2. Aims of the TILA Project 68 4.3. Implications 70 5. Limitations and Future Research 72 5.1. Limitations 72 5.2. Future Research 73 References 74 Appendices Appendix A: Overview of the Studies Investigated 90 Appendix B: Online Activities Specified 134 Appendix C: Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication Specified 136 Appendix D: Text-Based and Audio-Visual Synchronous Chat Specified 138 Appendix E: Tasks Specified 139 Appendix F: Target Languages Specified 141 3

Appendix G: Functions of the Target Languages Specified 143 Appendix H: The Function of English Specified 144 Appendix I: Time Paths Specified 145 Appendix J: Benefits Specified 147 Appendix K: Ways of Obtaining Results Specified 149 4

List of Tables Table 1. Quantity of Studies per Category found using Google Search 13 Table 2. Quantity of Studies, per Category found by Searching Several Journals 14 Table 3. Online Activities in Projects Investigated 28 Table 4. Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication in Projects Investigated 29 Table 5. Text-Based and Audio-Visual Chat in Projects Investigated 30 Table 6. Online Platforms used in the University Projects Investigated 33 Table 7. Online Platforms used in the Secondary Education Projects Investigated 38 Table 8. Tasks in Projects Investigated 41 Table 9. Target Languages in Projects Investigated 42 Table 10. Functions of Target Languages in Projects Investigated 43 Table 11. The Use of English in Projects Investigated 43 Table 12. Time Paths from Projects Investigated 45 Table 13. Benefits of Telecollaboration Projects Investigated 66 Table A1. University Studies Investigated 90 Table A2. Secondary Education Studies Investigated 128 Table B1. University Studies Investigated Discussing Online Activities 134 Table B2. Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing Online Activities 135 Table C1. University Projects Discussing Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication 136 Table C2. Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication 137 Table D1. University Projects Discussing Chat: Text-Based Versus Audio-Visual Communication 138 Table D2. Secondary Education Projects Discussing Text Chat: Text-Based Versus 5

Audio-Visual Communication 138 Table E1. University Studies Investigated Discussing Tasks 139 Table E2. Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing Tasks 140 Table F1. University Studies Investigated Discussing Target Languages 141 Table F2. Secondary Education Studies Investigated Target Languages 142 Table G1. University Studies Discussing the Function of the Target Language 143 Table G2. Secondary Education Studies Discussing the Function of the Target Language 143 Table H1. University Studies Investigated Discussing The Use of English 144 Table H1. Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing The Use of English 144 Table I1. University Projects Discussing Time Paths 145 Table I2. Secondary Education Projects Discussing Time Paths 146 Table J1.University Projects Investigated Discussing Benefits 147 Table J2.Secondary Education Projects Investigated Discussing Benefits 148 Table K1. University Studies: Ways of Obtaining Results 149 Table K2. Secondary Education Studies: Ways of Obtaining Results 150 6

Introduction In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in combining foreign language learning with intercultural competence, due to globalisation (O Dowd, 2007a). As a result, learning goals have shifted from students being able to communicate in a foreign language to being able to use a foreign language to communicate in a cross-cultural situation. However, globalisation has also given rise to new ways of communicating, for instance by using the internet to engage in compute-mediated communication (CMC). The use of CMC in foreign language classrooms has gained popularity over the last few years (Jauregi, 2012), as research has shown that internet-mediated communication provides students with the opportunity to experience another culture, besides learning the target language (O Dowd, 2007a). In other words, implementing CMC into foreign language education is a way of combining the use of increasingly popular online media in class and achieving the modern-day learning goals simultaneously. One way of doing this is by engaging students in online projects, or telecollaboration exchanges, as these aim to enhance participants linguistic as well as intercultural skills (Belz, 2003) by asking them to work on a collaborative task. Although the possibilities of telecollaboration have been recognised by secondary school teachers, they are not particularly keen on adding an online exchange to their curriculums (Jauregi, 2012). As a result, most of the projects and studies, for that matter - have been conducted with university students. Yet, according the critical period hypothesis, children are the most sensitive to language acquisition until around their puberty, so until they reach maturity (Muñoz, 2008). As a result, university students no longer posses the same capacities as secondary school pupils do, to learn a language, especially with regards to fluency. In other words, it would be more effective to implement telecollaborative exchanges in secondary education, when the pupils are still in, or closer to, this period of sensitivity to language acquisition. 7

Consequently, projects such as Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition (TILA) aim to enhance the enthusiasm of secondary school towards telecollaboration, and attempt to implement telecollaborative activities with peers in foreign language learning at secondary education in order to make language learning a more vital, direct, attractive and relevant experience and contribute to making European citizens better qualified and skilled multilingual and intercultural interlocutors and professionals. (Jauregi, 2012, p. 24) Despite published research on the benefits of telecollaboration with regards to language learning which, again, include mostly university projects there has been little discussion with regards to the effect of telecollaboration on motivation of pupils..., on their communicative skills and the development of intercultural awareness (Jauregi, 2012, p. 20), and therefore, this paper will attempt to shed a light on the impact of online exchanges on these elements. Research Outline This paper aims to investigate one of the goals of the TILA project: To study the possible added value telecollaboration might have in language learning for intercultural understanding of younger learners (Jauregi, 2012, p. 27), by examining (1) how much telecollaboration is implemented in secondary education, as opposed to in universities, and (2) whether telecollaboration projects are useful additions to secondary education curriculums, by outlining the projects and their results and discussing the outcomes in line with the gap in research as stated above, by Kristi Jauregi (2012). To do so, the following research question has been formulated: 8

Are telecollaboration projects an added value to the language learning curriculum at secondary education? Additionally, the following two sub questions have guided the research: How often does telecollaboration take place in secondary education in comparison to universities? What projects have been / are being carried out? Moreover, the latter question is again divided, into 7 different elements: What are the aims of the studies? Which digital activities do the participants engage in? Which types of digital learning environments are used? What kinds of tasks do the participants have to do? What languages were used during the exchanges? What are the time paths? What are the results of these projects? Methodology For this study, an approach which blends both quantitative and qualitative research was used. Firstly, a systematic literature review was conducted of studies that described telecollaboration projects carried out with university students, as well as secondary school pupils. To determine the ratio between the two settings, a Google search was conducted, in combination with searching several journals that each focus on education and/or technology, as well as a book by Robert O Dowd (2007a). For the Google search, the Scholar function (http://scholar.google.nl/schhp?hl=nl) was used, as it searches for academic articles only. Additionally, the search term 9

Telecollaboration Secondary School returned about 1800 hits, but a majority of them were not related to telecollaboration, or did not describe any specific projects, so these results were neglected. As for the journals, a total of 11 journals which specialise in education, education and technology or technology alone were searched. The list of journals includes the following titles: Language Learning & Technology, which deals with issues related to language learning and language teaching, and how they are affected or enhanced by the use of technologies ( Language Learning & Technology, n.d.); Educational Technology Research and Development, focuses entirely on research and development in educational technology ( Educational Technology, n.d.); CALICO Journal, which is devoted to the dissemination of information concerning the application of technology to language teaching and language learning ( About the Journal, n.d.); Modern Language Journal, which is promoting scholarly exchange among teachers and researchers of all modern foreign languages and English as a second language ( Modern Language Journal, n.d.); Computer Assisted Language Learning, which is dedicated to all matters associated with the use of computers in language learning (L1 and L2), teaching and testing ( Computer Assisted Language Learning, n.d.); Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, which is a source of ESL and EFL information ( About TESL-EJ, n.d.); ReCALL, which focuses on the use of technologies for language learning and teaching, including all relevant aspects of research and development ( ReCALL, n.d.); 10

Language and Intercultural Communication, which promotes an interdisciplinary understanding of the interplay between language and intercultural communication ( Language and Intercultural Communication, n.d.); Foreign Language Annals, which seeks to serve the professional interests of classroom instructors, researchers, and administrators concerned with the learning and teaching of languages at all levels of instruction ( Foreign Language Annals, n.d.); System, which is devoted to the applications of educational technology and applied linguistics to problems of foreign language teaching and learning ( System, n.d.); Computers and Education, which welcomes any papers on cognition, educational or training systems development using techniques from and applications in any technical knowledge domain ( Computers and Education, n.d.). All of these journals have their own websites, which were searched by typing telecollaboration into the search box. On the other hand, one printed medium was investigated: Online Intercultural Exchange, a book by Robert O Dowd (2007a). In addition to theory and models, this book also describes telecollaborative case studies, which were checked for types of participants and settings. Secondly, the projects found will be subjected to an in-depth analysis of the 7 characteristics defined under the second sub question (in the Research Outline). Lastly, the studies found in the Google that used email as their primary means of communication have also been left out of the analysis, as the Radicati Group has found that in 2012, 3.375 million email accounts existed worldwide (Radicati, 2012), so email can nowadays be considered a normalised tool. Additionally, projects using synchronous communication tools have been becoming more popular over the last few years than those using email (Jauregi, 2012). 11

Key Terms The focal point of this study is telecollaboration, meaning, as Robert O Dowd (2007) defines it, the activity of engaging learners in interaction and collaborative project work with partners from other cultures through the use of online communication tools (p. 4). Additionally, telecollaborative projects often aim to enhance the participants linguistic, communicative and intercultural skills, especially in the target language (Belz, 2003). However, online activities lacking an intercultural element, such as virtual classrooms or distance learning, are neglected, as they usually take place among students from one class, or nationality (possibly abroad), and therefore they are not considered to be a part of telecollaboration. Throughout this paper the terms project and exchange, sometimes in combination with online, intercultural, telecollaboration, or telecollaborative, will be used interchangeably to refer to the activities described above. Finally, some researchers have investigated the same projects more than once. As a result, the characteristics of these exchanges with the exception of their aims and results - will be counted only once. This goes for the following studies: Belz & Müller-Hartmann (2003) and Belz (2001; 2002; 2003 and 2005): the same German-American exchange; Lee (2009b and 2011): the same Spanish-American exchange; Darhower (2007 and 2008): the same American-Puerto Rican exchange; Basharina (2007 and 2009): the same exchange between Japan, Mexico and Russia; Hauck (2007) and Hauck & Youngs (2008): the same exchange between the United Kingdom, America and France 12

1. Telecollaboration Projects in Secondary Education Versus Universities To investigate the number of studies conducted in secondary education, compared to studies in which the participants are university students, several sources can be consulted. However, this study limits itself to a general search on Google Scholar; a selected number of academic journals; a book by Robert O Dowd, Online Intercultural Exchange; and the websites of two telecollaboration models. 1.1. Google Search Firstly, a Google search was conducted by using the search term Telecollaboration Secondary School, which returned a total of 168 different studies based on a computermediated project. However, 99 of these studies did not involve telecollaboration projects, as defined in the methodology. As a result, this 58.9% of the total amount of studies will be disregarded. However, the search returned 69 studies that meet the criteria of a telecollaborative project, and 46 of these, so 66.7% of the telecollaboration projects were conducted with university students, whereas only 13, so 18.8% of the studies were carried out in secondary education (see table 1). In other words, after searching Google Scholar, the ratio of studies carried out with university students to those conducted with secondary school pupils is almost 4:1. Table 1 Quantity of Studies per Category found using Google Search University students Secondary Education Primary Education / In- Service Teachers Telecollaboration 46 13 10 Distance Learning 45 11 7 Email-Only 19 10 2 Telecollaboration Email-Only Distance Learning 3 1 0 13

1.2. Journals Secondly, several journals kept reappearing during the Google search, so these were also subjected to a search, by using the term Telecollaboration only. In total, eleven journals which focus on education and/or technology were investigated. With regards to the telecollaboration projects, 8 out of the 9 journals only contain studies carried out with university students (see table 2), which account for a total of 29 different studies. Additionally, Language Learning & Technology contained 1 study conducted with pupils from a primary school, and a total of 12 projects did not meet the criteria of a telecollaborative exchange, so are deemed distance learning. Nonetheless, there was one journal which did contain an article regarding a study conducted in secondary education: Educational Technology Research and Development discussed research regarding K-12 students. As a result, according to the results from the 9 journals combined, the ratio of research conducted among university students to that carried out among secondary school pupils is even 29:1. Table 2 Quantity of Studies, per Category found by Searching Several Journals Journal Telecollaboration University Students Telecollaboration Secondary Education Telecollaboration In-Service Teachers / Primary Education Distance Learning University Students Language 8 0 1 0 Learning & Technology Educational 0 1 (K-12) 0 0 Technology Research and Development CALICO Journal 8 0 0 4 Modern Language 3 0 0 0 Journal Computer Assisted 4 0 0 0 Language Learning Teaching English as a Second or 1 0 0 0 14

Foreign Language ReCALL 8 0 0 8 Language and 3 0 0 0 Intercultural Communication Foreign Language Annals 2 0 0 0 1.3. Online Intercultural Exchange Lastly, Robert O Dowd s book describes several case studies in one of his books, which focuses on telecollaborative projects. The book describes seven different projects, but none of these are carried out on a secondary school: six are conducted with university students, whereas the subjects of one of the projects are in-service teachers. Although Eva Wilden (2007) adds to the latter case study that the basic structure of the exchange can easily be adapted to other educational setting, e.g. secondary or tertiary education foreign language courses, (p. 269) the project discussed was not originally carried out in a secondary education environment, but in a different context, so among in-service teachers. 1.4. Model Websites Another part of the book describes three different models of telecollaboration: Berffni O Rourke (2007) discusses the etandem model, Jésus Suárez Garciá and James Crapotta (2007) introduce the Cultura model, and Antonia Domínguez Miguela (2007) outlines the etwinning model. The structures of these models will be explained later on. Although the book gives only two examples of an etandem project (Vinagre, 2007 and Hauck & Lewis, 2007), and none of the other two models, there are a large number of projects based on any of the three models presented. One way to find some of them is by searching Google. Although the search terms etwinning and Cultura immediately return an specific website, etandem does not. As a result, the focus will be on etwinning and Cultura projects. 15

Firstly, Cultura was originally developed and employed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Suárez Garciá & Crapotta, 2007). The search term Cultura projects quickly leads to a website created by MIT: http://cultura.mit.edu/. Here, the tabs Current Exchanges and Archived Exchanges both open a list of projects based on the Cultura model. Although the Current Exchanges section lists 45 different exchanges, only 10 are carried out in secondary education ( Current Exchanges, n.d.). Additionally, out of the 42 archived projects, 2 were conducted in a secondary education context ( Archived Exchanges, n.d.). In total, 75 of the 87 projects, so 86.2% of all the exchanges listed on the MIT Cultura website involve university students as participants. Secondly, according to Antonia Domínguez Miguela (2007), etwinning is essentially a network of schools and educators within the European Union... [which] is open to primary and secondary schools, (p. 85) and is easily found by entering the term in the Google search engine: http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/index.htm. Under the header Discover is a section Publications, which contains a document elaborating on several case studies that emerged from the etwinning network ( Pupils in etwinning, 2011). The document reports a total of 25 etwinning projects, of which 16 have taken place in a secondary education environment ( Pupils in etwinning, 2011), so 64% of the documented etwinning exchanges were carried out with secondary school pupils, and 37% with primary school pupils. 1.5. Conclusion Many of the projects based on the Cultura model are exchanges between universities, whereas more than half of the reported etwinning projects have taken place between secondary school. So, in 4 out of 5 cases the projects carried out at universities (greatly) outnumber those conducted at secondary schools, the etwinning network being the only 16

exception. In other words, secondary education still has a much ground to cover when it comes to telecollaboration. 2. Projects Carried Out This section discusses the project that have been carried out, in both a university context, and in secondary education settings. All projects have been investigated for (a) their aims or goals of the studies, (b) the digital activities the participants engaged in; (c) the online environments that were used during the exchanges; (d) the tasks; (e) the target languages used; (f) the time frames during which the projects took place and (g) the outcomes of the studies. The last category includes the positive impact projects may have on students, as well as the role of the teacher during the exchanges. 2.1. Aims of the Studies Firstly, the aims of the studies investigated will be discussed, starting with the goals of the 49 university projects, which have been divided into a total of 8 different categories, followed by the aims of the 11 secondary education exchanges, which comprise a total of 3 different categories. 2.1.1. Aims of the University Studies The aims of the university studies can be divided into several categories: (a) engaging participants in projects; (b) influential factors, advantages and benefits of exchanges; (c) the skills and learning participants obtain; (d) the establishing of intercultural friendships; (e) student motivation and participation; (f) discourse features of the participants; (g) pedagogical implications and (h) technological aspects. 17

2.1.1.1. Engaging Students in an Online Exchange Some of the project aims include engaging students in a telecollaborative project (Sadler, 2007, p. 14), and to enable students to expose themselves to authentic language and culture, especially those who are beginning learners (Jin, 2013, p. 197), as these online exchanges are a unique opportunity (Lee, 2007, p. 638) for students. Ensuring the environment is safe and non-threatening (Lee, 2007, p. 638), in order for students to effectively communicate and collaborate with their foreign partners can be another goal for an exchange. On the other hand, evaluating an exchange is also a field of interest to researchers (Bray & Iswanty, 2013, p. 29). Only three studies investigated (Sadler, 2007; Lee, 2007 and Bray & Iswanty, 2013) included engaging their participants in a project as one of the main goals, but in all three cases this was only part of the aims of the project. 2.1.1.2. Influences, Problems and Benefits Investigating which factors influence an exchange is also a goal that is mentioned by two studies (O Dowd, 2005 and Belz, 2002), especially with regards to the socioinstitutional dimensions (Belz, 2002, p. 60), and how they affect both the development (O Dowd, 2005, p. 40) of the exchange, as well as the students usage en learning of the target language (Belz, 2002). The effect of these factors can also be investigated more specifically, for instance, what negative consequences institutional and sociological factors might have on the students linguistic and intercultural competences (Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003). Other studies do not focus on the negative effects only, but contrast both the negative and positive influences of socio-institutional elements in an online exchange (Sadler, 2007), on the design, implementation and sustainability (Brinckwirth, 2012, p. 17) of a project, and on the experiences students have with regards to communicating with their partners (Kung, 2002). 18

In line with the latter study, some projects aim to clarify the conflicts miscommunication and misunderstanding among foreign partners or groups may cause (Ware, 2005 and Schneider & Von der Emde, 2005), or by exploring the reasons behind and links between failures in communication between participants (O Dowd & Ritter, 2006). In short, some studies aim at exploring the socio-institutional factors, and how they influence an exchange, either negatively, or by contrasting benefits and problems, for instance by focussing on miscommunication. 2.1.1.3. Students Skills and Learning Several studies aimed at investigating how online exchanges affected students and their learning (e.g. Brinckwirth, 2012) and how students perceived their own learning (Basharina, 2009). The majority of the studies discussing students skills and learning focussed on one or both of the following two categories: intercultural communicative competence (ICC) or awareness and language learning. Firstly, developing intercultural skills can be an important goal for projects, and can be examined in combination with socio-institutional factors, to determine how they influence each other (Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003). Providing students with the opportunity to improve their IC (Liaw, 2006 and Hauck & Youngs, 2008), and not only facilitating, but aiming to ensure the development of students ICC (Carney, 2008 and Lee, 2007) and through this, their independence (Fuchs, Hauk & Müller-Hartmann, 2012) can be reasons for setting up an exchange. Some studies, however, are less certain about ICC development and aim to test if and how participants improve their ICC (Liaw & Bunn-Le Master, 2010) or build a knowledge base (Müller-Hartmann, 2006). In other words, instead of assuming that students will improve their IC, the assumption can also be questioned rather than stated (O Dowd & Eberbach, 2004). Additionally, discovering the ways in which students develop 19

their IC (Gephardt & Kostelníková, 2012), and the factors that influence it (Menard-Warwick, 2009) can be investigated. Lastly, if students have developed their ICC, certain studies examine the empirical evidence for the change (Kötter, 2003), or the perceptions of the participants on the subject (Keranen & Bayyurt, 2006). Secondly, project goals can also focus on the students language learning (e.g. Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003 and Belz, 2002) and may aim to improve this (Carney, 2008). Similar to ICC, investigating how and if students linguistic skills improve during the project (Ritchie, 2009 and Jin, 2013) and providing evidence for any developments (Kötter, 2003) is another aim of telecollaborative exchanges, as is describing and determining differences and patterns in students learning of the target language (Kabata & Edasawa, 2011and Willms, 2011). Finally, contrasting the difference in linguistic development between students participating in a telecollaborative project, and those who have only been taught the target language in the traditional classroom is also mentioned as a main goal (Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh, 2013), together with examining participants perceptions about the project (Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh, 2013). In short, testing if, aiming at and providing students with an opportunity to improve their ICC and linguistic competence and providing evidence for changes or reasons why student did or did not improve, together with the students perceptions are some of the goals for telecollaborative projects. 2.1.1.4. Intercultural Partnerships and Communities ICC is connected to establishing intercultural communities, or partnerships between participants and their foreign partners. One of the goals of telecollaboration projects therefore might me to examine if participants build and sustain bonds with their group members and how these friendships influence their perceptions (Worajittipol, 2010). Or, exchanges can aim 20

at investigating how certain factors, for instance language valuation... [,] membership in electronic discourse communities... [and] culturally determined classroom scripts (Belz, 2001), asking questions (Belz, 2005), behaviour (Darhower, 2007), or even issues of collaborative design work, [and] the social nature of a computer-mediated design environment (Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi, 1998, para. 1) may influence the way and extent to which participants from intercultural companionships. 2.1.1.5. Participation and Motivation Another aspect some studies want to investigate is the effect telecollaborative projects have on student participation and motivation. For instance, studies tested the effect of the activities the participants engaged in during the exchange (Kung, 2002), and whether they would contribute to sustain interaction among the participants (Kung, 2002, p. 318), or whether the tools used had different effects on the motivation of beginning and more advanced language learners (Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz, 2012, p. 10-2). 2.1.1.6. Discourse Profiles Several studies aimed at mapping out the participants discourse profiles and examined, for example, the characteristics of discourse that typify the intercultural communication (Keranen & Bayyurt, 2006, p. 2), or the linguistic and interactional characteristics (Pasfield-Neofitou, 2006, p. 3) of the interactions. Some researcher specified the goals to exploring how first year Chinese language learners open and close their online chats (Zhang, 2013, p. 7), or the contradictions that arose between participants during an exchange (Basharina, 2007). Investigating feedback and negotiation strategies used in e-partnering and e-tutoring projects (Ware & O Dowd, 2008, p. 46), but also in situations in which participants were not 21

explicitly asked to correct each other (Lee, 2011), and how native speakers of the target language correct non-native speakers (Bower & Kawaguchi, 2011) are goals of the projects investigated. In line with the latter case, a few studies sketched the discourse features of an interaction between non-native speakers of a language and native speakers (Lee, 2009a and Darhower, 2008) and morphosyntactic and discourse difficulties of the non-native speakers (Kinginger, 1998, p. 502) and compared these findings with existing literature (Kötter, 2003). Moreover, the discourse features of the participants were used to determine if they had improved their ICC (Liaw & Bunn-Le Master, 2010 and Belz, 2003), intercultural attitudes, knowledge, skills, and critical awareness (Menard-Warwick, 2009, p. 108) or vocabulary (Edasawa & Kabata, 2007). Lastly, one study investigated the link between student discourse and the use of technology and how technology contribute[d] to the style of language produced by the learners (Chun, 2011, p. 395). In short, a number of studies investigated the discourse profiles of the participants in general, whereas other focussed on specific characteristics, such as feedback and negotiation, interactions between native speakers and non-native speakers, improvement of linguistic and intercultural competences and even the link between technology and discourse styles. 2.1.1.7. Pedagogical Aspects Three studies reported aims with regards to the role of the instructor, or teacher, and pedagogy in general, as one study challenged the belief that teachers take on the passive role of a guide on the side in exchanges (O Dowd & Eberbach, 2004, p. 6), and another study was designed to get student-teachers to move from knowledge telling to knowledge transforming (Dooly & Sadler, 2013, p. 8). So, both studies investigated the role of the teacher in the exchanges, which corresponds to another study s goal of combining independent learning with a team-oriented approach (Donaldson & Kötter, 1999, p. 541). 22

Moreover, some studies aimed to investigate the pedagogical applicability and use of various CMC tools (Sadler, 2007, p. 14), like a MOO (Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter, 2001), or videoconferencing (Mouhadjer, 2013). 2.1.1.8. Technology In addition to the pedagogical aspects of technology, some studies intended to determine the role of communication technologies in foreign language teaching (Gephardt & Kostelníková, 2012, p. 38), and especially the role of certain models, tools and platforms. For instance, one study aimed to test whether the 4-member team model [is] a viable alternative to one-to-one or many-to-many models of e-mail exchange (Kung, 2002, p. 318). On the other hand, a few studies aimed to investigate the applicability of online tools, for example if audio-visual communication can contribute to enriching the quality of foreign language curricula (Jauregi & Bañados, 2008, p. 183), or whether blogging (Lee, 2012), or using the MOO (Donaldson & Kötter, 1999, p. 542) are effective means of communication for developing participants intercultural competence, and how participants interpret shared space in an online multilateral English blogging context (Yang, 2011, p 122). Similarly, some studies investigated synchronous chat, and aimed to discover if it could provide opportunities for communication with native speakers and informal language acquisition (Pasfield-Neofitou, 2006, p. 3), whether chat would facilitate intercultural learning (Tudini, 2007 and Jin & Erben, 2007), or even if the participants thought exchanges using chat are worthwhile in providing an economical way to practice the target language in everyday conversations outside of the classroom setting (Worajittipol, 2010, p. 217). Another study compared the use of synchronous and asynchronous communication and aimed to determine how these tools affected learner experience and interaction and... the development of ICC (Hauck, 2007, p. 205). With regards to learner interaction, one study 23

investigated the use of Second Life and aimed to explore the possibilities of existing Second Life worlds (Jauregi, Canto, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen, 2011, p. 81). In short, several studies have goals connected to the role of the teacher, or pedagogical approaches, and some focus on the effects and possibilities of videoconferencing, blogging, a MOO, synchronous chat and even Second Life. 2.1.2. Aims of the Secondary Education Projects Although the 11 secondary education exchanges formulate a smaller amount of aims, they can be categorised under 3 sections, which bear some similarity to the homonymous categories in section 2.1.1.: (a) participants learning and competences; (b) pedagogical elements and (c) technology. 2.1.2.1. Students Skills and Learning Similar to the university projects investigated, the studies conducted with secondary school pupils formulate aims with regards to the development of intercultural and linguistic competences of the participants: one study aimed at improving students communicative skills through more writing and reading practice... [and] confidence in the target language (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008, p. 215), and a better understanding of the target culture (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008). On the other hand, another study aimed to investigate the types of cultural awareness and understanding [that] can be developed through telecollaboration (Michell, 2011, p. 55). One study focussed on examining how an online exchange can influence the participants own understanding of language learning (Michell, 2011, p. 55). Lastly, a single study targeted discourse features indicating participant engagement in terms of sustaining a collaborative dialogue (Savignon & Roithmeier, 2004, p. 269-70), so which 24

features had improved the participants intercultural communication skills to the extent that they could sustain an intercultural conversation. 2.1.2.2. Pedagogical Aspects A few studies formulated pedagogical goals, for instance, one study aimed to investigate what pedagogical implications can be derived that might assist future initiators of such international CMC-based collaborative exchanges (Lin, 2010, p. 7), whereas another study focussed on discovering the implications of the findings with respect to the nature of the potential contribution of CMC to the development of strategic competence within a general framework of communicative language teaching (Savignon & Roithmeier, 2004, p. 269-70). Besides pedagogical implications, some studies targeted pedagogical elements that instructors need to bear in mind when setting up a project, as one of the studies investigated the challenges and obstacles that are encountered in the processes involved in the creation of the international virtual learning environments (Lin, 2010, p. 7), and another one focussed on a more practical question of how the tools are used and how they influence the participants and the exchange as a whole (Ware, 2009, p. 3). 2.1.2.3. Technology A rather broadly investigated area is the use of technology in telecollaborative projects, and the effectiveness of distance learning and multimedia technologies in facilitating an expanded learning community among teachers and their students (Cifuentes & Murphy, 2000, p. 70). More specifically, some studies aimed at exploring the impacts are of certain tools and platforms. Firstly, with regards to asynchronous communication, one study targeted blogs and examined if they could foster among culturally diverse students a collective identity beyond particular cultural identities... [and a] critical transcultural 25

awareness (Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob, 2011, p. 23), whereas the use of a forum was investigated by another and examined for evidence [that] can be found in support of the claim that the collected bulletin board postings on a single topic qualify as a cohesive, coherent text (Savignon & Roithmeier, 2004, p. 269-70). On the other hand, synchronous chat was also examined for opportunities to employ strategies of negotiation for meanings in conveying and receiving information as well as if it helps students improve their language abilities (Lenguan, 2008, p. 5). Examples of platforms combining both synchronous and asynchronous communication are WebBoard, which was explored as a new arena of language use (Esch, Evans & Fisher, 2001, para. 2.2), and QuestAtlantis, a virtual game. One study investigated the latter and examined how QuestAtlantis support[s] English language acquisition... [and] NfA [Negotiating for Action] interculturally between nonnative and native English-speaking (NES/NNES) dyads (Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009, p. 489). Lastly, videoconferencing, which allows the participants to speak to native speakers of the target language, was examined for types of cultural awareness and understanding (Michell, 2011, p. 55) that could be developed by using it in projects. 2.2. Online Activities In total, the 60 investigated studies of which 49 are conducted in university settings and 11 in secondary education - accounted for 16 different digital activities used during telecollaborative projects. For an overview of all 16 activities, see table 3, and for an overview of the university studies and secondary educations projects mentioning these activities, see tables B1 and B2, respectively (Appendix B). 26

2.2.1. Types of Activities Overall, the most popular online activity, for both projects conducted in universities, as well as in secondary education, is asynchronous communication via message boards. In total, 22 out of 49 university projects used forums as (one of the) communication formats, whereas 5 out of 11 exchanges between secondary school pupils took place on bulletin boards. In other words, in both cases, almost half of the projects 44.9% and 45.5%, respectively - used message boards as a means of communication between participants. Synchronous chatting is at a second place in projects between university students, as another 19 projects use this form of synchronous communication. Additionally, 3 out of 11 studies (27.3%) carried out in secondary education make use of synchronous chat, ranking this form of communication the second most popular one, together with videoconferencing, which is also used in 3 different projects. Email is ranked fourth for studies conducted with university students, with a total of 22.4% (11 out of 49) projects. Although projects that were solely based on email exchanges have been left out of the total, these projects combine email with other activities, and in these cases email is often a more secondary, supportive tool, rather than being the sole means of communication between both parties. For instance, Julie Belz (2001) describes a study in which email is used to discuss the elements the participants want to incorporate in their collaboratively designed websites. In comparison, only 2 studies (18.2%) carried out in secondary education use email as a (supportive) tool. Moreover, videoconferencing (VC) and blogging can also be found in the top 5 of communication tools that are most frequently used. VC is used in 14 out of 49 university projects (28.6%), and in 3 out of 11 studies in secondary education (27.2%), whereas blogging can be found in 7 studies carried out with university students (14.3%) and in 2 projects among secondary school pupils (18.2%). In addition, movie making occurs twice in 27

both settings, so in 4.1% studies carried out in a university setting and 18.2% in secondary education. Lastly, building a website and even gaming both occur once in secondary education projects, so 9.1% each, adding up to a total of 8 different activities. Nearly all of these activities, with the sole exception being gaming, are found in the university projects as well, in addition to the use of (a) online dictionaries (twice, so 6.1%) and (b) a concordancer; (c) social media; (d) virtual worlds; (e) a wiki and (f) podcasts (once each, so 3.0% each), which did not occur in projects among secondary school pupils. Table 3 Online Activities in Projects Investigated Activity University Students Secondary Education Bulletin/message board or forum 22 5 Chat (synchronous) 19 3 Email (combined) 11 2 Videoconferencing 14 3 Blog 7 2 Online dictionary 1 0 Movie making 2 2 Voice/phone calls 2 0 Concordancer 1 0 Building website/portfolio 1 1 Social media 1 0 Virtual worlds 3 0 Wiki 2 0 Podcasts 2 0 Gaming 0 1 Online Presentation 1 0 Note. The total of each column exceeds the amount of studies investigated, as most projects used more than one different form of communication. 2.2.2. Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Activities Online activities can be divided into two categories: synchronous, or real-time communication and asynchronous communication. Examples of asynchronous communication are message boards and blogs, whereas chat and videoconferencing are instances of synchronous communication. Multiple platforms support a combination of 28

synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, allowing participants to alternate between real-time chats and messages outside real time. The latter situation is not uncommon for projects in both a university environment as well as in an secondary school context, as 17 out of 49 (36.7%) and 2 out of 11 (18.2%), projects, respectively, combine asynchronous and synchronous communication (see table 4). However, whereas asynchronous communication is the most common form in both settings - 21 out of 49 (42.9%) and 5 out of 11 (45.5%), respectively studies conducted with university students use synchronous communication the least of all three forms (13 out of 49, so 26.5%). On the other hand, exchanges between secondary school pupils more often rely on synchronous communication (4 out of 11, so 36.4%) than on a combination of the two (18.2%), unlike the university projects. See tables C1 and C2 for the distribution of synchronous and asynchronous messages among the projects (Appendix C). Table 4 Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication in Projects Investigated Type of communication Universities Secondary Education Synchronous 8 4 Asynchronous 16 5 Combination 9 2 2.2.3. Text-Based or Audio-Visual Chat Projects based solely on email exchanges have been left out, due to the familiarity students have with it (Dooley, 2007). Although text-based chatting may have become equally normalised, projects using chats are incorporated, as many programs enable an audiovisual function, adding another element to the chat session. Therefore, it is useful to determine whether synchronous chat in projects is text-based only, or if participants are required to use a microphone and/or webcam to communicate with their partners. 29

Mostly, chat sessions were based on text only, as 14 out of the 20 university projects that relied on chatting only used text-based conversation, so 70% (see table 5). On the other hand, only 33.3% of the exchanges between universities did incorporate some audio-visual elements into their chats. Additionally, the chat sessions of 3 out of the 3 projects carried out at secondary schools used text-based communication only, so 100%. As a result, it can be concluded that chat, as a means of communication for projects in both settings, is primarily used for text-based discussions, rather than audio-visual and text-based contact. Table 5 Text-Based and Audio-Visual Chat in Projects Investigated Chat Universities Secondary Education Text-based only 14 3 Audio-visual and text-based 6 0 2.2.4. Conclusion In short, with the exception of the use of email, the top 5 of communication tools is very similar for all projects, in both universities as well as secondary education, as the preferred tools are message boards; synchronous chat; videoconferencing; blogging and video making. Due to the lower amount of studies conducted in secondary education, the variety in different activities is lower than those in university projects. Yet, the similar top 5 indicates that these tools are the preferred ones for telecollaboration projects in general. Additionally, the majority of the exchanges, in both contexts, rely on asynchronous communication. Although synchronous communication is the least preferred format for university projects, a combination of real-time and communication outside real time is the least popular form in secondary school exchanges. 30

Lastly, a large number of university exchanges and all of the secondary school projects indicate that chat programs are primarily used for text-based chat only, neglecting the possible audio-visual element most programs support. 2.3. Learning Environments Due to the similarities in communication forms used, it can be expected that the online learning platforms used to host these activities will also be alike. However, this appears not to be the case. Although, relatively speaking, the projects in both settings took place in a similar amount of environments - the 8 different activities in secondary education projects (as specified in 2.2.1) were hosted by 12 different platforms, whereas the 16 different activities in university studies (as specified in 2.2.1) took place in 22 different environments they did not use the same software or online platforms. 2.3.1. Platforms used in University Projects Firstly, many of the studies investigated state the means of communication, or activity, but do not specify a particular tool or software. For instance, several researchers indicate the use of a message board, or forum during the projects, but do not state which one specifically (O Dowd, 2009; Liaw & Bunn-Le Master, 2010; O Dowd & Eberbach, 2004; Kung, 2002 and Fuchs, Hauk & Müller-Hartmann, 2012). Consequently, this may create a distorted image of the environments used. Nonetheless, it is useful to look at the ones that are specified. According to the research reports, 22 different platforms were during university projects. For a complete overview, including the studies that mention these environments, see table 6. Platforms such as Blackboard, WebCT, FirstClass, Moodle and MOOssiggang support both synchronous and asynchronous communication, so they include a message board and chat function, but they are only text-based environments and do not support any kind of 31

audio-visual communication. Both Blackboard and Moodle are used 5 times in university projects, WebCT is mentioned 4 times, and FirstClass is used only twice. Cyber-Vine and Facebook are the some of the environments mentioned that enable asynchronous communication as sole format. Cyber-Vine is a message board, and is used once. Facebook is a social medium, which supports both asynchronous and synchronous communication. Yet, the one exchange that uses it as a platform focuses on asynchronous, forum-like messages, and does not use its synchronous chat function (Bray & Iswanty, 2013). In line with these asynchronous messages are the social networking environments that support blogging, such as Blogger, which was used 4 times, and Xanga, Pixnet and MySpace, which are used once each. Unfortunately, many of the asynchronous message boards used were not mentioned by name. As a result, it is only possible to speculate and predict that asynchronous bulletin boards - including Moodle and Blackboard, if the integrated chat function is not used by participants - would be by far the most popular tools, as asynchronous communication is the most common format in both educational contexts. MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger) can be used for synchronous chat messages, but some versions enable the use of a webcam and/or microphone, so the program is also eligible for videoconferencing. However, as indicated earlier, this program is used primarily for solely text-based conversations (70%), and it was used 5 times, so it is in the top 5 of most used environments. Additionally, C6 is also software used for synchronous chat, but this platform is mentioned only once. Skype, Adobe Connect, Lyceum, PictureTel and CUSeeMe enable videoconferencing (VC), and are most regularly used for multimodal communication only. Skype is used 6 times, whereas Adobe Connect is mentioned 4 times, and Lyceum, PictureTel and CUSeeMe are used once each. PictureTel and CUSeeMe are both used in the same project (Yee, Mitchell, 32

Table 6 Online Platforms used in the University Projects Investigated Blackboard WebCT FirstClass Moodle MOOssiggang Cyber-Vine Facebook Description Website Times used The Blackboard Learning System [is a] course management system ( Student Manual, n.d.), designed for e-learning, and facilitates both synchronous and asynchronous communication, and functions like sharing files and creating pages. WebCT can be compared to Blackboard, as the two have merged into one, new system under the name of Blackboard, since 2005 (PR Newswire, n.d.). FirstClass is a fully integrated suite of applications (Open Text Corporation, 2009, p. 1), which enables users to communicate inside and outside real-time, and group spaces or communities, blogs, podcasts, archives and storage. Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites ( About Moodle, n.d.), and is a free-open source environment. It offers functions like forums, chat, and wiki s ( Features tour, n.d.). MOOssiggang is one of the world's first bilingual German- English MOOs. MOOs are powerful online learning environments that developed from some of the earliest gaming software available on the Internet ( MOOssiggang, n.d.). Cyber-Vine is an online forum, that allows users to create and comment on threads (Edasawa & Kabata, 2007). Facebook is a social networking website, which allows users to create a profile page and communities. Users can communicate, both synchronously and asynchronously, and can share files, photographs and videos ( Facebook, n.d.). http://www.blackboard.com 5 (No link available.) 4 http://www.firstclass.com 2 https://moodle.org/ 5 http://german.vassar.edu/projects/ moossiggang.html 2 Specific Studies Ware (2005); Ware & O Dowd (2008); Lee (2007); Lee (2009); Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) Ware & O Dowd (2008); Kabata & Edasawa (2011); Darhower (2007 and 2008); Basharina (2007 and 2009) Müller-Hartmann (2006); Belz (2001; 2002; 2003 and 2005) Lee (2009b and 2011); Ware & O Dowd (2008); O Dowd & Ritter (2006); Ritchie (2009); Dooly & Sadler (2013) Schneider & Von der Emde (2005); Kötter (2003) (No link available.) 1 Edasawa & Kabata (2007) http://www.facebook.com 1 Bray & Iswanty (2013) 33

Blogger Xanga Pixnet MySpace MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger C6 Skype Voicethread Adobe Connect Blogger is a weblog platform designed by Google, and can be used to share text, pictures and videos ( Blogger Features, n.d.). It only supports asynchronous messages. Xanga is a blogging community, ( Xanga, (n.d.), so a social networking site which relies on synchronous messages weblogs, or blogs and allows users to share pictures and videos. Pixnet serves as a social network website, online photo gallery, and blog service provider ( PIXNET, n.d.). MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally ( Myspace, n.d.). Windows Live Messenger (formerly named MSN Messenger) is an instant messaging client ( Windows Live Messenger, n.d.). It supported both text-based and audiovisual synchronous communication, but has now been merged with Skype ( Messenger to Skype, n.d.). C6 is an Italian Web-based chatline (Tudini, 2007, p. 586), which supports text-based chat in real-time. However, C6 has developed a singles orientation since its use in [Tudini s] study, Puntochat (p. 597). Skype allows users to speak, see and instant message other people ( About Skype, n.d.), and to share files. Although the platform is still calles Skype, [n]ow [it] is part of Microsoft ( About Skype, n.d.). VoiceThread is a totally web-based application that allows you to place collections of media like images, videos, documents, and presentations at the center of an asynchronous conversation (Pennsylvania State University, n.d.). Adobe Connect is a web conferencing platform for web meetings, elearning, and webinars [or online seminars] ( Adobe Connect, n.d.), and enables http://www.blogger.com 4 http://www.xanga.com 1 Yang (2011) http://www.pixnet.net 1 Yang (2011) https://myspace.com 1 Yang (2011) http://www.skype.com/en/downlo ad-skype/skype-forcomputer/windows-livemessenger/ (No link available.) 1 Tudini (2007) http://www.skype.com 6 5 Lee (2009b and 2011); Gephardt & Kostelníková (2012); Lee (2012); Yang (2011) Bower & Kawaguchi (2011); Pasfield-Neofitou (2006); Worajitipol (2010); Menard-Warwick (2009); Jin (2013) Carney (2008); Brinckwirth (2012); Worajittipol (2010); Willms (2011); Dooly & Sadler (2013); Jin (2013) http://voicethread.com 1 Dooly & Sadler (2013) http://www.adobe.com/uk/product s/adobeconnect.html 3 Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den bergh & Kriz (2012); Zhang (2013); 34

Lyceum PictureTel CUSeeMe Audacity imovie Second Life multimodal communication. Jauregi & Bañados (2008) [S]ynchronous audio-graphic conferencing software (Hauck, 2007, p. 203). (No link available.) 1 Hauck (2007) / Hauck & Youngs (2008) PictureTel is software which facilitates video conferencing Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & (Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi, 1998, para. (No link available.) 1 Yamaguchi (1998) 1.3). CU-SeeMe is audio/video conferencing software that allows Internet users to connect one - to - one, many - to - many, or any combination (Michigan State University College, n.d.). Audacity is open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds ( Audacity, n.d.), imovie is program to create and edit movies (Mead, 2012). It has a an integrated [uploader, which] makes sure your creations go online instantly (Mead, 2012). Second life allows for audio communication, but does not enable visual contact. It allows users to create an avatar and walk around in a virtual 3D world ( What is Second Life? n.d.). (No link available.) 1 http://audacity.sourceforge.net/?la ng=en Note. Some projects are listed more than once, as they mention several different platforms. http://secondlife.com 3 Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998) 1 Lee (2009b and 2011) 1 Lee (2009b and 2011) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013); Dooly & Sadler (2013); Jauregi, Canto, De Graaf, Koenraad & Moonen (2011) 35

Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi, 1998). Both Adobe Connect and Voicethread can be used to share files and have online meetings, but Voicethread was mentioned in only one project. Although they do not support direct audio-visual contact between multiple users, software like Audacity and imovie can be used to create clips and share them. Both programs are used in the same project (both studies describe the same project) (Lee, 2009a and 2009b). Lastly, as is shown in the one study that relies on Second Life as its sole communication environment (Jauregi, Canto, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen, 2011). In short, despite the fact that there are 16 different activities (see section 2.2.1., table 3) mentioned in the studies, there are at least 22 platforms used. As a result, there is great variety in the platforms used. Additionally, many projects that mention a specific tool have their own platforms, as many of the environments mentioned are used only once. 2.3.2. Platforms in Secondary School Projects Similar to the university exchanges, the studies conducted in secondary education do not always explicitly state the software or platform used, but simply state electronic bulletin board (Savignon & Roithmeier, 2004), videoconferencing (Michel, 2011), or blog Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob, 2011). Nonetheless, all the studies conducted with secondary school pupils combined make up a list of 12 different platforms. For a description of the environments and the studies that mention them, see table 7. Nearly all the platforms are used only once. However, the exception is MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger), which is used in two different projects. Firstly, WebBoard is used for asynchronous communication, although it also enables synchronous chat. Additionally, Moodle, despite its chat function, is also used solely for asynchronous conversation, unlike its use in exchanges between university students. E-Class, an e-learning environment, and Google Sites, a tool for creating and sharing websites, are 36

added to the list of message boards. Moreover, another asynchronous tool is Blogger, which is used for blogging. Although secondary school projects also use MSN Messenger, a chat program used during university exchanges, one study conducted with secondary school pupils also relies on another chat program: Yahoo Messenger. Moreover, Skype is also used for asynchronous communication, but for videoconferencing, so for audio-visual rather than text-based discussions. In addition to direct contact between participants, movie making software like Movie Maker and Viewletcam were used to create and share clips about participants culture and country (Lin, 2010). Similarly, with HyperStudio, participants of another project made a portfolio and shared that with their partners (Cifuentes & Murphy, 2000). Lastly, one study (Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009) combines language learning with leisure and used a virtual game, QuestAtlantis, and its interactive quests as the main platform of the exchange. In short, the distribution and variation of environments is even larger than among university projects, as only one platform was used twice, whereas all the other were only used once. 2.3.3. Conclusion The number of platforms used in exchanges between both university students as well as secondary school pupils is greater than the number of different activities. In other words, for each online activity there are more than one platform available, and used. University projects tend to favour Blackboard, Moodle, Blogger, Skype and MSN Messenger as online environments, whereas secondary school exchanges show even more variety, as only MSN messenger was used more than once. 37

Table 7 Online Platforms used in the Secondary Education Projects Investigated WebBoard E-Class Google Sites Moodle Blogger MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger Description Website Times used Specific Studies WebBoard is a suite of tools including message boards, chat, instant messaging, blogs, user profiles, calendar, file sharing, (No link available.) 1 Esch, Evans & Fisher (2001) mailing lists, and more ( WebBoard, n.d.). E-Class is a community-friendly learning management system (Lin, 2010, p. 33), which can be used for sharing course (No link available.) 1 Lin (2010) materials, assignments and other files and offers a forum (Lin, 2010). Google Sites is a way of creating and sharing websites ( Google Sites, n.d.). http://sites.google.com 1 Ling (2010) Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites ( About Moodle, n.d.), and is a freeopen source environment. It offers https://moodle.org/ 1 Isely, Joly & Lam (2008) functions like forums, chat, and wiki s ( Features tour, n.d.). Blogger is a weblog platform designed by Google, and can be used to share text, pictures and videos ( Blogger Features, http://www.blogger.com 1 Ware (2009) n.d.). It only supports asynchronous messages. Windows Live Messenger (formerly named MSN Messenger) is an instant messaging client ( Windows Live Messenger, n.d.). It supported both textbased and audio-visual synchronous http://www.skype.com/en/downloadskype/skype-for-computer/windows-livemessenger/ 2 Lin (2010); Sauro (2013) 38

Yahoo! Messenger Skype MovieMaker ViewletCam Hyperstudio Quest Atlantis communication, but has now been merged with Skype ( Messenger to Skype, n.d.). Yahoo! s Messenger enable synchronous chat, and audio-visual communication, but also the sharing of files and pictures ( Yahoo!, n.d.). Skype allows users to speak, see and instant message other people ( About Skype, n.d.), and to share files. Although the platform is still calles Skype, [n]ow [it] is part of Microsoft ( About Skype, n.d.). Movie Maker facilitates the editing and sharing of video clips ( Movie Maker, n.d.). ViewletCam allows users to record PC applications, PowerPoint presentations, animations, and video directly from [their] PC screen[s] and generate Flash movies ( With Hyperstudio, users can create and share videos, and create podcasts ( Hyperstudio, n.d.). Quest Atlantis is a virtual 3D game, and is nowadays part of the Atlantis Remixed (ARX) project, which is an international learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environments to immerse children, ages 9-16, in educational tasks ( Atlantis Remixed, n.d.). http://messenger.yahoo.com/ 1 Lenguan (2008) http://www.skype.com 1 Lin (2010) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windowslive/movie-maker#t1=overview http://www.qarbon.com/presentationsoftware/vc/ Note. Some projects are listed more than once, as they mention several different platforms. 1 Lin (2010) 1 Lin (2010) http://www.mackiev.com/hyperstudio/index.html 1 Cifuentes & Murphy (2007) http://atlantisremixed.org/ 1 Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) 39

2.4. Tasks Melinda Dooly (2007) argues that [a] good telecollaborative project will also incorporate tasks that ensure positive interdependence between the participants... [which] means that group members communicate with each other on a regular basis, and are careful to ensure that their communication is clear and relevant (p. 219). However, each task has a different design and includes different activities. In total, studies conducted in a university setting include 10 different tasks, and exchanges carried out in a secondary education context include 7 different tasks. Due to an overlap of most tasks, 11 distinct tasks can be distinguished overall (see table 8). Tables E1 and E1 (Appendix E) show an overview of the tasks and the studies that mention them. For both educational contexts, engaging in text-based discussions on cultural topics, without a collaborative final product is the most popular task, as it occurs in 18 of the 49 investigated university exchanges (36.7%), and in 4 out of 11 secondary education projects (36.4%). Although text-based discussions with a collaborative end product ranks second on the list of most occurring tasks in studies conducted with university students (10 out of 49, so 20.4%), this is not the case for projects involving secondary school pupils, as those studies favour creating and commenting on blogs (2 out of 11, so 18.2%) over discussions with a collaborative final product. Additionally, all other tasks in secondary school projects occur only once (9.1%). As for the exchanges between university students, and audio-visual discussions without a final product is in fourth place (occurs 9 times, so 18.4%), and reading and discussing the same texts occurs 3 times (so 6.1%). Giving feedback or tutoring, spot the differenced and jigsaw assignments and creating and commenting on blogs each occur twice (4.1% each). Lastly, reading and discussing parallel texts, a combination of blogs, podcasts 40

and an interview, quests or interactive tasks and collaborative design work are the least popular tasks, each occurring only once (2.0% each). In short, the distribution of tasks among projects taking place in universities and those in secondary education is only similar in the most popular task: text-based discussions without a final end product. Studies with secondary school pupils appear to be less interested in tasks with a final, collaborative outcome than those conducted with university students. Table 8 Tasks in Projects Investigated Task Universities Secondary Education Reading and discussing parallel texts 2 0 Reading and discussing the same text 3 0 Blog, podcast and ethnographic interview 1 0 Feedback / tutoring 2 1 Text-based discussions 18 4 Multimodal discussions (incl. audio(-visual)) 9 1 Discussions and collaborative final product 10 1 Quests / interactive tasks 1 1 Spot the differences and Jigsaw assignments* 2 0 Create a blog and comment other blogs 2 2 Collaborative design work 1 0 Create and share a portfolio 0 1 * One of these tasks consisted of audio-visual discussions, whereas the other relied on text-based conversation. 2.5. Language Use Another interesting element of telecollaborative projects is the target language of the exchanges. In total, all the projects combined accounted for 12 different languages and language combinations (see table 9). Again, the most prominent one is the same for exchanges in both universities as well as secondary education: English is the most occurring language, with rates of 30.6% (15 out of 49) and 45.5% (5 out of 11), respectively. However, English is the only language ranked equally high in both settings. Firstly, the top 5 target languages in university projects is (1) English; (2) German and English (10 out of 49, so 20.4%); (3) Spanish (6 out of 49, so 12.2%), (4) Spanish and 41

English, and Japanese and English (5 times each, so 10.2%). Chinese Mandarin and French occur twice, so 4% each, whereas the other 5 languages or language combinations occur once (2% each). On the other hand, secondary education exchanges have a different top 5: (1) English; (2) French and English (2 out of 11, so 18.2%) and (3) Chinese, French and Spanish and English (once, so 9.0% each). For an overview of studies and their respective target languages, see tables F1 and F2 (Appendix F). Table 9 Target Languages in Projects Investigated Language Universities Secondary Education Chinese (Mandarin) 2 1 French 2 1 Spanish 6 0 Dutch 1 0 Italian 1 0 English 15 5 French and English 1 2 German and English 10 1 Spanish and English 5 1 Japanese and English 5 0 Brazilian Portuguese and English 1 0 Chinese and English 1 0 2.5.1. Function of the Target Language Aside from the different languages used, target languages can also embody several functions, they can function as (a) the lingua franca for both parties; (b) the first language (L1) of one of the groups of participants and second language (L2) to the other, and vice versa, and (c) the L1 to one party, and the L2 to the other (see table 10). For a complete overview, see tables G1 and G2 (Appendix G). During university projects, the target language most frequently functioned as a L1 and L2 for exchanges between university students: 23 out of 49 times (so 46.9%), whereas it was the L1 of only one of the participating groups in 22 cases (44.9%), and a lingua franca in only 42

4 projects (8.2%). In secondary education exchanges, on the other hand, the target language was more often a L1 to either one of the participating groups (5 times, so 45.5%), than the L1 and L2 to both parties: 4 times (so 36.4%). Only in 3 cases the target language functioned as the project s lingua franca (27.3%). Table 10 Functions of Target Languages in Projects Investigated Function University Secondary Education Lingua Franca 4 3 L1 and L2 to both participants 23 4 L1 to one of the participants 22 5 2.5.2. Function of English English as a target language is never used as an L1 of both groups of participants, but it does embody the other two functions discussed above (see table 11). Overall, English more regularly seems to function as an L1 of either of the two parties (17 out of 20, so 85%), than as a lingua franca (3 out of 20, so 15%). This is reflected in both the university projects: in 13 out of 15 projects (so 86.7%) English serves as the L1 of one of the groups of participants, as well as in secondary education exchanges, where English a lingua franca in 20% of the cases (so 1 out of 5 times). Table 11 The Use of English in Projects Investigated Language Universities Secondary Education English as L1 one of the participants 13 4 English as Lingua Franca (ELF) 2 1 2.5.3. Conclusion English is the most prominent language in projects in both universities as well as secondary education, but the rest of the top 5 of target languages differ for both settings. 43

Although target languages can have three different functions an L1 and L2 to either of both parties, or as a lingua franca English mostly served as an L1 of either of the two participating groups in university projects, but as the L1 of the participating groups in secondary education exchanges. 2.6. Time Paths There are no rules about the minimum or maximum length of a telecollaboration exchange, but the projects investigated range from a minimum of 3 weeks to a maximum of 2 school years, and anything in between. Although 5 out of 39 university projects and 2 secondary school exchanges did not define a time path, and one university exchange was rather vague 2 to 8 months, most studies do state an exact time frame (see table 12). Overall, 41.0% (16 out of 39) of the studies conducted with university students last up to (and including) 2 months, whereas 20.5% (8 out of 39) projects take 9 weeks to 4 months. Another 15.4% (6 out of 39) lasts 5 or 6 months, and only 7.7% (3 out of 39) take between 6 months and 2 years. On the other hand, for exchanges between secondary school pupils, only 22.2% (2 out of 9) last up to 2 months, and 33.3% (3 out of 9) projects take 9 weeks to 4 months to complete. Moreover, only 1 out of 9 projects (so 11.1%) lasted a semester, as opposed to 3 out of 9 studies that took an entire school year. But, because the group of projects carried out in secondary education only included 9 exchanges, the results may be an overgeneralization. In short, shorter exchanges (i.e. ranging from 3 weeks to 2 months) are the preferred time frames for university studies, whereas the most frequent time paths chosen for secondary education projects are either between 9 weeks and 4 months, or an entire school year. Yet, the last results may be less reliable due to the small number of studies investigated. 44

Table 12 Time Paths from Projects Investigated Time Universities Secondary Education 2 school years 1 0 1 school year / 2 semesters 1 3 9 months 1 0 1 semester 5 1 5 months 1 0 4 months 0 2 14 weeks 1 0 3 months 2 0 12 weeks 2 0 10 weeks 2 1 9 weeks 1 0 2 months 2 0 8 weeks 3 1 7 weeks 2 0 6 weeks 5 0 5 weeks 1 0 1 month 1 0 4 weeks 1 0 3 weeks 1 1 undefined 5 2 2-8 months (vague) 1 0 2.7. Results of the Projects Investigated To investigate the benefits and disadvantages of telecollaboration, the results of 10 investigated studies in secondary education, and of the 33 university exchanges will be outlined and discussed. Due to the different aims and goals of each of the studies, the results have been categorised. However, the total amount of studies conducted in secondary education is significantly lower than those carried out in universities, so the results of the first group comprise fewer categories than the outcomes from the latter group. 2.671. Results of the Secondary Education Projects Overall, the results of the exchanges between secondary school pupils have been divided into 5 separate categories: (a) the impact of the projects on participants linguistic and communicative skills; (b) the participants cultural perceptions; (c) participation and motivation; (d) the disadvantages and problems of telecollaboration, and (e) the participants 45

opinions, preferences and problems with regard to technology-use and the specific online tools and environments used. 2.7.1.1. Linguistic and Communicative Skills Overall, the projects investigate indicate that telecollaboration is beneficial to participants, as 9 out of 10 studies only discuss advantages for participants, especially regarding skills and confidence in the target language, and understanding language learning. Although not all studies investigated achieved positive outcomes with regards to linguistic competence (Michell, 2011), there it is indicated that telecollaborative exchanges improved participants linguistic skills (see table 12, under section 3), as 4 out of 5 projects clearly indicate positive effects of telecollaboration on student participants. For instance, telecollaboration projects, even the ones which relied on audio-visual rather than text-based communication, improve students fluency in writing, especially in exams, but have a less positive effect on their spelling accuracy (Ware, 2009). Additionally, participants were able to communicate with success and improved their communicative competence (1 out of 1), due to the constant production and development of language (Lenguan, 2008). One of the most significant benefits for students is the enhancement of their confidence, in both speaking (Michell, 2011) and overall language-use (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008). One of the causes of the improvement of students speaking confidence is the fact that students are encouraged to speak to what appears to be a real audience, but only when students can engage in group-to-group, or individual conversations, as speaking in front of a larger group may cause students to freeze (Michell, 2011). Additionally, evidence for an improvement of student s confidence in using a foreign language is the fact that students gathered information from their partners with increasing ease and were able to deepen and synthesise the information they received (Iseli, Joly and Lam, 2008). 46

Through telecollaborative exchanges, students appeared to get a better understanding of language learning, and of their own strengths and weaknesses as language learners, due to the cultural experience (Michell, 2011). 2.7.1.2. Culture: Online and Offline Telecollaborative projects have raised participants cultural awareness, as well as an enthusiastic interest in the culture of their partners (Michell, 2011). By questioning their partners about their culture, and responding to questions regarding their own culture, both parties were able to discover another culture (Cifuentes & Murphy, 2000). Besides, cultural stereotypes were challenged through the direct contact with students who are a part of that specific culture (Michell, 2011). Additionally, students have developed a more multicultural view, as well as a more positive self-image of their own culture (Cifuentes & Murphy, 2000). Students did not only learn about other cultures in online environments but they also discussed their online exchanges with classmates before the lesson started (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008). Additionally, students would choose seat near to classmates they also interacted with during the online project(iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008). 2.7.1.3. Participation The projects investigated indicate a positive influence of telecollaboration projects on students, as participants are motivated by the opportunity of communicating with (other non-) native speakers (Michell, 2011). As a result, most of the students participated in sufficient discussions with their online partners, and most of them even interacted more than they were asked to do (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008). Moreover, students would not only use in-class time to engage in the discussions, but they would also log in at home, at any time of the day or night (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008). 47

2.7.1.4. Problems and Disadvantages Although the results of most studies investigated are positive, only 1 project (out of 10) of those investigated experienced problems during the exchange, to do with technological issues and mismatched schedules (Lin, 2010). Firstly, delays in messages and email, in particular, is reported as one of the biggest problems in CMC (Lin, 2010). As a result, participants need to be provided with a computer that enables a more stable and fast enough connection to engage in discussion and use online tools without any delays and other problems (Lin, 2010). Secondly, planning and scheduling is often a problem, as institutional calendars are often dissimilar and may cause problems when planning an online exchange. Sometimes, it can even lead to a change in the programme, for instance teacher-to-peer synchronous discussions when peer-to-peer communication is impossible to plan (Lin, 2010). 2.7.1.5. Technology Participants generally shared a positive opinion on the use of technology in their classrooms, as both students and teachers enjoyed using CMC and have discovered the benefits of it, especially of the contact with authentic language and material (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008, Lenguan, 2008 and Ware, 2009). Overall, using online tools as an addition to the regular curriculum is accepted and supported by both students and teachers (Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008 and Ware, 2009). Additionally, through participating in a telecollaborative project, students have more confidence in their ability to use online tools and technology (Ware, 2009). Students have also indicated a preference for challenging tasks and media-usage and digital movies as focal points for projects (Ware, 2009), and they prefer to communicate 48

within a synchronous environment, rather than engaging in asynchronous discussion (Lin, 2010). Similarly, individual, or one-on-one messages are favoured over one-to-many messages (Lin, 2010). However, another students preference is the use of a mediator (Lin, 2010). Some of the studies investigated focussed on the possibilities, benefits and problems of using specific tools and platforms, such as (a) WebBoard; (b) Quest Atlantis; (c) chat; (d) blogs and (d) online environments in general. Firstly, WebBoard it is used for asynchronous communication only in the projects investigated (Esch, Evans & Fisher, 2001). It only enables text-based communication, but participants not being able to see each other and their body language and expressions can lead to problems and even a cultural barrier, as students sometimes misinterpret their partners and assume a mutual understanding as a result of failed signals (Esch, Evans & Fisher, 2001). In line with this, WebBoard can be a useful platform for telecollaboration when integrated tools like emoticons, pictures and even coined words become signals which create new customs and agreements among participants (Esch, Evans & Fisher, 2001). On the other hand, it is not necessarily WebBoard s specific design that enables collaborative language, but it becomes the handlebar for participants in creating an online community (Esch, Evans & Fisher, 2001). In other words, although WebBoard does not contribute much to telecollaboration in itself, its design makes it a suitable host for online projects. Secondly, Quest Atlantis encourages language learning, as chat messages sent by the participants appear on the receiver s screen, after which both participants have ample time to interpret, correct, explain, revisit the messages and respond to them accordingly (Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009). Participants also engage in implicit learning, as they continuously use the target language to support their common goal finishing a quest 49

together but do not focus on explicit language learning. As a result, they learn the language by using it in a playful way (Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009). Thirdly, chat programs enable the participants to get into contact with authentic language, if face-to-face meetings are out of the question. Additionally, chatting increasingly provides participants with the possibility of interaction in the target language that may lead to negotiation of meaning (Lenguan, 2008). Fourthly, the use of blogs in telecollaborative exchanges allows participants to experiment with and engage in informal discussions that often require more creativity than those in traditional language classrooms, and the environment allows for peer-to-peer communication in their own, trusted and safe environment (Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob, 2011). Additionally, blogs give participants a perspective of culture and reality which were unknown to them before, so giving the participants a sound reason for communicating with foreign partners (Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob, 2011). Finally, online environments, such as blogs etcetera, allows participants to discover associations and similarities between their culture and that of their foreign partners, so online platforms enable students to tear down national and local cultural ideas and broaden their cultural view (Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob, 2011). In addition, with a pedagogical approach transcending culture, online tools may stimulate the forming of a new generation of people who are not only well-educated, but who are also critical interpreters (Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob, 2011). 2.7.1.6. Conclusion The results presented above indicate that telecollaboration projects are said to improve participants language skills, especially with regards to fluency, due to a constant production of linguistic output in the target language. Additionally, online exchanges enhance 50

participants confidence in both their speaking skills as well as language use, participants become more aware of their own language learning processes, and students portrayed a high level of participation during projects as they communicated more than required an logged onto the platform even during the night. On the other hand, 1 projects was faced with technological problems and scheduling issues, which hindered the execution of the exchange as planned. During online projects, participants have increased their cultural awareness and their sparked interest regarding other cultures enables them to develop a more multi-cultural view. On the other hand, participants also created an offline community with the online partners in their physical classrooms. Both students and teacher participants have indicated a positive attitude towards using technology and their growing abilities to do so. Additionally, students have indicated preferences for challenging tasks, synchronous communication, one-to-one messages and the use of a mediator. However, malfunctioning technology can cause problems during an exchange. Lastly, online tools and environments have been found to be appropriate facilitators of telecollaboration projects, but also support language learning and even implicit language learning. In addition, cultural borders and stereotypes may be broken down, online platforms allow participants to come into contact with authentic linguistic and cultural material. 2.7.2. Results of the University Projects Finally, the outcomes of the projects conducted with university students have been divided into a wider variety range of categories (9), of which 5 are similar to the secondary education projects. The classifications are: (a) benefits for students; (b) intercultural aspects; (c) student participation; (d) disadvantages and problems regarding online exchanges; (e) 51

opinions regarding technology used, and models, online tools and environments used; (g) tasks; (h) feedback; (i) interactional failures, and (j) factors that influence a project. 2.7.2.1. Benefits for Students Overall, 17 out of 33 projects researched acknowledge the benefits of online exchange, and 15 of these do not mention any disadvantages to or problems with the projects. However, participating in a telecollaborative project may seem like a time-consuming and intense activity to some students, but this feeling may be outweighed by the benefits of such an exchange (Belz, 2002), and the use of digital tools, for instance due to the contact with authentic language and the linguistic progress students make. Firstly, telecollaboration provides participants with the opportunity to meet and converse with foreign people, across the world, with a different cultural background (Lee, 2012 and Sadler, 2007), which a traditional classroom does not always enable (Dooly & Sadler, 2013). Additionally, these foreign partners are often native speakers of their target language (Carney, 2008; Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz, 2012; Hauck & Youngs, 2008 and Donaldson & Kötter, 1999), so the exchanges allow participants to experience authentic language and cultural material (Sadler, 2007 and Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter), which can otherwise be restrained by course books (Zhang, 2013), especially to those students who would not be able to participate in a face-to-face exchange. As a result, technology enables students to step outside timely, local and cultural bounds and combine their abilities to collaboratively construct understanding (Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi, 1998). Additionally, even if students were able to have face-to-face meetings with expert or native speakers, they would be less inclined to communicate freely, in comparison with their interactions during a telecollaboration project taking place in a safe and familiar environment like a classroom at their own school (Lee, 2009b). Moreover, the 52

connection between the two groups can be made in a safer environment (Sadler, 2007): the familiar classrooms, as opposed to face-to-face conversations which take at least one of the participating groups out of their familiar settings and comfort zone. Another added value is the fact that some (online) tools enable the possibility to automatically store transcripts or messages sent during conversations, allowing both teachers and participants to review the texts later on (Sadler, 2007), and teachers to discover and evaluate learning moments (Zhang, 2013). Secondly, the development of the participants linguistic and sociolinguistic skills is another benefit attributed to telecollaboration exchanges. The studies investigated indicate that these projects provide ample opportunities for students to learn the target language, as they were exposed to authentic material and corrections both implicit as well as explicitfrom their foreign partners, so the projects stimulate incidental learning (Kabata & Edasawa, 2011), and allow participants to reflect on their l2, as well as on their own language (Jauregi & Bañados, 2008). Moreover, participants picked up new vocabulary or expressions their partners used in their messages, or by questioning their partners, and in projects using multiple target languages, participants used both languages, and often devoted an almost equal amount of time to each language (Edasawaa and Kabatab, 2007). Due to these possibilities, most of the participants noticed that the exchanges had a positive effect on the development of their linguistic skills (Ritchie, 2009 and Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh, 2013). The projects also stimulated the participants to use several different strategies of negotiation (Lee, 2009a), along with facilitating the participants writing processes (Gephardt and Kostelníková, 2012), improving their fluency in the target language (Worajittipol, 2010), and their ability to write longer sentences in their L2 (Darhower, 2008, p. 63). In other words, the participants overall linguistic competence in their L2 improved (Basharina, 2009 and Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh, 2013). However, not participating enough can mean a 53

stagnation of or only a very minimal linguistic improvement in the target language (Jin, 291013), and students need to be enthusiastic, motivated and willing to communicate to be able to successfully improve their competences in the L2 (Hauck, 2007). But, the projects did not just improve the participants linguistic competence, but also enhanced their confidence in using the target language (Worajittipol, 2010). Overall, intermediate foreign language students are able to discuss a wide range of topics for a longer period of time with their foreign partners (Willms, 2011). 2.7.2.2. Intercultural Awareness and Relationships All telecollaboration projects will have to wrestle with the position that intercultural learning takes within the exchange (Belz, 2002). However, collisions between cultures are likely to occur, and they should not be appeased, but stimulated (Belz, 2002). By presenting each other with their own environments and habits, cultural stereotypes and clashes can be deconstructed, so telecollaboration projects enable students to increase their intercultural awareness and aid their intercultural relationships. The results of the researched projects indicate participating in telecollaborative exchanges increased students intercultural awareness, but also understanding, as they learn about their partners culture (Lee, 2009b; Tudini, 2007; Jin & Erben, 2007 Jauregi & Bañados, 2008). This is reinforced by the fact that students try their hardest to make sure their partners understand them, even if it they have to distance themselves from the things that happen in their home countries; students employ their comprehension of another country and its culture to successfully engage in an intercultural discussion; students attempt to disassociate themselves from cultural bias and stereotypes, and accept cultural rectifications and interpretations; students attempt to solve cultural misconception using the cultural competences they have acquired and students give the conversations a personal touch by 54

reversing the roles and overturning concepts of racism (Menard-Warwick, 2009). Also, participants are more interested in their partners culture (Jauregi & Bañados, 2008). Participants gained more respect for the cultural differences between them and their foreign partners (Jin & Erben, 2007), and even started noticing similarities, rather than differences between the cultures involved (Keranen & Bayyurt, 2006). In addition to intercultural awareness, telecollaboration can stimulate significant and enduring communication (Kung, 2002), so it may foster intercultural relationships between participants. These intercultural relationships, combined with committing to contribute actively, are vital for successful communication and telecollaborative projects (Lee, 2009). However, participants who do put in enough work or involvement may lead to a less stable intercultural online community (Darhower, 2007). Moreover, telecollaboration improves participants intercultural communicative competence (ICC), as participants know what to say and do to be able to communicate successfully with foreign, cross-cultural partners (Chun, 2011). 2.7.2.3. Participation Some studies have shown that online exchanges positively influence students participation (Jauregi & Bañados, 2008 and Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh, 2013), and that students are willing to participate and are eager to engage in conversations (Kung, 2002). This goes for both synchronous communication (e.g. videoconferencing), as well as for asynchronous messages (e.g. blogging) (Carney, 2008). Additionally, participants seem regard communicating with native or expert speakers as motivating (Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz, 2012). Yet, elements like contrasts in institutional factors, such as scheduling, internet connection and so on, can influence student participation (Belz, 2002). 55

2.7.2.4. Disadvantages and Problems Even though research has indicated that telecollaborative projects have multiple benefits for student participants, the exchanges do not always proceed smoothly, and there are some studies that report problems participants and instructors experienced during the exchange. Although the number of studies mentioning disadvantages to projects is only 4 out of 33 and two of which also discuss benefits-, they indicate several issues that can turn out be problematic: (a) mismatched calendars and scheduling; (b) problems connected to the use of technology and (c) issues regarding skills and personality. Firstly, differences in academic calendars and scheduling in itself often pose a problem, both for projects using asynchronous, as well as synchronous communication. For instance, academic calendars are not and cannot be synchronised among participating universities, which makes is harder to negotiate the details of a project, and execute an exchange (Sadler, 2007 and Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003), even for exchanges that rely on synchronous communication tools. Moreover, if the institutions participating in the project have agreed on the period during which the exchange will take place, another scheduling issue arises, as the student schedules and contact hours, and other organisational factors differ among the universities, which limit the possibilities for synchronous communication. As a result, the practicality of the collaborative work among participants and even putting the theoretical project into practice are hindered (Belz and Müller-Hartmann, 2003). However, these problems are the most prominent in exchanges based on synchronous communication (Sadler, 2007). Secondly, technological issues can lead to irritation, especially connection and other technical problems (Kung, 2002 and Sadler, 2007). The largest source of frustration might be bad connections, as they can lead to problems with the quality of audio-visual elements (Brinckwirth, 2012), as well as delayed messages lags- (Sadler, 2007). Although many of 56

these issues can be solved before or after sessions - to enable the necessary technology to be available for the following sessions participants indicated that they resented technical problems during sessions, and having to deal with them when they actually want to communicate with their foreign partners (Brinckwirth, 2012). The absence of proper internet connections, combined with the cost of using the web outside of the classroom for some participants and as a result, the limited time allotted to the actual exchanging of information with their (overseas) partners, can cut the conversations between participants short (Belz, 2001). Thirdly, diversity in participants personalities, cultural perceptions and skills may lead to conflicts, and may result in another problem: a decrease in devotion towards the project, by either or both participating groups (Sadler, 2007). Different dynamics in groups (Sadler, 2007), or misinterpreting shorter messages by less proficient participants as rudeness or laziness (Hauck, 2007) may also cause agitation, along with absent or tardy participants (Brinckwirth, 2012). Partnering issues such as coupling partners who are not compatible, or if one of the group members does not fully cooperate, or is unreliable in any other way (Brinckwirth, 2012). A difference in skills may also be a source of problems, for instance if one or more group members have a lower typing speed (Sadler, 2007). Besides, some students appear to be afraid of public speaking in a networked or linked environment (Kinginger, 1998, p. 510), but this may be similar to students regular anxiety towards speaking in public. 2.7.2.5. Technology Most participants in the studies researched expressed positive attitudes towards the use of technology in the language classroom (Lee, 2009b and Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz, 2012), as did many teachers (Belz and Müller-Hartmann, 2003). 57

Some of the studies focussed on the use of specific models, tools or platforms to support the projects discussed, such as the model (a) Cultura; (b) Teletandem and (c) a more general team model, the tools (d) blogging; (e) videoconferencing and (f) chatting, and the platforms (g) message boards; (h) Facebook and (i) Second Life. First of all, the Cultura model focuses on the integration of culture into the language classroom (Suárez Graciá & Crapotta, 2007, p. 64), and may provide a helpful groundwork for setting up telecollaboration projects, but its limitations and conditions make it hard to use in practice (O Dowd, 2009). As a result, teachers need to adapt models like Cultura to their own views and aspirations in order for it to be successful (O Dowd, 2009). Secondly, Brinckwirth (2012) discusses a project based on the Teletandem model. The results indicate that the teletandem model is beneficial to students, as it tore down the walls of language and culture; enhanced the participants confidence in using the target language and encouraged them; increased the participants appraisal and curiosity towards the target language and their linguistic competence in the target language (Brinckwirth, 2012). It also enables participants to form a community with their overseas partners. As a result of all this, teletandem is a useful addition to the conventional curriculum (Brinckwirth, 2012). Instead of a set model, Kung (2002) proposes to use a team model instead of the more standardised individual model for online exchanges, as his study indicates that it is a feasible substitute for traditional individual of group-to-group communication (Kung, 2002). Multiple studies noticed the usefulness of blogging as a means of communicating during a telecollaborative project, as it enables asynchronous communication, and therefore can be used by two participating groups, whose countries are separated by a large distance and time (Gephardt & Kostelníková, 2012) Additionally, students indicated that blogging enabled them to acquire and extensive comprehension of cultures, which they would not have been able discover in the classroom (Lee, 2012). However, the shared space in this platform is 58

viewed in two different ways by participants: from (a) a collective, or (b) a relational point of view (Yang, 2011). Those regarding blogging as a collective activity based their interactions on mutual interests and backgrounds, and were able to have dynamic conversations, as long as the bloggers shared a common element. Some students though of blogging as a way to create new relationship based on mutual pragmatics and by putting their differences in perspective (Yang, 2011), and the bonds formed through blogging are much closer than those formed in videoconferencing, for example (Hauck & Youngs, 2008). Yet, blogging is sometimes regarded as too slow when compared to chat, and names and gender confusion (Basharina, 2007, p. 88-9). In addition, videoconferencing (VC) enables participants to discover authentic language and culture, as they can communicate with native speakers of the target language, which is not possible within the traditional classroom (Mouhadjer, 2013; Lee, 2007 and Jauregi et al., 2008). As a result, students are interested and engage in reciprocal conversations (Carney, 2008). Moreover, VC raises participants cultural awareness (Mouhadjer, 2013) and requires participants to respond quickly to the utterances made by their partners, forcing them to converse spontaneously (Lee, 2007). Yet, this is exactly what makes VC challenging: the audio-visual tools lack visual, text-based aid (Lee, 2007). On the other hand, the interactive element in VC engages participants in building competence collaboratively, as they work together and help each other, rather than just transferring information from one person to another (Mouhadjer, 2013). So, though the input the participants receive, they implicitly learn the target language, and correct each other (Willms, 2011). However, projects using VC will probably teach the participants some lexical knowledge of the target language, but will not develop the participants morphosyntactic skills (Willms, 2011). Moreover, VC enable students to be paired with someone with the same characteristics (e.g. shyness), a similar language level, or the same sex (Mouhadjer, 59

2013). It is arguable, though, that conflicts caused by clashing characteristics are not a bad thing, and a valuable learning moments instead. Overall, participants indicated that their speaking skills developed to way they had expected (Lee, 2007). Another tool using in telecollaboration exchanges is synchronous chat, which is considered to be a financially viable way to enable communication between participants and native speakers of the target language, and even establish a relationship with someone from a different cultural background (Worajittipol, 2010). Additionally, participants benefit from exposure to authentic language, rather than text-book language, which would otherwise not have been possible in the traditional classroom (Pasfield-Neofitou, 2006). However, the synchronous approach, in which participants take turns in the conversation improved both the participants writing, as well as reading skills (Pasfield-Neofitou, 2006). On the other hand, platforms like message boards (or forums) enable asynchronous chat, which stimulates the participants independence (Fuchs, Hauk and Müller-Hartmann, 2012), and allows for clearly expressed remodelling of the elements of the language learned through the exchange (Kabata & Edasawa, 2011). The platform Facebook is also used for communication outside real time, and can be used to enable a safer environment than a faceto-face meeting in a strange place, where they can also discuss and share all kinds of media thoughts and media to enhance their consciousness regarding other cultures and their own learning, in a playful way (Bray & Iswanty, 2013). One study compared participants writing styles in relation to the environment and discovered that [a]synchronous forum entries contain longer, syntactically more complex statements, whereas synchronous chat entries are short, reactive, and less formal (Chun, 2011, p. 415). Platforms like a MOO enable both types of communication, and can be used to create personalised spaced and descriptions (Donaldson & Kötter, 1999), and it can be a viable supplement to a concrete location (Kötter, 2003). 60

Lastly, the use of Second Life as a host for telecollaborative exchanges has been investigated (Jauregi, Cantoa, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen, 2011). Second Life is a virtual world, that enables synchronous communication, but it does not enable videoconferencing, which makes it very anonymous. Yet, participants have indicated that they prefer this inconspicuous environment over videoconferencing in general, despite the fact that they regard Second Life as being not very realistic (Jauregi, Cantoa, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen, 2011). 2.7.2.6. Feedback Several studies asked participants to give feedback to their peers, and the results indicate that most students would provide their peers with descriptions or explanations (Ware and O Dowd, 2008), but the students who participated in an e-tutoring project focussed more on grammar, whereas those students engaged in an e-partnering project did not (Ware and O Dowd, 2008). However, students tend not to correct their foreign partners when communicating via asynchronous means such as chat, but would send emails afterwards with the chat messages and corrections added to them (Ware and O Dowd, 2008). In other words, students tried not to give negative feedback, but to stimulate the non-native speakers to develop their language skills. Similarly, students preferred to give their partners positive feedback to improve their confidence and linguistic competence (Worajittipol, 2010). On the downside, students did not always master their mother tongues well enough to be able to provide high-quality feedback (Ware and O Dowd, 2008). 2.7.2.7. Failures in Interaction Instead of commenting on other participants ways of thinking, participants in telecollaboration projects tend to analyse earlier topics and information (Liaw & Bunn-Le 61

Master, 2010), sometimes positive conversation collapses and causes failures in interaction (Menard-Warwick, 2009). Some of the participants responses and their variety in conversational actions can be regarded as characteristic for failures in mutual understanding during projects (O Dowd & Ritter, 2006). One of the reasons why communication broke down in the projects investigated in the fact that participants have difficulties understanding variety in linguistic forms, and especially regional varieties are difficult for them to grasp (Lee, 2009a). In line with this, students are afraid of making and error, and therefore are less inclined to speak and say as much as they would in their mother tongue, which can lead to miscommunications (Schneider & Von der Emde, 2005). In addition to linguistic problems, interpretation problems are also one of the causes of interaction failures, as students can either misinterpret cultures and/or stereotypes, but are also faced with others misconstruing their own culture. In other words, participants constantly have to face and discuss misinterpretations and misunderstandings (Schneider & Von der Emde, 2005). Moreover, the participants characters, as well as the design of the task and the collaboration between teachers can cause failures in interaction (O Dowd & Ritter, 2006). 2.7.2.8. Factors Affecting an Exchange Several factors influenced the communication between the participants of a project, and therefore, the success of the exchange (O, Dowd, 2009 and Edasawaa & Kabatab, 2007), such as the participants experience with technology and computers (prior to the project) and the availability of computers (O Dowd, 2009 and Pasfield-Neofitou, 2006); the linguistic and technological skills of the participants (Edasawaa & Kabatab, 2007 and Pasfield-Neofitou, 2006) and cultural stereotypes (O Dowd, 2009). Additionally, differences in institutional demands (O Dowd, 2009), for instance whether the emphasis for the students is on scoring a 62

good grade, or on developing socio-linguistic skills (Ware, 2005), influences the way in which both groups of participants deal with the exchange. Moreover, personal differences, like the affinity between foreign partners and the personal goals set by the participants influenced their interaction with their peers (Pasfield-Neofitou, 2006), and the differences in use of time, motivation and a set of different expectations, such as a different view of the online tools used; of the reason for interacting with each other and different usage of protocols regarding language (Ware, 2005) can affect the project, as they can lead to conflicts, but can also teach the participants something about the other culture. 2.7.2.9. Conclusion To conclude, the benefits of projects carried out in a university setting have similar benefits for students as exchanges between secondary school pupils: the possibility to connect participants with partners from a different cultural background, therefore exposing the participants to authentic material, yet is a safe environment. Additionally the projects have helped to improve participants socio-linguistic skills as well as their fluency and selfconfidence in the target language. Collaborative projects have a positive impact on student participation, although institutional factors, for instance, influence participation. On the other hand, 5 out of 33 university exchanges are faced with problems, for instance the mismatched calendars and schedules between participating institutions is a big problem, as are technical issues (even more so than in a secondary education context). Moreover, the diversity in personalities and skills of the participants may lead to conflicts as well. 63

Similar to secondary education exchanges, university projects also stimulate the development of the participants cultural awareness and understanding, but they also foster international and intercultural relationships between the participants. Both the participating teachers as well as the students are positive towards the use of technology as an addition to the standard curriculum. Additionally, the studies have shown that the models suggested should be adapted to the teachers own views and expectations, but that they are a useful addition. Moreover, a team-model has been suggested as a viable alternative to individual models. Additionally, the tools and platforms investigated facilitate intercultural communication and awareness and provide participants with authentic language materials. This helps participants to develop their linguistic skills, and autonomy in a playful way. Furthermore, tasks should be used effectively, and the more structured tasks are better for non-native speaker participants. However, a focus-on-form post-task helps students combine the communicative part of the exchange to a more instructional one. When giving peer-to-peer feedback, students tend to provide explanations, and often after a synchronous sessions, so in, for example, an email afterwards. This, combined with positive feedback, rather than negative comments, is used to make sure the participants receiving the feedback increases his or her confidence in the target language. Lastly, sometimes participants face misunderstandings, often due to not understanding linguistic varieties, fear causing students to produce less output, and misinterpreting each other. 3. Discussion This study aims to assess the value of telecollaboration in secondary education, by contrasting the advantages and disadvantages of online exchanges for participants. Many of the studies 64

researched - conducted both in university settings as well as in secondary education contexts - have investigated the effects of telecollaboration on participants. Although the results of the studies report some disadvantages, most of the studies discovered mostly positive effects (for an overview, see table 13), as 28 out of 49 university projects (57.1%) mention benefits of which 26 (53.1%) do not refer to any problems whatsoever and 6 out of 11 secondary education exchanges (54.5%) solely discuss participant benefits. On the other hand, only 5 out of 49 projects (8.2%) conducted with university students discovered downsides to telecollaborative projects (Kung, 2002; Belz & Müller-Hartman; Sadler, 2007; Brickwirth, 2012 and Kinginger, 1998), whereas 1 out of 11 exchanges between secondary school pupils (9.1%) indicates disadvantages to the project. In short, the benefits participants experience through telecollaborative exchanges appear to outweigh the disadvantages experienced during projects. For an overview of the studies that discuss these benefits, see tables J1 and J2 (Appendix J). Some of these benefits only are short-term, for example motivation during a specific exchange only, several of the benefits discussed have long-term effects on participants, for instance the improvement of linguistic competence and intercultural awareness, which are long-lasting changes in participants. In total, 9 out of 28 university studies (32.1%) have obtained their results by analysing the messages written by the participants, for instance transcripts of their chatlogs (for a complete overview, see table K1, Appendix K), and the 12 rely on a combination of transcripts and self-reflection by participants (41.2%). Only one study relies solely on observations made by the researcher (Brinckwirth, 2012), and two obtained their results by analysing participants self-reflecting opinions (Bray & Iswanty, 2013 and Sadler, 2007). On the other hand, 2 out of the 6 secondary school studies analyse both data, as well as participants opinions and self-reflection, whereas only 1 uses data from the participants writing assignments as its primary source for data. Another study focuses on 65

participants portfolios, reflections and interviews, whereas one team of researchers used their own observations to obtain their results. As most of the studies analyse data (in total, 13 out of 34, so 38.2%), or combine several data resources (in total 14 out of 34, so 41.2%), these results will probably reliable than objective self-reflections, for instance. On the other hand, the problems indicated in the studies investigated are mainly of technological nature (Kung, 2002; Sadler, 2007 and Brinckwirth, 2012), or have to do with scheduling (Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003 and Sadler, 2007), or even participants skills and personalities (Sadler, 2007 and Brinckwirth, 2012), such as fear of public speaking (Kinginger, 1998). Although teachers cannot change their students personalities, they can attempt to match their students to foreign partners who are of a similar disposition. This is a difficult task, however, it is not impossible. Similarly, scheduling issues will always remain an obstacle for setting up projects, but all of the projects researched have found a way to put their exchange into practice and have students interact with foreign peers or expert speakers. In other words, mismatched schedules are another hurdle, but can obviously be conquered when setting up an exchange. Both technological issues as well as the participants technical skills can be improved, and, according to the studies investigated, participants technological skills should be enhanced by both the teachers involved, as well as the participating students themselves. So, all of the disadvantages and problems related to online exchanges mentioned by the projects investigated, can, and have been overcome by the studies researched, as the projects have successfully taken place, and technological issues can be solved prior to an exchange. Table 13 Benefits of Telecollaboration Projects Investigated Type of Benefit Number of University Projects Discussing the Benefit Number of Secondary Education Projects Discussing the Benefit 66

(positive/total) (positive/total) Motivation /participation 8/8 2/2 Communicative skills (ICC) 2/2 1/1 Intercultural awareness 6/6 2/2 Community building 3/3 2/2 Language learning/skills 13/13 1/1 Understanding language learning 0/0 1/1 Confidence in using L2 3/3 2/2 Authentic input (stimulates L2 development) 11/11 1/1 Autonomy 2/2 0/0 Note. The number of types of benefits is higher than the total number of studies discussing benefits, because several projects describe more than one benefit. 4. Conclusion and Implications The conclusion of this paper consist of two sections: the first part will give a general conclusion; the second part focuses on the effect of telecollaboration projects on the participants linguistic, communicative and intercultural skills, and motivation, as defined by TILA (Jauregi, 2012). 4.1. Conclusion This dissertation has investigated the amount of telecollaboration projects carried out in secondary education as opposed to in universities, and analysed these studies to discover whether telecollaborative exchanges are valuable additions to secondary education curriculums. Studies without an intercultural aspect for example virtual classrooms or distance learning projects have been left out of the analysis. In short, this study has shown that telecollaboration does not have a prominent place in secondary education curriculums, but that it certainly can be of value to the students who participate in these exchanges. Although putting a theoretical online exchange to practice can be somewhat problematic, the studies investigated have shown that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages of telecollaboration, especially with regards to thee out of four points the TILA 67

project suggests: motivation, intercultural awareness and linguistic competence. Unfortunately, the last focal point, enhancing participants communicative skills, is not as widely researched or discussed in the studies investigated. However, telecollaboration has shown to have a positive influence on the first three points. In addition, both teachers and students share the opinion that the technology used is enjoyable and should be used in the foreign language classroom. As a result, the benefits of telecollaboration make online intercultural exchanges a valuable addition to the traditional foreign language classrooms in secondary education. 4.2. Aims of the TILA Project Projects like TILA promote telecollaboration exchanges in secondary education, to enhance participants foreign language, intercultural and communication competences (Jauregi, 2012). These benefits, along with the effects of telecollaboration on motivation and participation is a field of interest that has not often been researched. However, the projects investigated in this study have indicated that telecollaboration has a positive impact on all four aspects. Firstly, linguistic competence appears to be an important part of telecollaboration, as 13 out of 13 projects conducted in with university students (100%), and 3 out of 4 exchanges between secondary school pupils (75%) show that online exchanges improve participants skills in the target language, especially with regards to fluency (in writing and in general), and enhances their confidence in suing the foreign language. Additionally, the exposure to authentic language stimulates implicit language learning and a continual production of language, and facilitated the writing processes of the participants. In other words, telecollaboration appears to enhance the participants overall language use. On the other hand, only 1 secondary school project shows no improvement of the participants linguistic 68

competence, but it does indicate an increase in oral skills. In short, nearly all studies researched have indicated that students linguistic skills are positively influenced by telecollaboration. Secondly, intercultural awareness and understanding is improved by telecollaborative exchanges, as 8 out of 68university projects (100%), and 2 out of 2 secondary education projects (100%) have indicated. In addition to rousing interest in another culture, telecollaboration also makes participants face and deconstruct stereotypes and bias, as well as distance themselves from it. Moreover, positive cultural self-images were created as a result, and the developed multicultural view allowed participants to solve cultural misunderstandings and even form intercultural relationships which fostered long-lasting interactions. In other words, participants benefited from telecollaboration with regards to their intercultural competence and interaction. On the other hand, communicative skills are less well researched, as only 2 studies among students mention an improvement in the participants communicative competence, whereas only 1 out of 1 secondary school projects (100%) indicate that the constant production and development of the target language lead to successful communication among foreign peers. In other words, communicative skills appear to be less important or perhaps less prominently present than, for instance, linguistic skills and intercultural awareness. Lastly, all of the university projects, as well as the secondary education exchanges discussing motivation 8 out of 8, and 2 out of 2, respectively - have indicated that telecollaboration motivates the participants, especially with regards to speaking with expert or native speakers of the target language, which results in students being eager to communicate and often even interact more than was required. As a result, telecollaborative projects are beneficial with regard to student participation and motivation. 69

To conclude, although an online exchange may cause a few problems, some of these disadvantages can be overcome, and all of them are outweighed by the positive effects of the projects on participants. For instance, the studies researched have indicated that telecollaboration improves the participants linguistic, as well as intercultural competence, but it does not have an equally large effect on communicative competence. 4.3. Implications First of all, online exchanges do not and should not define a school s curriculum. On the contrary, telecollaboration projects are additional activities that can be used to enrich the traditional foreign language classroom. Similarly, implementing a telecollaborative project does not mean a decrease in student-teacher contact hours. Teachers who want to implement these exchanges need be proactive and guide their students, and, equally important, they should adapt the projects to match their curriculums and personal teaching style and pedagogy. In addition, teachers also need to decide whether the conversations between their students and their foreign partners are to take place during class, or whether extra hours will be assigned to the sessions, or even whether students will receive a grade at the end of the project. In short, simply implementing a project designed by other will not do, as all exchanges need to be adapted to the existing curriculum. Students have indicated a preference for mediators in these projects, and teachers can bridge the gap between the two groups of participants, due to their knowledge of both target languages, and bring them closer together, and perhaps even form a community. Teachers should actively guide their students, as both guidance and sound grounds for communicating motivates students and makes them more enthusiastic to participate in the conversations. Interestingly, teachers need less extrinsic rewards to stimulate students during online projects, as live communication with (other non-) native speakers seems to be motivation enough for 70

students, so they are indirectly motivated to improve their language, rather than being encouraged by their teachers. Besides teaching students traditional elements of linguistic and cultural competence, teachers will also have to focus on increasing their students abilities to interpret and understand intercultural matters and discussions. Teachers also need to support and train students to use new technologies and to ensure they are comfortable with them, in order to help them to engage more successfully in telecollaboration projects. Furthermore, giving feedback can be hard, so teachers should also give examples of correct times and ways to give feedback to their peers, instead of simply instructing them to give feedback. Another element teachers need to take into consideration is technology use: both the technology required for the exchange, as well as the technology available to the participants. Although both teachers and students appear to regard using technology as a useful and enjoyable experience, they also faced several problems, which need to be solved prior to the start of a project, to prevent a project in progress from being interrupted or even discontinued. Although the maintenance of computers and other technological tools is not the responsibility of the teacher as many schools have hired ICT specialists to do this it may be wise for teachers to check whether everything is working correctly, if the internet connection is fast enough to host the exchange and if there are ample tools such as computers, or any other instruments required, to provide each student with. Additionally, choosing the appropriate tools for each specific exchange is also a challenge teachers need to consider, as the preferred tools may not always be the most practical ones. For instance, students appear to prefer synchronous over asynchronous communications, so they would prefer to communicate via chat or videoconferencing, for example. However, one of the most prominent issues in setting up a project is scheduling, as academic calendars are often dissimilar for the participating institutions. As a result, it may be 71

the most enjoyable for students to be able to engage in synchronous chat or audio-visual communication, but it often hard to realise. Lastly, schools supporting and hosting an online exchange should bear in mind that these projects require a certain amount and quality of technological aids. In other words, schools need to ensure that there are ample computers and other tools required, to provide each participant with a stable and fast enough internet connection, at least during the time students engage in the project in school. However, this is not necessarily a task for the teachers, so hiring staff capable of maintaining ICT can be a solution. Student teachers have noticed their shortcomings with regard to using technology, but they want to enhance their skills as they realise that their future students are experienced users of modern media and technology, and because they acknowledge the benefits of using online tools for language learning. So, student teachers should also be made aware of the new tools, and need to be able to practice in both establishing contacts and projects, but also in how to coach learners and analyse their messages during their courses. Lastly, to engage all students in telecollaboration projects, or at least to provide equal opportunities for all students, the teachers who do not have much or any experience with incorporating technology into their classrooms should be educated to familiarise them with the advantages digital tools may offer them and their students. 5. Future Research and Limitations 5.1. Limitations The current investigation was limited by a small sample size. So, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to all models of telecollaboration, or to all projects conducted worldwide. In other words, these data only apply to the studies 72

investigated and the conclusion of this research is based on the sample data only and can therefore not be used to generalise all studies carried out. 5.2. Future Research Further research might explore if the conclusions drawn from the sample investigated apply to other sources as well. Additionally, none of the studies investigated have formulated results with regards to the effect of the tasks used during a project, or specified what kinds of tasks would obtain the best pedagogical results. So far, communicative competence, one of the aims set by TILA, has only been investigated by a small number of studies. So, further work needs to be done to establish which task-based activities are the most beneficial to students and teachers, and how and to what extent telecollaborative project may improve participants communicative competence. 73

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Appendix A: Overview of the Studies Investigated Table A1 University Studies Investigated Study Aims Participants Language Tools Tasks Intercultural aspect Time Results Belz & Müller- Hartmann, 2003 1 Investigate (intercultural and language learning through telecollaboration) by blending out the partner s institutional constraints (p. 80). Germany and USA German and English Email Chat - Common reading and discussing of parallel texts - Collaboratively producing a website Discussing topics such as love and racism and comparing both cultures views on them. 7 weeks Socioinstitutional affordances and constraints: the misalignment of academic calendars constrained our ability to negotiate and exchange details of the partnership in some cases (p. 84) culture-specific learner assessment patterns influenced the amount of work that each teacher thought would be appropriate for his or her students (p. 84) the history and content of each teacher s academic socialization into the profession of language teaching and particular job responsibilities influenced the differing significance that he or she attached to certain aspects of syllabus design, such as task versus text (p. 84) differences in student contact hours and the physical organization of the universities had meaning for the functionality of transatlantic group work and, to some extent, even appeared to hinder the practical application of a theoretical commitment (p. 85). In many cases, FL teachers have greeted the integration of technology into the language and culture curriculum euphorically (p. 85). The teacher is more rather than less important in network-based FL learning precisely because of the medium itself (p. 85). [D]ifferent expectations and norms for telecollaboration (p. 67): differences in expectations (p. 70) Ware, 2005 [E]xamine the tensions that arise when students' attempts at communicating online result in Germany and USA German and English BlackBoard Discuss and post messages on the subject language Contrast German and American culture and views on the subject 3 weeks (March) 90

missed opportunities for engaging with their online partners (p. 64). in the media (6 discussions: A-F) regarding the technology used, G: inexperienced, in awe, A: experienced, not specific enough differences in interactional purpose (p. 71) differences in using linguistic conventions (p. 72), so in informal Internet communication (p. 72) [S]ocial and institutional factors that shape tensions (p. 67): social factors (p. 73), ELF vs. less popular/ important German institutional factors (p. 74), A: grades are more important, G: interpersonal contact (p. 77) is more important [I]ndividual differences in motivation and use of time (p. 75): differences in motivation (p. 75), A: personal reasons for learning GFL, G: social imperative to become bilingual (EFL) differences in use of time (p. 75), A: claim to have no time (A = American students, G = German students) Müller- Hartmann, 2006 Examine how pre-service teachers of English in Germany as well as in-service teachers of various foreign languages in the United States began to build their knowledge base with respect to Internet-mediated foreign language education, critical media literacy, and intercultural communicative competence (p. 63) Germany (pre-service teachers) and USA (preand in-service teachers) A-level: English and German B-level: English FirstClass (chat and email) A-level: - Introductory phase (students get to know each other) - Discussion of parallel texts - Writing bilingual essays about the parallel texts - Transatlantic construction of a website B-level: - Discussion of a text by Byram - examine the Participants exchange cultural views and opinions among the transatlantic groups, e.g. on - racism - patriotism 2 months (mid-october to mid- December) Student-teachers have perceived their lack of technical skills and desire to develop this area of their knowledge base because they realize that not only are their future students often well versed in media usage, they also see the potential for highly motivational and authentic language experiences (p. 81). The combination of A- and B-level courses has facilitated a research approach for the more advanced students (p. 81). Participants are able to better deal with the affordances and constraints of telecollaborative projects, thus having laid the first basis for possible outines in their future classroom (p. 81). 91

development of a telecollaborative partnership between three students from level A - Blogging: writing an interactive blog on Young people s lives (p. 431) and commenting on foreign partners work - Podcasting: creating a podcast showing a debate between partners on Controversial issues (p. 431), and asking foreign partners to respond - Ethnographic interviews: Posting a list of 6-7 questions regarding an aspect of the foreign culture and making a podcast answering the questions posted by foreign partners - Discussion and analysis of the parallel texts with native-speaking partners via e-mail - develop an interactive Lee, 2009b 2 Explore the effectiveness of various social networking tools for the development of intercultural communication and awareness (p. 440). Spain and USA Spanish and English Moodle (message board) Blogger (blog) Audacity and imovie (podcasts) Discuss, compare and contrast: - the typical young people s lives - controversial issues - cultural aspects in Spain and the US +/- 10 weeks [E]ffective use of task-based instruction created a dynamic climate for interactive collaboration and afforded unique opportunities for both American and Spanish students to explore the target language and culture (p. 425): the majority of the students had a positive and rewarding experience using blogs, podcasts and message boards for the exchange (p. 440); participants would not have engaged in discussions in face-to-face meetings (p. 440); students gained invaluable experience with digital technology and enhanced their crosscultural understanding and awareness (p. 440); it is essential to provide students with sufficient training and time so they become comfortable with new tools (p. 440); establishing interpersonal relationships with cross-cultural partners and making personal commitment to online contributions are necessary for maximum communication and collaboration (p. 440). Belz, 2002 1 [E]xplore socio-institutional dimensions of German- American telecollaboration and the ways in which they may shape foreign language learning and use (p. 60). Germany and USA German and English FirstClass, email and synchronous chat Web-based information exchange Discussing cultural constructs (e.g., "racism," "beauty," "family") from multiple (cultural) perspectives. 1 semester the social action of telecollaborative foreign language study is a complex and multifaceted human activity (p. 73). while technological prerequisites for telecollaborative participation may benefit language learning in terms of increased target language exposure and interaction, it may 92

website with a bilingual essay pertaining to the parallel texts and a bilingual discussion of a cultural construct also result in discriminatory educational practices (p. 73). Institutional differences in computer access, academic calendars, and accreditation systems may have meaning for perceived participation levels and the establishment and facilitation of personal interaction and thus personal rapport between keypals (p. 73). the benefit of participation in the project may outweigh its locally perceived timeintensive nature for some students (p. 75). Best practices in the design and execution of intercultural telecollaborative foreign language learning will have to grapple with issues of the locus of intercultural learning (p. 75). the clash of cultural faultlines in telecollaborative learning communities such as the one under study should not be smoothed over or avoided based on the sometimes negative results of a study such as this one; they should be encouraged (p. 76). Language-related episodes: Phase I: a much greater percentage of LREs occurred in the e-tutoring condition (p. 48) Phase II: e-tutoring students put a focus on morphosyntactical forms (p. 53) (secondly: affective, lastly: lexical) Ware & O Dowd, 2008 Research questions: 1. What are the types and frequencies of languagerelated episodes in each of the two conditions of e-partnering and e- tutoring? (p. 46); 2. What feedback strategies do participants use when integrating a focus on morphosyntactic form into online interactions? (p. 46); 3. What were the attitudes of the participants in each condition toward the presence or absence of a focus on language form in their online interactions? Spain and USA Phase 1: English Phase II: Spanish and English Moodle BlackBoard WebCT -US students provided weekly feedback to Spanish students (e-tutoring) or provide feedback when solicited by their EL partners (e-partnering) - Bilingual e- tutoring (weekly feedback) and e- partnering (solicited feedback) Participants develop communicative skills and with them, intercultural awareness. 2 semesters (spring and autumn 2006) Feedback strategies: the most frequent type of feedback... was commentaries (provision of metalinguistic explanations) (p. 50) Attitudes: the e-tutoring students tended to favour a stronger focus on grammar that the e- partnering students (p. 52) In general: the students clearly favoured an integration of language forms into their online 93

(p. 46) exchanges, but they were not always equipped with a strong enough understanding of the structure of their native languages to provide quality metalinguistic explanations (p. 55). Instructors must not only make clear their expectations that students provide feedback, but they must also provide examples of when and how to provide it (p. 56). Belz, 2001 1 [E]xplore the meanings that the macro features of (1) language valuation... ; (2) membership in electronic discourse communities... ; and (3) culturally determined classroom scripts... may have for the differential functionality of virtual group work in this partnership (p. 213) Germany and USA German and English Email, Websites (building) - German students surf a website built by the American and pick a partner, to discuss via mail various topics which emerge from parallel texts - Collaboratively designing and publishing websites, containing (1) an essay relating to the parallel texts; and (2) the discussion of a cultural construct Discussing cultural constructs (e.g., "racism," "beauty," "family") from multiple (cultural) perspectives. 7 weeks (2 months preparation American, 2 months reflection Germans) Language valuation (p. 223): the lower social and economic value of German as a Foreign Language in the US in comparison to EFL in Germany may contribute to a proficiency mismatch between German and American partners, if partnerships are established on the basis of age parity (p. 229) Technological access and use (p. 225): lack of internet access, cost of internet access, and limited hours of operation in computing labs contribute to the brevity of some Germans correspondence (p. 229) Institutionalized classroom scripts (p. 227): socio-culturally shaped differences in the structure and epistemology of classroom scripts may have meaning for opportunities to receive assistance in L2 performance, the negotiation of meaning, and intercultural understanding (p. 229) O Dowd, 2005 Examine the effects of the different institutional and sociocultural contexts on its development (p. 40) Spain and USA Spanish and English Message board Participants are forced to discuss stereotypical cultural topics (e.g. bull fighting, or religion) with their pre-existing attitudes to the target culture Discussing various topics in either L1 or L2 9 months The structure of telecollaborative models such as Cultura may need to be adapted by teachers to their own particular contexts and pedagogical aims (p. 50). Three different aspects seemed to affect the exchange: 1. the different levels of access to technology (p. 53) 2. differences in the course requirements at the two institutions (p. 53) 3. the negative and stereotypical attitudes which each group held towards the other 94

group s culture (p. 53) These aspects were seen to affect the question of language use in the exchange, the regularity of correspondence between the two classes and thereby the effective functioning of the relationships between both sets of students and between the course teacher (p. 53) While telecollaborative models such as Cultura can provide a useful framework in which to base an exchange, they may also bring with them restraints and requirements which may not be practically applicable in all educational scenarios (p. 54). The findings have highlighted the need for a proactive approach to telecollaboration and the necessity for teachers to play a constant role in organising and adapting their guidelines and activities according to the circumstances which they and their partner-teacher find emerging (p. 54). 4 weeks The potential asymmetry between classes of native and non-native speakers of English... [appeared to be] a motivating factor [rather than an obstacle] for both sides (p. 49). The project facilitate[d] the process of writing to learn (p. 50). The blog platform was a tool appropriate for asynchronous communication, which was essential for the partnership given the time difference between the U.S. and Slovakia (p. 52). Gephardt & Kostelníko vá, 2012 The blog project met two of the course objectives: 1. To examine ways of increasing intercultural competence in the process of foreign language teaching. 2. To explore the role of communication technologies in foreign language teaching. (p. 38). Slovakia and USA English Online discussion platform (Blogger) - Introduction: participants discuss themselves and their perspectives - Students discuss Jhumpa Lahiri s short story The Interpreter of Maladies. The project was designed to inspire some cross-cultural comparisons of the role of English and of literacy practices between the U.S. and Slovakia... [and for] students to exchange their perspectives on globalization and the challenges and possibilities for intercultural dialogue that it creates (p. 38) Topics in the Taiwan Panorama ( in-depth reports on the lifestyles, society, economy and cultures of Taiwan (p. 26)) are Liaw & Bunn-Le Master, 2010 Invesrigate if and how collaboration and intercultural learning took place during telecollaboration by exploring the linguistic features of the discourse used by the Taiwan and USA English Forum Reading texts and discussing them on a forum 6 weeks The discourse profiles of the two groups of participants (p. 33): the Taiwanese participants wrote fewer and shorter entries than their US counterparts, yet the readability levels of the Taiwanese students writings were not considerably 95

participants, as well as the patterns and types of interactions between intercultural interlocutors (p. 21). used for intercultural discussions. lower than that of the US students (p. 33-4) both groups of students used I significantly less often when discussing the second article than the first article (p. 34) [n]ot only was the number of social words used by the Taiwanese students higher than that used by US students, it doubled in percentage when Article 2 was discussed (p. 34) [t]he Taiwanese students consistently used more affective words than their US partners when discussing both Article 1 and Article 2 (p. 34) the participants used significantly more [cognitive process words] in the discussions related to Article 2 than Article 1.... The US participants did use more language involving cognitive processes than the Taiwanese participants (p. 35). Collaborative interaction (p. 35): the majority of the entries were exchanges of information and exploration of issues brought up in previous messages rather than challenges or questionings of others viewpoints (p. 35) Intercultural competence (p. 35): there were shifts in the competence categories as students proceeded with the online communication (p. 35). 12 weeks [S]tudents require both support and training in order to participate successfully in on-line intercultural exchanges (p. 17). O Dowd & Eberbach, 2004 This paper reports on a university-level German-Irish message board exchange and questions the common assumptions that, firstly, teachers take on the passive role of a guide on the side... in telecollaborative projects and, secondly, that learners will automatically benefit from their on-line contact with the foreign culture and develop their intercultural communicative Ireland and Germany English and German Message board Discuss topics... generally based on the content of the Germans modules on Irish culture (p. 10). Discuss Irish culture and compare / contrast it with the German culture [T]hree significant consequences for teachers and course developers (p. 17): 1. it would be advisable that future work in the area should include the creation of materials (both off- and on-line) which provide trainee teachers with authentic examples of the misunderstandings and problems that past exchange participants have experienced (p. 17); 96

competence... by simply being immersed in the activity (p. 6). 2. teacher-training courses should also provide future teachers with practice, not only in finding contacts and establishing exchanges, but also in how to train learners in the creation of their on-line correspondence and in the analysis of their partners posts (p. 17); 3. the project s wide range of teacher-related tasks indicates that an increase in the role of telecollaborative activities does not mean a reduction in student-teacher contact hours (p. 17). As a result, the authors reject any arguments that an increase in the role of telecollaborative activities should mean a reduction in student-teacher contact hours. Language learners stand to benefit most from networked activities when they are firmly integrated into their contact classes. (p. 18). 8 weeks [T]ask design, alongside the students psychobiographical backgrounds, and the quality of teacher-teacher cooperation led to interaction failures among various members of the groups (p. 637). A range of reactions and variations in students communicative behaviour can be considered typical of misunderstandings in an exchange (p. 638). O Dowd & Ritter, 2006 [I]dentify the reasons for failed communication in online intercultural exchanges, to organize these reasons in a pedagogically useful manner, and then to illustrate how these reasons are closely interconnected and influence each other (p. 639). Germany and Australia English Moodle Post messages concerning: - an introduction of themselves - the Pope and the media - student life - typically German, typically Australian? - compare lifestyles / cultures - a comparison of media coverage of a global event - compare / contrast student life and typical Schneider & Von der Emde, 2005 Discuss problems of misunderstanding and conflict that arise in online collaborations between native speakers and language learners (p. 178). Germany and USA German and English MOOssiggang ( open source, webbased learning environment that permits both chat functions and asynchronous forms of writing in a multimedia setting P. 184)) Discuss - news reports - documentary films - the results of their own independent research Online final project in the MOO. Discussion of topics based on cultural views / perspectives. E.g. an intercultural analysis of two deadly school Shootings, one in the US, the other in Germany. 1 semester (Autumn 2003) Students fear of making mistakes... lowers their inhibitions to produce language (p. 198); Online interaction can provoke situations in which language learners encounter resistance to their interpretations, confront stereotypes about themselves and their culture, and are forced to deal with disagreements they can t really resolve (p. 198-9); In addition to dealing with vocabulary, grammar, and guidelines for appropriate language use (the basis of cultural competence), teachers must now also help students gain intercultural competence, 97

develop sophisticated interpretative skills, and acquire sensitivity to the heteroglossia of dialogue itself (p. 199). Kung, 2002 The critical questions that guided this research were: 1. Is the 4-member team model a viable alternative to one-to-one or many-tomany models of e-mail exchange? 2. Do the suggested activities contribute to sustain interaction among the participants of the project? 3. What factors enhance and what factors detract from the experience of correspondingwith three other team members on an electronic discussion board? (p. 318) The project goal was to improve students communicative language abilities and increase opportunities for use of the target language through specific instructor-designed communicative tasks mediated through CMC. As one of the telecollaborating instructors was situated in the United States, communicative goals were measured via the United States National Standards of Foreign Language Education goal of communication (Carney, 2008): 1. Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, Taiwan and USA English Message board 4 tasks: (1) name this group, (2) discuss a topic of global relevance, (3) write a chain story, and (4) collaboratively write and revise an essay (p. 318). The activities [are] designed to foster exchange of cultural information (p. 318). 1 semester (March Juli 2001) The team model is a viable alternative to one-to-one or many-to-many correspondence (p. 315); [c]ollaborative activities may play an important role in fostering meaningful and lasting interactions (p. 315); collaborative activities may contribute to generate interaction and sustain participation in the program (p. 323); connection problems did occur and were a source of frustration (p. 324). Carney, 2008 Japan and USA Japanese and English Blogs Wikis Skype text Voice and video chat Homemade DVDs / movies - blog exchange - Skype meetings - homemade DVD exchange - wiki picture project (post pictures & description) The topics for all the tasks are intercultural and are discussed mirroring both cultures. 7 weeks [L]earners communicated in qualitatively different ways (Carney, 2008): 1. Participants engaged in interactive communication (Carney, 2008) through Skype. 2. Participants made comments on all blog posts, so interpreted the posts. 3. Participants presented each other with their lives / university etc., through the DVDs they made. So: each manner of CMC offered a valuable type of communication (Carney, 2008). The use of such technologies based in a wellplanned language class can offer language learners unprecedented opportunity for interaction with native and expert speakers of their target language (Carney, 2008). 98

express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions (Carney, 2008); 2. Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics (Carney, 2008); 3. Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics (Carney, 2008). Research questions... : 1. What kinds of negotiations occur during synchronous English and Japanese chat sessions? How do the amount and types of negotiations compare to those in previous research? 2. Does corrective feedback on Non-Native Speaker (NNS) errors occur during synchronous English and Japanese chat sessions and in subsequent asynchronous email correction? If so, what types of error (e.g., lexical grammatical, pragmatic, idiomatic, typographical, other) receive most/least corrective feedback from the tandem partner in the tutor role? 3. Are there any quantitative and/or qualitative differences between Bower & Kawaguchi, 2011 Japan and Australia Japanese and English MSN Messenger ( text-based instant messaging, voice calls, video conferencing and transfer of computer files (p. 47)) Email Participants tutor their foreign partner and both help each other learn their L2, chatting about familiar subjects Cultural subjects / comparing cultures: - introductions - university life - culture - current, controversial issues 6 weeks 1. Negotiation of meaning: negotiation of meaning did occur in synchronous chat sessions in both English and Japanese. 7.2% and 20 % of the total turns in English and Japanese sessions respectively (p. 60); studies which have had NNS/NNS learners engage in more structured tasks have resulted in higher rates of negotiation than found in this data (p. 60). 2. [C]orrective feedback (p. 41): provided at a very low rate in synchronous etandem learning: just 0.8% of total errors in English sessions and 4.1 % of total errors in Japanese sessions (p. 60); so it is impossible to conclude which types of error... receive most/least negative feedback (p. 60). 3. [S]ynchronous and asynchronous corrective feedback (p. 61): [s]triking differences in type and amount (p. 61): synchronous and asynchronous modes were 0.8% to 60.4% respectively in English sessions and 4.1% to 65.8% in Japanese session (p. 61); tandem partners tended not to provide 99

Edasawa & Kabata, 2007 Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz, 2012 synchronous and asynchronous corrective feedback in NS-NNS interaction (e.g., chat versus email feedback)? (p. 41) [T]he following questions were addressed. (i) Did the students learn new expressions or vocabulary through the project? If so, how? (ii) Did students correct each other s errors, as suggested by previous studies?... (iii) In what proportions were the two languages used by the students?... (iv) What kind of communication strategies led to more frequent email exchanges? (p. 193) This study addressed the effect of cross-cultural interaction supported by VC on the motivation of foreign language learners at beginners (A2) and intermediate (B1) level (p. 10-2) Japan and Canada Czech Republic and the Netherlands Japanese and English Dutch Cyber-Vine (message board) Adobe-Connect (video-web communication (VC)) Research-related discussions (not task-based) Engage in authentic interactions through VC. Intercultural discussions Intercultural communication exchanges between participants. corrective feedback in online chat sessions, whereas post-chat corrective feedback (email) on synchronous textual output resulted in quite high rates of correction (p. 62). 8 weeks [S]tudents were given ample opportunity to improve their language skills, either by directly asking their partners questions or by learning new expressions or vocabulary used in their partners messages. Interestingly, however, explicit error corrections between students were rather rare, and students seemed to prefer being indirect in correcting each other s errors (p. 204): (i) Students (i) explicitly asked how to say certain things in English or Japanese, (ii) recycled the expressions used by their partners, or (iii) acknowledged the partners corrections by responding to them (p. 195); (ii) Out of the 687 messages, we found only 4 cases where errors were corrected explicitly (p. 197), so as long as the meaning was clear, errors, either grammatical or spelling, were neither corrected nor pointed out (p. 198); (iii) Most of the groups... used both languages rather evenly through the project (p. 199); (iv) [T]hree factors were identified as influencing the project outcome: (i) individuals attitude towards communication, (ii) shared interests, and (iii) understanding of the partner s language level (p. 202). 6 weeks [I]mplementing networked interaction with native speakers in foreign language courses can have a positive impact on the motivation of foreign language learners (p. 14): A2 especially, B1 less so. The study has shown a clear relationship between networked interaction with native speakers and learners' general motivation to communicate, as the participants reported very positive experiences with 100

respect to affordances of the video mode for establishing and maintaining informal personal contact and regarding non-verbal interaction facilitating communication between language learners and native speakers. (p. 15) (1) Second Life-specific tasks that stimulated learners to explore virtual worlds together while exchanging information (task 2 and 3) triggered instances of dynamic communication exchange as well as quite large episodes of silence, whereas other tasks (1 and 4) were richer in communication, but less context-specific for Second Life (p. 98). Jauregi, Canto, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen, 2011 The case study aimed at studying the following issues: (1) to analyze the kind of interaction the tasks elicited in the virtual world, by means of the task evaluation grid; (2) to explore the possibilities of existing Second Life worlds for enhancing interaction; and (3) to study whether and how the condition anonymity versus familiarity may play a role in modeling interaction. (p. 81). Spain and the Netherlands Spanish Second Life - Task 1: individually complete a questionnaire related to a chosen nationality (p. 84) and discuss findings - Task 2: explore Hispanic locations in Second Life and to interact with other native speakers (p. 84) - Task 3: share experiences and tour together in some of the locations visited in task 2 (p. 84) - Task 4 (evaluation): discuss several topics - Reflect upon intercultural similarities and differences - explore and discuss cultural locations - discuss experiences from cultural point of view - discover Hispanic culture and improve language 2 months (June and July 2009) (2) Task design principles have to be further adapted for 3D virtual world settings, focusing on enhancing rich oral interaction to be necessary for task completion, while exploiting at the same time the exploratory, functional, and gaming possibilities of Second Life as much as possible (p. 97). (3) Participants considered anonymity [as] being encouraging but lacking reality (p. 94). Yet, they all preferred Second Life over video-web communication when asked which environment offers more possibilities to enrich their language learning experience (p. 94). Mouhadjer, 2013 [D]iscuss the pedagogical implications of video-based communication, such as videoconferencing which distinguishes itself greatly from the other technologies, on foreign language learning (p. 22). Algeria and USA English Video-based communication Chat - video group discussion - individual chat Cultural topics: -family - college and education - cultural traditions - meaning of life - stereotypes and prejudices? Videoconferencing: allows learners to interact with others and reflect on this interaction at their own pace and in real time, moving then from lower cognitive levels of learning, such as recognition and comprehension, to the higher levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation (p. 26); brings about more equal levels of participation between learners than would normally a face-to-face interaction do, with respect to shy and outgoing students, high and low level status groups, and male and female 101

participation (p. 26); provides a native-like speaking context (p. 28); leads to the collaborative construction of meanings and events, by engaging participants in an interactive process which leads to the collaborative construction of knowledge rather than the traditional transfer of information from one to the other (p. 30); engages learners in awareness raising activities which will help to develop a more anthropological definition of culture and are encouraged to look beyond a cultural products and practices and look more at the significance which they hold for members of that culture (p. 32). Belz, 2005 1 [E]xamine the ways in which the number, type, chronological placement and content of the questions posed by participants each side of a trans-atlantic exchange may influence the processes of impression formation in intercultural personal relationship building (p. 3). Germany and USA English and German FirstClass, email and synchronous chat Web-based information exchange - German students surf a website built by the American and pick a partner, to discuss via mail various topics which emerge from parallel texts - Collaboratively designing and publishing websites, containing (1) an essay relating to the parallel texts; and (2) the discussion of a cultural construct Discussing cultural topics (e.g., racism, beauty, family) from multiple (cultural) perspectives. 7 weeks (Autumn 2000) [q]uestion rate per 100 words (p. 15): 0,79 (females) and 1,92 (male); while Anke and Catharina appear to employ a broader repertoire of question types, they actually spend less time than Eric interrogating alternative world views (21 versus 31 information-seeking questions). Their confirmation-seeking and rhetorical questions commonly function to reiterate and reinforce their own attitudes and beliefs and to call into question Eric s performance as a telecollaborative partner (p. 17); [a]lthough Anke and Catharina ask fewer information-seeking questions than Eric does, the nature of some of their questions appears to be more probing than that of Eric s questions (p. 17); Anke/Catharina ask a total of four what-and how-questions, while Eric asks five (p. 19); Eric asks twice as many yes/no-questions of Anke and Catharina as they ask of him (p. 20); either/or-questions might provide the respondent even less space in which to offer his or her personal views (p. 21). 102

Fuchs, Hauk & Müller- Hartmann, 2012 (2 case studies) The projects aimed at promoting learner autonomy through awareness raising of modes and meaning-making online and multiliteracy skills development based on handson analysis of web resources and social networking tools (p. 82). Germany, Poland, UK, and USA English and German (for FL learners in study 1) Forum Case study 1: - Task 1: comparison and analysis task - Task 2: collaborative task, exchange and compare information and work together to produce a joint product Case study 2: - Task 1: decide on an online tool and discuss it with other groups - Task 2: evaluate website and discuss findings with other groups - Task 3: design a task using a tool from Task 1 10 weeks each [E]xperiential modelling... and exploratory practice... allow language teachers - both as learners and teachers - to find out about modes, meaning making, and online communication, and help them become familiar with the mediating role of Web 2.0 tools and environments (p. 95). This approach can also contribute to learner autonomy as conceptualized by Palfreyman: the informed use of a range of interacting resources in context (p. 95). Task design in this context should follow a certain sequence, which are a prerequisite for the subsequent phase in which teachers themselves design tasks with the goal of fostering, in turn, their learners multimodal competence and autonomy since merely equipping learners with creative and democratic representational online resources will not necessarily result in higher student control over the learning process or the development of autonomy (p. 95). [W]hile becoming gradually more versed in multimodality and multiliteracy, teachers as learners can take more control over and selfdirect their learning in online environments..., thus becoming more autonomous and gradually gaining the competence to design tasks that also enhance their learners' autonomy (p. 95). Lee, 2011 2 The study addresses two major questions: (1) What types of feedback do the Spanish and American students provide to each other during the exchange?; and (2) What types of feedback strategies do participants use to address linguistic problems? (p. 345) Spain and USA Spanish and English Moodle Podcasts (Audacity / imovie) Blogger Task 1: - Blogs: Young People's Lives (p. 347) Task 2: - Podcasts: Controversial Issues (p. 347) Task 3: - Message Discuss, compare and contrast: - the typical young people s lives - controversial issues - cultural aspects in Spain and the US +/- 10 weeks [T]he total number of LREs was 191 and the majority of them were linguistic (lexical and morphosyntactic) rather than affective (p. 349); The most striking strategy type used by the Spanish students was lexical feedback without explanation (73%). The American students gave more explanations on lexical errors (43%) than the Spanish students (27%) (p. 351); [F]ocus-on-form as a post-task activity should be encouraged to prevent language 103

Board/Podcasting: Ethnographic Interview (p. 347) - German students surf a website built by the American and pick a partner, to discuss via mail various topics which emerge from parallel texts - Collaboratively designing and publishing websites, containing (1) an essay relating to the parallel texts; and (2) the discussion of a cultural construct - joint discussion on the message board (p. 15); - negotiate,... the exact objectives of the collaborative project and to work together to complete the project (p. 16). fossilisation and promote L2 accuracy without sacrifice of the use of the communicative approach (p. 353). Belz, 2003 1 [T]o flesh out the notion of IC in the special case of telecollaboration through close attention to its linguistic encoding and expression in the medium of electronic discourse (p. 69). Germany and USA German and English FirstClass, email and synchronous chat Web-based information exchange Discussing cultural constructs (e.g., racism, beauty, family) from multiple (cultural) perspectives. 7 weeks [T]he importance (but not necessarily the prominence) of the teacher and, ultimately, teacher education programs... increases rather than diminishes in Internet-mediated intercultural foreign language education precisely because of the electronic nature of the discourse (p. 92). Sadler, 2007 The study has the following goals: 1. to investigate the pedagogical applicability and use of various CMC tools, 2. to engage students in two countries in a collaborative project, and 3. to investigate potential benefits and problems in such a project, especially with respect to the use of CMC. (p. 14). Spain and USA English Forum Email, chat, or any other CMC tool of their choosing Intercultural partners 6 weeks Benfits: - opportunities to meet and work with partners across the world (p. 26); - the safe environment provided by the collaborative situation (p. 27); - the potential for authentic communication while engaging in a collaborative project (p. 27); - the technological ability of some forms of CMC to keep an automatic transcript of communication (p. 27). Problems: 1. [A]synchronous (p. 18): - message lag time (p. 18); - technical problems (p. 18). 2. [S]ynchronous (p. 19): - scheduling issues (p. 19); - technical problems (p. 21); 104

- typing speed (p. 21); - group dynamics in cyberspace (p. 22). 3. [S]hared issues (p. 27): - conflicting university schedules (p. 23); - waning enthusiasm (p. 24). Lee, 2007 [T]wo main objectives: (1) to create a collaborative and non-threatening learning environment where the students coconstruct meaning with the expert speakers using taskbased activities, and (2) to build students communicative language skills through audio and visual interactions in real time (p. 638). USA, Spain (1), Argentine (2), Mexico (2), Peru (2), Columbia (1) and Puerto Rico (1) Spanish Videoconferencing Email Telephone calls Chat (BlackBoard) - Spot the Differences - Jigsaw (information-gap assignment), produce a story based on the pictures - Open-ended questions Interact with NS from the participants L2? [S]tudents found that desktop videoconferencing met their expectations of developing their oral skills (p. 640). A large number of students (N = 13) viewed desktop videoconferencing as an effective medium for them to listen to authentic input from expert speakers of different cultural backgrounds in a way that is not feasible in a traditional classroom setting (p. 640). [D]esktop videoconferencing pushed students to speak and respond to experts spontaneously and quickly (p. 640), unlike other CMC tools. Videoconferencing was considered challenging due to unavailability of written visual display on the screen (p. 640). Pasfield- Neofitou, 2006 Based on the goals of this research, the following research questions were formulated : 1. What are the linguistic and interactional characteristics of Japanese English intercultural Internet chat? 2. How do the histories and motives of participants shape their use of intercultural Internet chat? 3. How does intercultural Internet chat provide opportunities for communication with native speakers and informal language Japan and Australia Japanese and English MSN Messenger (chat) Email Informal chat, no task-based activity Discussion of cultural topics / from different cultural points of view 5 months (February - June 2006) 1. In contrast to previous research on both monolingual and bilingual CMC, it was found that the supposed egalitarian nature of chat is dependent upon the histories and motives of participants, rather than being a naturally occurring feature. Turn-taking in chat was also found to allow for both reading and writing practice, and the kind of flexibility of roles, particularly teacher / learner roles, that may be beneficial to learners (p. 81). 2. Participant s experience with computers, their chat partners, and language learning certainly had an influence upon participants turn management, turn taking, orthographic and code switching, use of symbols, repair, dictionaries, and partners. Participants goals influenced their turn taking and a goal of language learning facilitated participants usage of repair and negotiation of meaning. The relationships of the participants within their pairs affected their division of labour, including the roles they adopted, and partners willingness to 105

acquisition? (p. 3). repair and negotiate. Experience with computers, in particular, prior chat experience, influenced participants ability switch orthographies, between English and Japanese (p. 81). 3. Chat was found to provide opportunities for natural language use with native speakers, as evidenced in participants goals (p. 83).? Organizing an intercultural exchange in a Facebook Group provides students with a safe and learner-centered forum where they can share ideas, photos, videos, links and then discuss them, facilitating greater intercultural awareness and language learning, while bringing education into the increasingly online lives [the] students lead (p. 34). Bray & Iswanty, 2013 Evaluate an intercultural Facebook exchange between university students in Japan and Indonesia (p. 29). Japan and Indonesia English Facebook - introductions: individual, class and group (text, video etc.) - discussions about social or cultural issues - mystery cultural object / activity (p. 32) Spanish Blogger (- personal blog) - class blog - project blog - share and negotiate understanding of cultural issues through responses with comments (p. 11) [L]earn about the partner country as well as to stimulate thought and discussion about what is unique and interesting about one s own culture (p. 32). Lee, 2012 Investigate the effectiveness of using blogs in conjunction with FTF ethnographic interviews on the development of SA students ICC (p. 18). Spain and America Reflection on crosscultural issues 1 semester - [T]he use of combined CMC and FTF exchange and well-designed tasks afford SA students increased opportunities to interact with the host people and culture (p. 18); - the majority of the students had a positive and rewarding experience with blogging, and would not have gained in-depth cultural understanding through blog assignments outside of class had they had only in-class meetings (p. 18). Brinckwirt h, 2012 [R]esearch questions... : 1. Which factors facilitate and hinder the design, implementation and sustainability of Teletandem? 2. How does Teletandem impact student learning? (p. 17) Brazil and USA English and Brazilian Portuguese Email Skype - Discuss a range of topics with a NS via videoconferencing. - Discuss topics with NSs of the participants L2 and their cultures - Students reflected on cultural nuances observed during sessions (p. 129). 10 weeks 1.Facilitation: Organized pre-teletandem orientation session. Planned site visits to partner school. Worked out a session schedule; account for misaligned time zone differences. Developed strategies to strengthen cooperation, communication between stakeholders at partnered schools. (p. 120) Hinderance: Poor communication with faculty at partner school. Poor online connection, low network bandwidth. 106

Being forced to switch student partners due to student late arrivals and absences. Lack of motivation and enthusiasm. (p. 120) 2. Impact on students learning: Motivated students benefited more than Non-motivated students. Inspired confidence in the L2. Motivated students. Learners developed deeper appreciation and interest of the L2. (p. 120) 2 to 8 months 1. [A] synchronous chat exchange program like this could provide an affordable meeting place for the Thai EFL users to connect with the targetlanguage speaking peers (p. 222). Worajittip ol, 2010 1. [E]xamine whether and in what ways the Thai EFL speakers perceived the online chat exchange through the private instant messaging system as worthwhile in providing an economical way to practice the target language in everyday conversations outside of the classroom setting (p. 217); 2. Investigate whether the Thai speakers were able to establish a relationship with an English chat partner over the course of the chat exchange program, and how the relationships that formed influenced the Thai speakers perceptions about their future plans involving the target language learning (p. 217). [F]oster the growth of tertiary level EFL students intercultural competence via English language development Thailand and USA English Chat (MSN and Skype) Open-topic chat sessions (and use other available features in the instant Messaging) The Thai participants learn about their L2 and its culture through the NSs 2. The Thai speakers viewed their experience from the chat exchange as an opportunity to use the target language they had learned from the classroom in a socially meaningful context and build a friendship with a person from another culture (p. 222); [T]he friendly relationship the Thai speakers developed with their English chat partners, and the positive comments from their chat partner about their English performance, helped enhance the Thai speakers selfconfidence in using English and encouraged them to improve their language skills so that they could be able to communicate more fluently with other foreigners they may meet in the future (p. 222-3). Liaw, 2006 Taiwan and USA English - Web-based reading and writing environment - TOTALrecall - Read an article and answer the comprehension and vocabulary Participants read articles on topics of their own culture and communicate their? [A]ll EFL participants were able to communicate fluently in the target language without much help from corpora-based e- referencing tools provided in the system (p. 107

(p. 54). (bilingual concordancer) - Online dictionary - Forums questions and then write responses to the instructor online - Share views about reading on the forum responses with speakers of another culture 59). The use of the online dictionary decreased drastically after the first two readings (p. 49). The online concordancer, instead of being used for learning different kinds of cultural meaning on the levels of lexical, syntactic, and textual organization as originally intended, was used by the students to link to articles of similar topics for further explorations of culture and language learning opportunities (p. 49). Intercultural attitude (p. 108): students display a strong will to ensure understanding, which involves distancing themselves from events in their own countries: (p. 110); Menard- Warwick, 2009 [R]esearch questions: 1. What discursive evidence of intercultural attitudes, knowledge, skills, and critical awareness (Byram et al., 2002) can be identified in the chat transcripts that are focused on current US and Chilean protest movements? 2. What factors in this telecollaboration project seemed to promote intercultural communication? (p. 108) Chile and USA English MSN Messenger Chat about articles on US cultural issues taken from the popular media [T]he Chilean students... found out more about contemporary US culture (p. 108) and teach the US students about the Chilean culture. 8 weeks (April and May 2006) Intercultural knowledge (p. 110): drawing on specific knowledge about the complexities of another national culture can make an intercultural encounter go more smoothly (p. 110-1); Intercultural interpretation (p. 112): students were accepting analog[ies], ratifying acts of cultural interpretation, and [distancing themselves from] prejudice (p. 112); Intercultural discovery (p. 112): skills are used in the resolution of a misunderstanding based on different political cultures (p. 112); Critical cultural awareness (p. 113): students [personalize] the discussion by applying the abstract issue of racism to themselves and their partners (p. 113); Intercultural misunderstanding (p. 114): good will and negotiation of meaning at 108

one point broke down in a group that throughout most of the project communicated smoothly (p. 114). 9 weeks [S]tudents in this multilateral English blogging project interpreted shared space from two perspectives (p. 122): (a) commonality (p. 122): students valued pre-existing shared personal interests, mutual understanding, and similar personal experiences as a prerequisite for for making connections with inter-class peers (p. 132); although students were able to engage in inter-class blogging, they faced difficulties in exploring other possibilities in relating to the blog content, the blog discussions, and the bloggers, when commonality was absent (p. 122); (b) relativity (p. 122): students tended to draw relative positions from a dialogue between their and their interclass peers historicity or cultural memories through re-contextualization and repositioning (p. 122); students were able to form relationships of possibility in mediating encounters through uses of heterogeneous semiotic resources (p. 122). 6 weeks [O]nline communication fostered high levels of interaction using various types of negotiation strategies. (p. 133); [E]xpert scaffolding increased students awareness of linguistic forms that lead to modified output including self-repairs (p. 127); Students experienced difficulties comprehending linguistic variations including regionalisms (p. 127); Students also failed to perform certain tasks, such as direct and indirect speech acts (p. 127); [L]earners not only need to work toward Yang, 2011 [U]nderstand how English learners interpret shared space in an online multilateral English blogging context and how their interpretations of shared space contribute to their multilateral exchange experience (p 122). Japan and Taiwan English Blog (Blogger, Xanga, Pixnet, MySpace) - Design and write own blogs independently, and post comments and responses to other people s blogs regularly. Participants from 2 different cultural background discuss cultural topics like - travelling - tourism - astronomy - entertainment - sports - daily life in Shanghai - dogs - social issues Lee, 2009a Investigate how non-native speakers (NNSs) interacted with native speakers (NSs) in a chat room (p. 127). Spain and USA Spanish Chats using Group Pages of BlackBoard - chat about topics regarding their school, personal life and plans for the future to become acquainted (p. 133) - collaboratively work on tasks and assignments: - 2 jigsaws - 2 spot-thedifferences Intercultural topics, discussed by participants with different cultural backgrounds: - community service - adventures in Machu Picchu - Christmas party - at the airport - home schooling - euthanasia 109

Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguch i, 1998 Kabata & Edasawa, 2011 [E]xplore, through experience, not only issues of collaborative design work, but also the social nature of a computer-mediated design environment forming a distinctive design community with existing and emerging telecommunications and computer-aided design technologies (para. 1). [D]etermine the patterns of students language learning in a cross-cultural communication project. Specifically, the following three questions were addressed: a) what kinds of linguistic items are learned through the keypal project?; b) do students recognize and learn from keypals corrective input differently when they are presented explicitly as opposed to when they are presented implicitly without overt indication?; and c) what kind of incidental learning, if any, is observed? (p. 107) Japan and USA Japan and USA English English and Japanese Video conferencing (PictureTel) CUSeeMe Discussion board in WebCT - 2 open-ended questions assignment Collaborative design work Discuss a shared inquiry topic Overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers to collaboratively finish the design project Topics like: - differences in men and women s communication (p. 108) - perception of silence in discussion (p. 108) - high school and university student life (p. 108) - women s roles in the family and society (p. 108) are discussed by participants with a different cultural point of view. maintaining a balance between fluency and accuracy, but also develop their IC skills to successfully engage in online exchanges with NSs (p. 127); Expert speakers need to be aware of not over intervening in the interaction (p. 127); [T]ext-based chat involving NSs is a powerful mediating tool for the enrichment of language learning that goes beyond a traditional classroom setting (p. 127). 5 weeks The study demonstrated the possibilities created by telecommunication technologies, coupled with thoughtful social and design practices, in helping designers to transgress boundaries of time, place, and culture to form a basis for sharing expertise, interactively building knowledge, and establishing a design community (para. 4). 8 weeks a) [T]he project facilitated explicit corrections of grammatical items, vocabulary usage, and phrasal and sentential expressions (p. 118). b) The findings underscore the significant role that noticed input plays at the initial stage of learning (p. 117). c) The keypal project provides ample opportunities for incidental learning, widely defined, either through explicit and implicit error corrections, or through exposure to authentic texts provided by their keypals (p. 117). Willms, The specific goal of the Colombia and Spanish and Skype (oral-visual - prepare and Discuss topics such as: 8 weeks [M]oderately structured, student-led, 110

2011 present study is to describe the two learner languages revealed in the oral SCMC interaction of a dyad working in a telecollaborative reciprocal language exchange; the purpose is to ask to what degree there are opportunities for acquisition of new linguistic forms in oral SCMC chat when learners are focused primarily on meaning. Three research questions will be addressed, focused on the L2 learners negotiation for meaning and form in this interaction: 1. Do Language Related Episodes (LRE s) occur in the telecollaborative reciprocal language exchange? 2. Are the LRE s lexical or morpho-syntactic? 3. What sort of negotiation for meaning or form takes place in the LRE s and do the negotiations present opportunities for acquisition? (p. 27) USA English SCMC chat) write down L2 questions - asking partners questions in L2 and getting answers in L2 - create a product, e.g. through digital storytelling - social justice in Latin America and other political themes (p. 29) - idioms in English (p. 29) - technology and communication (p. 29) in the American culture. telecollaborative reciprocal oral language exchanges that have a communicative focus on meaning will lead to languaging about specific lexical items but not necessarily about morphosyntax (p. 72); The distinctive dynamic that exists in this interaction is packed with potential as source of comprehensible input in L2 lexicon, syntax and phonology the caveat being that in addition to comprehensible input, L2 learners need to provide each other with corrective feedback on form (p. 77); [F]oreign language students at an intermediate level are capable of sustaining and engaging in lengthy interactions about a wide variety of relevant issues and topics in telecollaborative reciprocal language exchanges (p. 79). Ritchie, 2009 The main goal of this study was to investigate whether CMC intercultural exchange offers the necessary conditions for the development of the sociolinguistic competence of L2 learners. The secondary goal was to provide a description of the characteristics of the exchange regarding language learning and cultural contact (p. 7). British Columbia and Canada French Moodle (chat, forum, email) [D]iscuss the same topic over two weeks with series of questions provided each week to guide their discussions (p. 43) via chat and messages on the forum. The topics were related to cultural themes that were to be explored in their respective class (p. 43): 1) what defines me; 2) travelling and what it brings to people; 3) multiculturalism (p. 43). 1 semester Sociolinguistic competence (p. 125): in the chat sessions, participants used greetings on arrival and on departure, address forms, expletives, markers of politeness, and an informal register (p. 125). Characteristics of language practice (p. 126): a majority of NNS saw the exchange as beneficial in some ways to their linguistic development and few important themes emerged from the results (p. 126). 111

[M]any factors of the intercultural exchange can have a positive impact on the sociolinguistic competence of language learners (p. 129). [I]t is the dynamics of all the factors involved in the online interactions that will support learners in the development of this competence (p. 129). 2 years The online collaboration enhanced teacher development through opportunities unavailable in more traditional teacher education classrooms and enabled student-teachers to better make connections between theory and practice (p. 4) Dooly & Sadler, 2013 [Aims] to promote an involved, critical stance towards the academic literature and teaching theory used in our teaching methods courses; and to get student-teachers to move from knowledge telling to knowledge transforming (p. 8). Spain and USA English Voicethread, Moodle, forum, chat room, Skype, Zoho Wiki, Virtual World (Second Life), podcast programs - collaboratively brainstorming [for] ideas for their [individual] teaching sequences (p. 9) - provide feedback and constructive criticism to each group member s individual teaching sequence (p. 9) - collaboratively design and develop podcasts and accompanying teaching activities (p. 9) in Second Life Collaboratively design and give feedback on teaching sequences with a partner from a different culture. The project helped to prepare future teachers to succeed in the classroom (p. 26), as the data presented highlight the competences they assimilated through the collaboration and indicate their convictions that the theory taught can be combined with newfound resources (p. 26). The participants became more professional and engaged in VCoPs where they saw the importance of teacher-teacher collaboration in creating better lessons for their own students and moved from knowledge telling to knowledge transforming (p. 26). Keranen & Bayyurt, 2006 [R]esearch questions... : What are the characteristics of discourse that typify the intercultural communication of these Mexican in-service and Turkish pre-service English teachers? Do the data sources indicate any perception on the part of the Mexico and Turkey English (LF) BlackBoard (BB) Participants comment on and discuss several cultural values in their cultures in BB rooms. Participants become aware of their own cultural features, by looking at their own culture and comparing that to their partners culture. Topics/rooms: - Introduction (p. 5) - Greetings and Gifts (p. 5)? [T]he characteristics of discourse that typify the intercultural communication (p. 7). Participants: gave [a]n explanation of cultural features of their own cultures or specific sub-cultures (p. 8); requested more clarification, participation, or information from participants from other cultures (p. 8); gave expressions of interest, personal feelings or opinions, pleasure, or surprise in response to other posts (p 9). 112

participants of an increase of cultural awareness as a result of the course? (p. 2) - Social Gatherings (p. 5) - Children (p. 5) - Literacy and Public Services (p. 5) - Dress Codes and Taboos (p. 5) - and 10 others (p. 6). Participants seem to show that they achieved some kind of cultural understanding through the course and the discussion (p. 17), as they: expressed how much they liked the experience (P. 14); commented on their practice as teachers (P. 14); commented on how the discussion oard were useful for the participants ad learners (p. 14); gave examples of specific things they had learned (p. 15); expressed how it felt to talk about their own culture noticed similarities rather than differences (p. 15); talked about what they knew of greeting customs in other cultures than the two involved. 1 semester Openings of the online chats (p. 9): are rich and authentic as many of those in real life[, and] are transferable to FTF conversations in real life (p 11); many learners made multiple greetings in the break-out rooms, using different linguistic forms (p. 11); they also produced positive pragmatic transfers from their first language, English, to the target language, Chinese (p. 11); they used greetings, compliments, and statements of feelings, among others, in their openings, and their openings are much longer and more complex that those in the textbooks[, which] demonstrates the learners' strategies in opening the chats were not hindered by their limited proficiency (p. 11). Zhang, 2013 How did the first year Chinese language learners open and close their online chats with native speakers? (p. 7) China and USA Chinese Mandarin Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro Discussions, often no specific topic or tasks, yet sometimes based on topics in first year language books (p. 6). Discover and discuss the Chinese culture and contrast it with the American culture. Topics like selfintroduction, family, studying Chinese, school life, and hobbies (p. 6) were discussed. Closings of the online chats (p. 11): were almost all initiated by the learners (p. 8); were often much longer than openings (p. 11); 113

were fairly elaborate (p. 12); learners made fewer errors in their openings than in their closings (p. 12). Benefits: online chats with native speakers through telecollaborations enabled by the Chinese language learners to open and close the online chats naturally in various linguistic forms and ways, unrestrained by the limited and even inappropriate input they received from the textbook (p. 14) the telecollaboration also enabled the instructor/researcher to enhance the pedagogical practices by identifying teaching points and moments in the automatically saved chat logs (p.14) 10 weeks While the synchronous audio-conferencing environment used during the exchange enabled the participants to be in real-time contact with native-speakers and other learners of French and English, it was in the asynchronous context, i.e. in their blogs, that the students found more scope for developing closer relationships with their learning partners (p. 103); the extent to which telecollaborative partners can benefit from an exchange depends to no insignificant degree on their individual multimodal communicative competence levels (p. 103); the design of tasks that systematically develop the learners electronic literacy skills and thus their online intercultural communicative competence seems paramount (p. 103). Hauck & Youngs, 2008 5 [F]acilitate and foster student interaction through a series of structured tasks in order to enhance the development of the skills and attitudes associated with intercultural competence (p. 94). UK, USA and France French and English Blogs, Lyceum ( Internet-based application for tutorials combining shared graphics with real-time, online, audio discussion (p. 91-2), incl. chat) - students were encouraged to use their blogs in order to get to know each other and to familiarise themselves with this asynchronous environment (p.90) - the learners carried out a series of collaborative tasks based on comparisons of their immediate (room/apartment/h ouse/street) and wider (town, places for leisure activities, etc.) physical environment (p. 90) Participants had to find, present and evaluate material, providing each other with feedback, asking for cultural clarifications and exchanging ideas (p. 95). 114

- participants were invited to post a brief evaluation of it which they could write either jointly with their partners or on an individual basis (p. 90) Kinginger, 1998 The aim of this exercise was observation and awareness of the morphosyntactic and discourse difficulties experienced by American second language learners interacting with NSs of French (p. 502). USA and France French Email, videoconferencing - read and analyse parallel texts - publish analyses on a website - discuss tasks via email - two 60-minute videoconferences during which the students were to ask and answer questions about the course materials (p. 504). Phase 1 (American participants): exploring issues of identity and space through literary and cultural readings, through discussions in the MOO, and by having students create their own cultural spaces and identities in the MOO (p. The American participants are exposed to and discover the French language and culture. Due to the collaborative work, both groups come into contact with another culture. 1 month Three problems arose: (a) the new forms of language classroom anxiety induced by the stress of public speaking in a networked or linked environment, (b) the unclear status of the spoken language in American French instruction, and (c) the need to make a place for language awareness as a legitimate curricular goal in some cases (p. 510). Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter, 2001 [S]ystematically map out the tremendous pedagogical benefits to using a MOO for language learning (p. 210). Germany and USA German and English MOO ( multiple user domains objectoriented (p. 210)) The projects arose out of the students' own interests, and all projects focused primarily on differences and similarities between German and American culture (p. 213). 7 weeks There are [f]ive pedagogical benefits to using the MOO (p. 213): [1] it provides students with authentic communication and content (p. 213), and it is a pedagogical context that values [2] autonomous learning [and] peer teaching, [3] individualized learning, [4] play [and investigation], [5] and intellectual work (p. 222). 115

212). Phase 2 (both groups): participants develop and present their own joint research projects in the MOO (p. 213). One-on-one discussions with foreign partners about a range of topics. Tudini, 2007 Investigating whether NS chat rooms provide opportunities for learners to practice intercultural (content and pragmatic) negotiation strategies entailed the following research questions: 1. Given the importance of learner initiative and autonomy in L2 acquisition and intercultural learning frameworks, what percentage of negotiations and learner reconstructions are learnerinitiated rather than NSinitiated (e.g., negative feedback)? 2. What percentage of negotiation routines between NSs and learners are triggered by intercultural (content and pragmatic) rather than lexical, syntactic, and interpretive" issues? (p. 585) Australia and Italy Italian Chat: an Italian Web-based chatline, C6 (Ci sei/are you there? (p. 586) Conversation topics and tasks... suited open-ended conversation with unfamiliar NS interlocutors and focused on Italian lifestyle and politics (p. 586). 1 semester 1. 60.6% of the negotiations were learnerinitiated[, so] the NSs did not dominate the discussions and that when the learners were encouraged, they took the initiative and used intercultural learning strategies and questioning techniques in the chat context (p. 593). 2. the percentage of negotiations between NSs and learners that were triggered by inter- cultural rather than by lexical, syntactic and interpretive negotiations, out of 232 instances, the negotiations were predominantly lexical (n = 82 or 35.3%) and syntactic (n = 82 or 35.3%), with intercultural and interpretive negotiations com- prising 37 (15.9%) and 14 (6%) instances, respectively[, so] the learners presumably were more concerned with vocabulary in the informal NS contexts, whereas the NSs were more likely to note syntactic problems in the learners' language (p. 594). This study has provided preliminary evidence that NS chatline interaction offers learners opportunities to develop their intercultural communicative competence through negotiation work, which is sometimes triggered by pragmatic and culture-specific content, with learners' demonstrating initiative and questioning techniques as intercultural speakers (p. 596). 10 weeks It was demonstrated that some learners can and do form a community and integrate themselves as full members of the community in a telecollaborative context. Because of the hard work and challenges involved in becoming a member of a bilingual chat Darhower, What linguistic and social 2007 3 behaviors define the process of forming a community and becoming full participants in the community? (p. 565) USA and Puerto Rico Spanish and English Chat: a Bilingual Chat Community (BCC) (p. 565) on WebCT Chat with foreign partners on weekly alternating topics. Participants compare and contrast cultures when discussing topics like food, sports, national legends, 116

political relations, films, abortion, sexual orientation and personal experiences at their universities. community, not all groups and participants in a telecollaboration will contribute to a camaraderie level of community, and, in fact, their membership level can be delicate and unstable (p. 585). Conditions of becoming a community: establishing a pattern of communicative and social norms (p. 584); continuous cooperation (p. 584) and attendance. 8 weeks The results showed that student participants' intercultural interaction engagement and attentiveness steadily increased, they developed self-reflection capacities, critical thinking skills, and greater sensitivity and respect for intercultural differences during their IM-based intercultural learning (p. 291) : Intercultural interaction engagement and attentiveness: steadily increasing (p. 300); Intercultural interaction confidence: wavering (p. 300); Respect for intercultural differences: moderately increasing (p. 301); Jin & Erben, 2007 Examine the viability of instant messenger (IM) interaction to facilitate intercultural learning in a foreign language class (p. 291). Research questions: (a) how instant messenger interaction (IMI) impacts CFL students' intercultural learning and (b) what CFL students' perceptions of IMI are when connected with NSs of Chinese and engaged in intercultural learning (p. 297). China and USA English and Chinese Chat (Instant Messaging (IM)) - introductions and discussions on differences in life in America and China - word association task (p. 308) - read and discuss parallel American texts - situation reaction task (p. 309) - explaining idioms task (p. 309) - read and discuss parallel Chinese texts - points of view task (p. 309): respond to fictional story Chat with foreign partners on weekly alternating topics. The US class goal was to enable students to acquire basic Chinese communication skills while enhancing their knowledge of the Chinese culture (p. 297). Participants compare and contrast cultures with regards to daily life, word associations, texts, reactions, idioms, and attitudes. Students perceptions: predominantly positive attitudes toward IM use in intercultural learning. (p. 291) Darhower, Research questions: 2008 3 1. What types of linguistic affordances emerge in bilingual chat sessions? 2. How do learners respond to linguistic affordances provided by native speakers? 3. What are learners USA and Puerto Rico Spanish and English Chat: a Bilingual Chat Community (BCC) (p. 565) on WebCT Participants compare and contrast cultures when discussing topics like food, sports, national legends, political relations, films, abortion, sexual orientation and 10 weeks 1. discourse moves in the chat sessions whose purpose was to make L2 learners aware of certain structural and/or lexical features of their L2 (p. 55): NS generated affordances (p. 56) Learner-generated affordances (p. 57) Coconstructed affordances (p. 58) Nontarget-like affordances and failure to 117

perceptions regarding linguistic affordances in their chat room discourse? (p. 51) personal experiences at their universities. provide and notice affordances (p. 59) 2. Types of responses to NS affordances: 1. no response, 2. acknowledgement of affordance with a short response such as "OK" or "I understand," 3. repetition of affordance, 4. response beyond a simple acknowledgement, indicating comprehension of affordance, and 5. subsequent independent use of the affordance (p. 59) 3. Perceptions of the participants: Overall the learner perception data suggest that linguistic affordances played a slightly greater role in Group 1 than in Group 2 (p. 62) The majority of participants in both groups believed that their ability to write longer sentences in their L2 improved during the time of their participation in the study and that they better understood the culture of their NS counterparts (p. 63) the majority felt more confident communicating in their L2 and that their attitude toward their L2 improved as a result of the chat experience (p. 63) Findings reveal that participants provide a range of affordances to each other, although affordances appear to have a limited role in the overall telecollaborative context (p. 49). 1. In both forums, learning took place due to the significant increase of the students' critical reflections toward the second half of the project (p. 400). Basharina, The study is guided by three 2009 4 overarching research questions: 1. What kinds of learning were afforded by I-CMC among Japanese, Mexican, and Russian English language learners? 2. What was the role of student Japan, Mexico and Russia English (LF) Bulletin board (WebCT) Discuss several topics on a forum. Participants discussed cultural topics (e.g. National Identity [and] Globalization (p. 399)), and were expected to compare their culture to that of their foreign partners and to reflect on both cultures. 2. Interactions evolved due to the contributions of individual students who consistently wrote messages, which were critical, less critical and more social, or phatic and reflected students deep, strategic, or surface approaches to learning and 118

agency in learning? 3. What were students' perceptions of learning? (p. 391) interaction in online environments.... In addition, deep communicators used such learning strategies as consulting additional sources, self-correction, and writing in their best English, all of which could have improved their L2 and intercultural competence. (p. 400-1). 3. (a) learning the L2 through practice, (b) nonnative participants and the absence of error correction as an impediment to L2 learning, (c) project as the first step toward learning other cultures, (d) remembering striking information, (e) making impressions of one another based on genre differences, (f) learning about oneself and classmates, and (g) Russian students' gains (p. 403). The last aspect, (g): Russian students felt they increased their confidence in their use of English and computer technology (p. 407). 10 weeks RQ1: different internet tools are not neutral media in that each fosters a different kind of syntactic and pragmatic style. Asynchronous forum entries contain longer, syntactically more complex statements, whereas synchronous chat entries are short, reactive, and less formal. (p. 415) Chun, 2011 RQ1: How does the choice of internet tools (specifically asynchronous forum discussions and synchronous chats) contribute to the style of language produced by the learners? In particular, (1a) Is there a difference in the percentage of statements versus questions used by both the American and German students? and (1b) What types of speech acts are used to convey pragmatic ability and the development of ICC? Germany and USA English and German Forum, chat - participants were asked to write 3-5 words or phrases in their respective L1 that they associated with the 12 words/phrases (p. 396) provided by their teachers - discuss the word combinations on a forum and via synchronous chat Participants compared and contrasted the American and German cultures with regard to language, dialect, slang, alcohol, homeland, order, work, quitting time, night life, recycling and climate change. 1a. Forum: statements comprise 96% of the entries made by the students in the US and 95% of the entries made by the students in Germany (p. 402) Chat: 66% of the U.S. entries were statements, as compared with 75% of the German entries (p. 410) RQ2: How does discourse analysis of our data contribute to an empirically informed internet pragmatics? Specifically, how do learners demonstrate their pragmatic ability to perform various types of speech acts in their online 1b. the U.S. students, all advanced learners of German, employ many of the same linguistic means and speech acts as the students in Germany for stating facts, making definitive statements, mitigating statements, speculating, and expressing opinions (p. 402) RQ2: These students demonstrated ICC because 119

postings (e.g., express facts, express opinions, express curiosity or interest, negotiate meaning, seek to understand the other, save face, hedge, and reflect on their own or the other's culture, all components of ICC)? (p. 395) they were able to use an appropriate combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in real time in order to interact with interlocutors from a different country or culture, maintaining conversational involvement by making additional statements to indicate interest instead of only posing questions. Their chat transcripts revealed more involved sequences in which both interlocutors posted several comments in succession, expanding on their thoughts and opinions. (p. 416) 14 weeks (1) team members rather quickly assumed responsibility for the common agenda (p. 541) the presence of an authority figure did not appear necessary to ensure that the teams carried out their assigned tasks (p. 541), as the instructor was definitely outside the process, functioning in the role of consultant and mentor rather than teacher (p. 541). Donaldson & Kötter, 1999 To (1) mesh independent learning with a team-oriented approach (p. 541) and (2) to examine the use of the MOO itself as a potentially effective instrument for language learning (p. 542). Germany and USA English and German MOO ( text-based virtual reality environment (p. 532)) - Communicate with foreign peers and accomplishing certain tasks (p. 531), so complete projects in the MOO. - Present their finished projects to their peers. Participants communicated with native speakers of their L2, so were faced with the culture that is connected to their L2. (2) The opportunity for relatively spontaneous, real-time conversation with a native informant in a MOO had undeniable appeal because it was considerably cheaper than a phone call and more immediate than mail, even E-Mail. (p. 542) freewheeling conversation in a chat room would accomplish much the same end (p. 542). several advantages to a MOO: adding spaces/rooms and personal descriptions, a help file, opportunities to personalise, MOO forced emphasis on the words and phrases and highlighted the difference between the spoken word and the written word (p. 542), and checking the messages before sending them. 3 months 1. the learners accepted the MOO as a substitute for a physical location, and that Kötter, 2003 Research questions: 1. How do students who meet Germany and USA English and German MOOssiggang Collaboratively complete projects (unspecified). Participants compared their cultures and tackled projects 120

in a MOO rather than in person deal with the apparent "virtuality" of their encounters, that is, which (MOO-specific) tools and strategies do they employ to express themselves and exchange information? 2. How do the learners deal with utterances they do not understand or situations in which they find it difficult to express themselves in their target language, and in how far are the means they employ similar or different to those described in the literature on learner discourse between NSs and NNSs in settings other than the MOO? 3. How do the students exploit the fact that they meet as tandem learners, that is, how (often) do they request assistance, correct each other, help others through the provision of lexical assistance, or scaffold their partners' tasks in other ways, including (deliberate) alternations between their native and target languages? 4. What evidence is there that the participants in this study improved their linguistic and metalinguistic competence and awareness as a result of their participation in the project? (p. 146) including representations of Germans in Hollywood films, a comparison of the German and the American education systems, immigration and residence permits in the two countries, the mutual clichés that Germans and U.S. Americans have of each other, and immigrant education. (p. 166) they managed to find suitable ways of compensating for the lack of visual and aural support in written CMC (p. 152) their engagement in real-time CMC did really prompt them to reflect upon pragmatic and paralinguistic aspects of their interactions (p. 152) the learners apparently conceptualised their interactions as a written substitute for speech (p. 152). there are noticeable gaps between the frequencies with which the tandem learners and students who interact with each other in different circumstances and constellations use specific moves that are typically associated with the negotiation of meaning (p. 163) 2. Problems with understanding partners: 84% vs. 42%... [of the American students] claimed that they had asked for a translation rather than a paraphrase (p. 153) German students: translation is also the most popular strategy, but the second most popular strategy among these learners was to request a repetition of those messages that they could not understand (p. 153) Difficulty expressing themselves: Virtually all the American learners reported that they had borrowed individual items from their L1 when they found it difficult to articulate an idea in their target language, and 42% of them also stated that they had codeswitched for the duration of an entire sentence. (p. 154) most of the German students... but also several of the less proficient American students claim to have paraphrased their ideas if they could not express what they had really wanted to say in their L2. (p. 154) as many as 50% of the American students, as well as more than a third of the advanced 121

German learners, asked their partners sufficiently often to translate items for them to tick this option in the questionnaire. (p. 154) Literature: debate[s] which conversational moves are most likely to trigger learners' noticing and destabilise their incorrect assumptions about their L2. (p. 156) disagrees about the question why some types of interaction feature more negotiation of meaning than others. (p. 156) with regard to the amount and the quality of repair in NS-NNS and NNS-NNS interactions[,]... [d]ifferent studies have often focused on different conversational moves, [instead of] address[ing] this issue in tandem learners' interactions (p. 157) learners used notably more requests for a clarification, elaboration or reformulation of their partners' ideas than did the learners in Long and Porter's or Pica and Doughty's studies into face-to-face discourse (p. 157) More than a third of the repair work in the corpus were clarification requests, and this move was hence almost a hundred times more frequent in the MOO data than comprehension checks (p. 158) 3. the students drew notably less often than anticipated on their partners' lexical expertise in their respective L1. (p. 155) On average, each learner only asked his or her partners once or twice per session for a translation of an unknown word or phrase. (p. 155) 70% of these requests were made by the less advanced American students (p. 155) Almost all appeals for help were answered within a matter of turns, which indicates that 122

the learners were very co-operative in this respect. (p. 155) about a third of all requests for lexical assistance led to the provision of additional background information about the usage of a word, or sparked a short discussion about the term or concept that a student had queried (p. 155) As many as 50% of the turn-length language alternations in the data must probably be classified as students' attempts to (re-establish English or German as the matrix language of a conversation (p. 161) Two thirds of all single-word borrowings appeared in contributions from the less advanced American students (p. 161) 10 weeks American students fluency in writing: The data analysis yields a clear trend of ascending quantity of the American participants production in Mandarin Chinese. By contrast, the quality of their L2 production did not improve as consistently and considerably throughout the project (p. 200). Jin, 2013 The primary goal of the current research project was to provide a unique opportunity for beginning-level American learners of Mandarin Chinese to have direct interaction with native speakers of Mandarin Chinese (p. 197) [T]he focus of this study was on whether the quantity and quality of the American student participants Mandarin Chinese writing could be improved through text-based direct intercultural communication with native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. In addition, whether and how language development was scaffolded throughout this telecollaboration process also interested the researcher, the instructor of the class (p. 198). China and USA Mandarin Chinese Tools preferred by participants (e.g. MSN, email, Skype, etc.): - synchronous (MSN/Skype): only 2 pars - asynchronous (email): most pairs Participants - introduce themselves and get to know their partners - engage in a topic-based discussion - (2x) research a topic (dating and Chinese student life) and interview their partners American investigate the Chinese culture. Topics: - Chinese Spring Festival celebration (p. 212), including food, family activities and overlap with Valentine s Day - dating (p. 212) - being a college student in China (p. 212) Scaffolding: Intersubjectivity (p. 201): The data from the communication records and the questionnaire show that both the Chinese participants and the American participants consistently employed a variety of strategies throughout the project to engage each other throughout the project (p. 201) Contingency and handover (p. 205): The data above indicate that contingency and handover were provided to assist the American participants to read in Mandarin Chinese and produce more Mandarin Chinese more effectively than to assist their linguistic accuracy (p. 207). [B]eginning-level American learners of Mandarin Chinese had discernible and steady gains in their L2 production quantity during a Sino-American 123

telecollaborative project. More importantly, the study results showed that the L2 production quantity gains could be largely attributed to the scaffolding conditions afforded by the telecollaborative project (p. 208) [T[he lack of relevant scaffolding led to the American participants relatively small and inconsistent gains in their L2 linguistic accuracy (p. 208) 12 weeks 1. The study identified a) two intra-cultural contradictions to post or not to post [anxiety], to sound formal or informal; b) three inter-cultural contradictions unequal contribution, genre clash/plagiarism, clash of topic choice; and c) three technology-related contradictions message overload as hindering community formation, bulletin board as too "slow" when compared to chat, and names and gender confusion. (p. 88-9) ( Intra-cultural contradictions refer to tensions which emerged based on participants assumptions and beliefs about the project and their communication partners, usually prior their engagement with the international online community. Inter-cultural and technology-related contradictions emerged during the process of interaction (p. 89).) Basharina, [T]his study is guided by two 2007 4 questions: 1) what were the contradictions that emerged in the project under study? and 2) what were the underlying reasons for those contradictions? (p. 86-7) Japan, Mexico and Russia English (LF) Bulletin board (WebCT) Discuss several topics on a forum. Participants compare and contrast their cultures in English. 2. The contradictions [discovered] were the result of having the same task online telecollaboration but engagement in different activities, characterized by differences in their objects/motives and mediating tools (p. 95): Different Objects: Assignment vs. Free Interaction (p. 96) Different Educational Paradigms and Socio- Economic Orders (p. 96) Differences in Russian Students Participation (p. 96) Embeddedness in Different Broader- Activity-Systems (p. 97) Computer Tools as Constraining Community 124

Formation (p. 97). 2 months Results show a positive impact on motivation and on learning outcomes, particularly regarding understanding of the use of language in given contexts, and of cultural issues (p. 183). Jauregi & Bañados, 2008 [I]nvestigate whether videoweb communication tools can contribute to enriching the quality of foreign language curricula, by facilitating a motivating virtual communication environment for purposeful interaction between non native and native speakers of Spanish to accomplish learning tasks (p. 183). The Netherlands and Chile Spanish Adobe Connect ( synchronous interactions, during which participants could see each other while talking and sharing audiovisual documents on-line (p. 183)), and a blog Discussions via Adobe Connect: - Task 1: Breaking stereotypes (p. 189); - Task 2: Interview review (p. 189); - Task 3: Student life in Concepción and Utrecht (p. 190); - Task 4: Literary debate (p. 190). The project was set up to internationalize academic learning of Spanish language and culture (p. 183): - familiarize with the culture - compare and contrast Chilean and Dutch cultural views with regard to cultural issues and literature The use of video-web technology enabled teachers and learners to create a pleasant virtual environment for learning a language collaboratively, together with features of its culture. Students liked it and this contributed to increasing their motivation to communicate and learn the language, the culture and pragmatic issues in a real sociocultural context (p. 201). Both groups of students benefited from talking about Spanish language use in Chile, exchanging information about their respective cultures, and discussing their commonalities and differences (p. 201): Chilean learners became more aware of their own language features, as they engaged in explaining the uses of the Spanish language in Chile to Dutch speakers of Spanish as a foreign language (p. 201). The tasks had a positive impact on learners, they became interested in learning about the culture of both languages and were willing to seek opportunities to continue participating in this kind of project. Learners gained in pragmatic skills, knowledge about Spanish language use and Chilean/Dutch cultural features. The tasks gave them opportunities to break down stereotypes that learners had about each other s cultures, exchanging points of view and experiences to discover the real Chilean and Dutch (p. 202). 3 months RQ1: [T]here is a significant difference in oral communicative growth between experimental groups (engaged in networked interactions with expert peers though video-web communication and virtual worlds) and a control group (carrying out the tasks face to face with classmates in the Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh, 2013 Research questions: RQ1: Is there a significant difference compar ing oral communicative growth of experimental groups (those engaged in networked The Netherlands and Spain Spanish Videoconferencing, and Second Life 5 tasks: 1. Gente genial (Cool People) participants... were asked to (1) visit an apartment participants from the SL group could virtually visit the Spanish city their interlocutor was from [and learn about their 125

interactions with expert peers though video-web communication and virtual worlds) and a control group (those carrying out the tasks face to face with classmates in the classroom setting) according to pre- and post-oral tests? RQ2: What are participants learning experiences? (i) Do foreign language learners have the impression they learn in the interaction sessions? (ii) Do pre-service teachers feel that their foreign language learners oral communicative competence increases comparing the first and the last interaction sessions? (p. 108). they were meant to share, (2) talk about themselves and exchange cultural information triggered by pictures and (3) choose an outing option (p. 110); 2. Gente y Aventura (People and Adventure) consisted of planning a holiday and reflecting on past holiday experiences (p. 110); 3. Gente de cine (Movie Celebrity People), was a selection of different short scenes in which participants had to play different roles given the indications of a brief script (p. 110); 4. Gente con corazón (People with Heart), allowed students to impersonate different characters and experience the reactions of others (p.110); 5. Gente y language and culture], go together on a skiing holiday or play a cultural game (p. 110). classroom setting), with those participating in networked interactions outperforming those who did not (p. 116): students with poor oral skills at the start of the experiment learn more in both the VC and SL conditions as compared to the control Condition (p. 112). RQ2: This type of telecollaboration has a positive impact on language learners learning experiences, since they have the impression that they learn from them (RQ2.i) and this is also perceived by preservice teachers (RQ2.ii) (p. 116). The added value of networked interactions points towards cultural, linguistic, interpersonal and motivational benefits (p. 116) The synchronous learning environments used in conjunction with effective interaction tasks and the opportunities to engage in meaningful interaction with expert peers (native student teachers) contributed to enrich intercultural learning experiences (p. 116). 126

culturas (People and Cultures),... a cultural television-gamestyle contest between a Dutch and a Spanish team (p. 110). Learners engaged in a series of collaborative tasks using blogs to produce presentations on intercultural issues (p. 203). Hauck, Research aims were to study 2007 5 the relationship between the affordances of synchronous and asynchronous multimodal environments and their impact on learner experience and interaction the development of ICC (p. 205). UK,USA and France English and French Blogs, Lyceum Participants discussed and gave presentations on intercultural topics. 10 weeks [D]iscrepancies in target language competence (p. 210): a lack of proficiency in the target language can lead to students writing shorter messages than their partners which can be seen as a lack of openness and friendliness (p. 211); [A]ffective variables (p. 210): [t]he majority of respondents (16) had initially expressed the view that: enthusiasm and motivation (rank 1), willingness to communicate (rank 2), and ability to assess one s own strengths and weaknesses (rank 3) were important for successful language learning (p. 211); [D]ifferential awareness of learning environment specific affordances (p. 210): - [o]verall learners contributed more actively to the blogs (p. 213); [D]ifferential assessment of cultural knowledge gain (p. 210): [d]ata from the post-questionnaires shows that the majority of respondents (14) found it useful to have a concrete outcome to work towards (p. 214) over half (9) of those who responded agreed on having learned more about their partners as individuals rather than about their respective cultures (p. 215) Note. Some studies describe similar projects, but focus on different aspects or goals, and are therefore only count as one exchange: 127

1 A German-American exchange (Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003 and Belz, 2001; 2002; 2003 and 2005) 2 A Spanish-American exchange (Lee, 2009b and 2011) 3 An American -Puerto Rican exchange (Darhower, 2007 and 2008) 4 An exchange between Japan, Mexico and Russia (Basharina, 2007 and 2009) 5 An exchange between the United Kingdom, America and France (Hauck, 2007 and Hauck & Youngs, 2008) Table A2 Secondary Education Studies Investigated Study Aims Participants Language Tools Tasks Intercultural aspect Time Results Lin, Chinese Topic-based VC 2010 discussion. [R]esearch questions: 1. What contradictions emerge when they are viewed from an Activity Theory-insider epistemological perspective? 2. What are some challenges and obstacles that are encountered in the processes involved in the creation of the international virtual learning environments created for the learning and teaching among student populations from differing countries? 3. How do participants involved in such virtual learning environments Students in Taiwan (20 7 th /8 th grade, NS: Mandarin) and Malaysia (16 8 th grade Chinese students) and teachers in Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong Synchronous communication: - Video conference (VC) (Windows Live Messenger / Skype) Asynchronous communication: - E-class - Google Sites - Discussion boards -Email Software: -Microsoft Power Point - Windows Movie Maker -Viewletcam Learn about the other participant s culture and country, e.g. My Parents Childhood (p. 37). 2 semesters Intra-Mediator Contradiction (p. 54): the students need for a more stable internet connection students indicate a preference for mediators students prefer synchronous over asynchronous communication Rule-Object Contradiction (p. 69): due to a mismatch of school schedules (p. 84), real-time meetings between student participants was not possible. Mediator-Object Contradiction (p. 90): students appear to be more willing to communicate when they are guided through conversations by the instructors (p. 90). Mediator-Community Contradiction (p. 90): students in Taiwan used E-class for domestic interaction and Google Sites for international interactions (p. 91), the 128

Iseli, Joly & Lam, 2008 (VLE) view these learning environments and what pedagogical implications can be derived that might assist future initiators of such international CMC-based collaborative exchanges? (p. 7) [E]xpected outcomes : Strengthening students communicative skills through more writing and reading practice Enhancing students confidence in using French as a sole communication language Students know more about the other culture and country (p. 215). China and Austria Franch (LF) Moodle forum -Write an essay about yourself, your living and studying environment and society -comment on and discuss essays on the forum Learn about the other participant s and the French culture and country change in platforms: from a shared collaborative community to an separatesite community; students preferred private messages with their assigned partners over messages to all the participants. Subject-Community Contradiction (p. 91): E-mail delays were reported as one of the greatest problems throughout the establishment (p. 91) of the exchange. [C]ommunicative skills: most of the students completed the required numbers of entries most of the students actually interacted more than required the great majority of them would log on to the forums anytime of the day and the night the use of the tool was welcome and widely accepted, students did not raise any technical issues nor showed reservation (p. 219). [E]nhancement of students confidence in using the language: students gathered information about their pen pals homeland, culture and customsfrom their own discussions, and from other groups students made an effort to deepen the information they found and synthesized them students mentioned their enjoyment in the communicative approach and the benefits of an authentic environment (p. 219). Esch, Evans & [E]xploring WebBoard as a new arena of language use Belgium, Senegal, French and English WebBoard (bulletin board: asynchronous, - Task 1: responding in the Participants are offered the opportunity [C]ommunity building: students casually talked about online interactions at the beginning of the class students would change seats to be near online partners students reacted to overseas partners and questioned them about their and the French culture (p. 219). 4 months [A] number of dimensions cut across the collaborative use of Web-Board as double-edged 129

Fisher, 2001 Savignon & Roithmei er, 2004 (para. 2.2). France, UK text-based discourse) L1 to pictures - Task 2: free conversations in the L2 - Task 3 : joint poem - [R]esearch questions : 1. What evidence can be found in support of the claim that the collected bulletin board postings on a single topic qualify as a cohesive, coherent text? 2. What discourse features can be identified that reflect participant engagement in terms of sustaining a collaborative dialogue? 3. W hat are the implications of the findings with respect to the nature of the potential contribution of CMC to the development of strategic competence within a general framework of communicative language teaching? (p. 269-70). EFL students at a German Gymnasium, GFL students in a Midwestern US high school English and German Electronic bulletin board Engage in discussions on several different topics to share their (youth) culture Students discuss topics from their own point of view / cultural background and respond to the other participant s views weapons (para. 3.2.4): WebBoard can create barriers to collaboration between participants whenever they assume common ground too quickly on the basis of co-ordination devices or signals which fail (para. 3.2.4), but it also opens up opportunities for collaboration when new devices ( i.e. emoticons, pictures, new words etc.) acquire a signalling value and lead to new practices and conventions between group members (para. 3.2.4). The specific design features of WebBoard on collaborative language use are significant only in so far as they become tools for the participants' joint work in establishing common ground (para 3.2.4.). +/- 3 weeks The cohesion and coherence of the postings for a single topic clearly qualify them as a text (p. 284): The text is situated within the context of the ongoing intercultural collaboration (p. 284). Students collaborate to create a network of intertwined postings that make sense only after reading prior contributions (p. 284). Postings were seen to exhibit qualities of face-to-face interaction that have been identified in other studies of CMC as well as qualities of written discourse (p. 284). Numerous communicative strategies unique to CMC were also identified (p. 284). Discourse features indicate participant engagement in terms of sustaining a collaborative dialogue (p. 284): Explicit reference in a discussion creates a strong impression of collaboration (p. 284). Through the incorporation of previously used lexical items, ideas, and even entire postings, participants show they were following the discussion (p. 284). Many participants also searched for documentation on the Internet in order to state their opinions convincingly (p. 130

Michell, 2011 Research questions: Which types of cultural awareness and understanding can be developed through audiovisual contact with native French speakers? To what extent can such a project affect pupils understanding of language learning? What other outcomes result from the project, inside and outside the classroom? (p. 53) France and UK French and English Videoconferencing Talk about several (cultural) issues 284). students use an array of strategies to mitigate potential conflict and encourage participation in a candid exchange of opinions (p. 284). Discuss cultural topics Fewer extrinsic rewards were required to encourage pupils to reach their objectives in lessons, as the idea of live communication seemed to provide enough of an incentive to improve their language (p. 72). Types of cultural awareness / understanding: contact with native French speakers provided a challenge to pupils existing ideas of what French people were like (p. 72); students have an increased awareness of another culture as well as a fervent interest in that culture (p. 72). [T]he development of pupils understanding of language learning (p. 73): [Q]uestionnaries gave some evidence of pupils understanding of language learning as a concept, and of where their strengths and weaknesses lay (p. 73); a substantial overlap was observed between intercultural communication and understanding of language learning (p. 73), so the cultural experience made pupils aware of their own learning of languages (p. 73). [L]inguistic competence (p. 73): little evidence (p. 73). Sauro, 2013 (This specific page is not visible in Google Books.) Sweden and USA English Chat (Windows Live Messenger) Swedes: 4 writing tasks, Americans: Discuss several topics from cultural point of 1 semester (6 sessions) [C]onfidence in speaking (p. 73): showed the greatest improvement (p. 73), which is partly due to an increase in the motivation caused by speaking for a real audience (p. 73). When pupils were placed in the position of spokesperson for the group in front of the camera they often froze and were unable to formulate coherent sentences in the target language (p. 73). (This specific page is not visible in Google Books.) 131

Prieto- Arranz, Juan- Garau & Jacob, 2011 Ware, 2009 [T]o study specific exchanges in a virtual third space the EIL in Poland and Spain blog - focusing on two related research questions: RQ1: Does this blog provide Bretag s (2006) third space for a negotiated re-imagining of cultural identity, thus fostering among culturally diverse students a collective identity beyond particular cultural identities? RQ2: If so, does this sense of collective identity form the basis for the development of critical transcultural awareness? (p. 23). Research questions: (1) how are media used? (2) what are the effects of these uses? (p. 3) Poland and Majorca, Spain USA and Grenada, Spain tutor Swedish English Blog - Post projects on various topics and comment on other participants projects - Participate in discussions on several topics English - Blog (Google s Blogger interface) - Digital movies (e.g. youtube) - Movie making software Exchange (and comment on ) four literacy projects, including - hyperlinked text / videos - photo stories - interviews - digital stories view and discuss Swedish and American culture Cultural topics: - Stereotypes (p. 24) - Africa (p. 24) - Music with a message (p. 24) - Do you want to know something about me? (p. 24) - Cultural snippets (p. 24) Topics: music, fashion, sport, community, or school (p. 5). 1 academic year 4 months, (January - April 2009) This project / blog: allows inter-peer participation in a trusting environment where learners experiment with EIL and express themselves in informal and creative ways that are uncommon in the foreign language classroom (p. 32); opens a window into cultural realities that the participants are often not familiar with, thus creating a meaningful reason for transnational communication (p. 32). Web 2.0 third-spaces (p. 32) like blogs: can be seen to contribute to the pulling down of national borders among participants (p. 32), as they discover similar and crucially transnational subcultural affiliations (p. 32); combined with a suitable transcultural methodology, may well provide a small yet relevant contribution to the overall formation of a new generation of welleducated, polyglot, critical individuals (p. 32). [A] few findings have emerged: (1) participation in a multimedia international exchange project, even when its dependence on print-based literacy was low, seems to hold promise for conventional measures of writing fluency but less so for spelling accuracy or more content-oriented district-wide standardized exams; (2) participation positively impacted newcomer ELL and regular/ell students perceptions of their ability to use technology; (3) participation positively impacted regular/ell students perceptions of their enjoyment of and facility with writing; (4) digital movies and uses of media that were challenging were the favored forms of projects; (5) teachers were willing to work a technologymediated project into their curriculum because of perceived benefits to students; and (6) teachers reinforced their beliefs about technology as valuable through participation in 132

Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009 Research questions: 1. In what ways do the affordances of Quest Atlantis (QA) support English language acquisition? 2. In what ways is NfA [Negotiating for Action] achieved interculturally between nonnative and native English-speaking (NES/NNES) dyads through co-questing? (p. 489) China and USA English - Quest Atlantis (QA), virtual game (3D avatar interaction) - communication tools (chat, bulletin board, email) Co-Quests: symmetrical collaboration (e.g., completion of the proverb quest or building a virtual 3D house) Co-Quests could potentially increase their cultural awareness and sensitivity and promote their social egalitarianism (p. 495). this project (p. 17). 10 weeks QA supports the acquisition of language: Chat channels supported language acquisition (p. 502), as messages typed appear on the chatter s computer screen persistently, his or her interlocutors can use it to correct, to clarify, to confirm, to request comprehension, and to take the time to revisit previous utterances and give a thoughtful response (p. 502); learners use language in a persistent form (scrolling on the screen) to collaborate in achieving a goal, thereby learning the language by using it (p. 502). Lenguan, 2008 Examine whether or not real time chat, synchronous CMC, provides students opportunities to employ strategies of negotiation for meanings in conveying and receiving information as well as if it helps students improve their language abilities (p. 5). Thailand and USA English Chat (Yahoo Messenger) - Interview - Description (p. 89) of participants homes - Information exchanges (p. 89), e.g. weather, festivals, sports - Discussions (p. 89), e.g. on education, or environment - Sharing information (p. 89), e.g. about vacations Discuss the differences / similarities between the Thai and American culture with regards to the topics Achievement of NfA: the NES is not always in the role of instructor (p. 493), and instead, control in the role of the instructor was often negotiated between collaborators (p. 493). 8 weeks A chat program could provide Thai students with increasing opportunities to engage in meaning negotiation in the target language (p. 56). Evidence indicated that students language skills were improved (p. 57). For instance, students subsequently produced and developed their discourses which facilitated successful communication (p. 57). The students strongly concurred with the pedagogic method of using a chat program as a tool in language classroom (p. 57). Cifuente s & Murphy, 2000 Investigate the effectiveness of distance learning and multimedia technologies in facilitating an expanded learning community among teachers and their students (p. 70). USA and Mexico (K- 12) Spanish and English - Video-conferencing - HyperStudio (software) Create an online multimedia portfolio and share it with other participants through videoconferencing (feedback) Discuss cultural topics / topics from a cultural point of view 1 school year [T]he participating teachers developed empowering multicultural relationships while their students developed multicultural understanding and positive self-concept (p. 69). 133

Appendix B: Online Activities Specified Table B1 University Studies Investigated Discussing Online Activities Activity Text-based asynchronous communication (e.g. message/bulletin board) Text-based synchronous communication (e.g. chat) Email (combined) Videoconferencing (audio-visual or multimodal) Blog Number of Studies 22 19 11 14 7 Ware (2005); Lee (2009); Ware & O Dowd (2008); O Dowd (2005); Liaw & Bunn-Le Master (2010); O Dowd & Eberbach (2004); O Dowd & Ritter (2006); Schneider & Von der Emde (2005); Kung (2002); Edasawa & Kabata (2007); Fuchs, Hauk & Müller-Hartmann (2012); Sadler (2007); Belz & Müller-Hartmann (2003); Müller-Hartmann (2006); Belz (2001; 2002; 2003; 2005); Schneider & Von der Emde (2005); Bower & Kawaguchi (2011); Mouhadjer (2013); Sadler (2007); Lee (2007); Pasfield-Neofitou (2006); Belz & Müller-Hartmann (2003); Müller-Hartmann (2006); Belz (2002); Bower & Kawaguchi (2011); Sadler (2007); Lee (2007); Pasfield-Neofitou (2006); Brinckwirth (2012); Ritchie (2009); Kinginger (1998); Jin (2013) Carney (2008); Bower & Kawaguchi (2011); Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012); Mouhadjer (2013); Lee (2007); Brinckwirth (2012); Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998); Lee (2009; 2011); Gephardt & Kostelníková (2012); Carney (2008); Lee, (2012); Yang (2011); Hauck & Youngs (2008) & Studies Discussing the Activity Liaw (2006); Kabata & Edasawa (2011); Ritchie (2009); Dooly & Sadler (2013); Keranen & Bayyurt (2006); Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001); Basharina (2007; 2009); Chun (2011); Donaldson & Kötter (1999); Kötter (2003) Worajittipol (2010); Menard-Warwick (2009); Lee (2009a); Ritchie (2009); Dooly & Sadler (2013); Hauck & Youngs (2008); Tudini (2007); Darkhower (2007; 2008); Jin & Erben (2007); Chun (2011) Willms (2011); Dooly & Sadler (2013); Zhang (2013); Hauck & Youngs (2008) / Hauck (2007) (the same project); Kinginger (1998); Jauregi & Bañados (2008); Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) 134

Hauck (2007) (similar project) Jin (2013); Online dictionary 1 Liaw (2006); Movie making 2 Lin (2010); Ware (2009) Voice/phone calls 2 Lee (2007); Bower & Kawaguchi (2011) Concordancer 1 Liaw (2006) Building Belz (2001; 2002; 2003; 2005) 1 website/portfolio Social media 1 Bray & Iswanty (2013) Virtual worlds 3 Jauregi, Canto, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen (2011) Dooly & Sadler (2013); Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Wiki Carney (2008); 2 Dooly & Sadler (2013) Podcasts Lee (2009; 2011); 2 Dooly & Sadler (2013) Online Presentation 1 Dooly & Sadler (2013) Table B2 Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing Online Activities Activity Number of Studies Studies Discussing the Activity Bulletin/message board or forum 5 Lin (2010); Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008); Esch, Evans & Fisher (2001); Savignon & Roithmeier (2004); Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Chat (synchronous) 3 Sauro (2013); Lenguan (2008); Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Email (combined) 2 Lin (2010); Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Videoconferencing 3 Lin (2010); Michel (2011); Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) Blog 2 Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob (2011); Ware (2009) Movie making 2 Lin (2010); Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) Building website/portfolio 1 Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) Gaming 1 Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) 135

Appendix C: Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication Specified Table C1 University Projects Discussing Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication Type of Communication Number of Studies Synchronous 13 Asynchronous 21 Combination 17 Studies Discussing the Types of Communication Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012); Jauregi, Canto, De Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen (2011); Mouhadjer (2013); Worajittipol (2010); Menard-Warwick (2009); Lee (2009a); Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998); Willms (2011); Zhang (2013); Tudidi (2007); Darhower (2007 and 2008); Jin & Erben (2007) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Ware (2005); Lee (2009b and 2011); Ware & O Dowd (2008); O Dowd (2005); Gephardt & Kastelníková (2012); Liaw & Bunn-Le Master (2010); O Dowd & Eberbach(2004); O Dowd & Ritter (2006); Kung (2002); Edasawa & Kabata (2007); Fuchs, Hauck & Müller-Hartmann (2012); Belz & Müller-Hartmann (2003); Müller-Hartmann (2006); Belz (2001; 2002; 2003 and 2005); Schneider & Von der Emde (2005); Carney (2008); Bower & Kawaguchi (2011); Sadler (2009); Lee (2007); Pasfield-Neofitou (2006); Bray & Iswanty (2007); Lee (2012); Liaw (2006); Young (2011); Kabata & Edasawa (2011); Keranen & Bayyurt (2006); Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001); Basharina (2007 and 2009); Donaldson & Kötter (1999): Kötter (2003) Brinckwirtch (2012); Ritchie (2009); Dooly & Sadler (2013); Hauck (2007) / Hack & Youngs (2008); Kinginger (1998); Chun (2011); Jin (2013); Jauregi & Bañados (2008) 136

Table C2 Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Communication Type of Communication Number of Studies Studies Discussing Types of Communication Synchronous 4 Michel (2011); Sauro (2013); Lenguan (2008); Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) Asynchronous 5 Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008); Esch, Evans & Fisher (2001); Savignon & Roithmeier (2004); Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob (2011); Ware (2009) Combination 2 Lin (2010); Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) 137

Appendix D: Text-Based and Audio-Visual Chat Specified Table D1 University Projects Discussing Chat: Text-Based Versus Audio-Visual Communication Chat Text-based only 14 Studies Discussing Text/Based and Audio-Visual Chat Belz & Müller Hartmann (2003); Müller-Hartmann (2006); Belz (2001; 2002; 2003 and 2005); Sadler (2007); Lee (2007); Pasfield-Neofitou (2006); Menard-Warwick (2009); Lee (2009a); Ritchie (2009); Hauck (2007) / Hauck & Youngs (2008); Tudini (2007): Darhower (2007 and 2008); Jin & Erben (2007); Chun (2011) Bower & Kawaguchi (2011); Audiovisual Mouhadjer (2013); and 6 Worajittipol (2010); text-based Jin (2013); Carney (2008) Note. This table only includes the projects that used synchronous chat as a means of communication Table D2 Secondary Education Projects Discussing Text-Based and Audio-Visual Chat Chat Text-based only 3 Audio-visual and text-based 0 / Studies Discussing Text/Based and Audio-Visual Chat Sauro (2013); Lenguan (2008); Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) 138

Appendix E: Tasks Specified Table E1 University Studies Investigated Discussing Tasks Task Studies Discussing the Task Reading and discussing parallel texts 2 Belz & Müller-Hartmann 1 (2003) / Belz (2001; 2002;2003 and 2005) Müller-Hartmann (2006) Reading and discussing the same text 3 Gephardt & Kostelníková (2012) Liaw & Bunn-Le Master (2010) Blog, podcast and ethnographic interview 1 Lee 2 (2009b; 2011) Feedback / tutoring 2 Ware & O Dowd (2008) Bower & Kawaguchi (2011) Text-based discussions 18 Ware (2005) O Dowd (2005) O Dowd & Eberbach (2004) O Dowd & Ritter (2006) Edasawa & Kabata (2007) Pasfield-Neofitou (2006) Bray & Iswanty (2013) Liaw (2006) Menard-Warwick (2009) Kabata & Edasawa (2011) Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) Zhang (2013) Tudini (2007) Darhower (2007 and 2008) Jin & Erben (2007) Basharina (2007 and 2009) Chun (2011) Jin (2013) Multimodal discussions (incl. audio(-visual) chat) 9 Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012) Mouhadjer (2013) Brinckwirth (2012) Worajittipol (2010) Willms (2011) Ritchie (2009) Kinginger (1998) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) Discussions and collaborative final product/task Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) 10 Schneider & Von der Emde (2005) Kung (2002) Fuchs, Hauk & Müller-Hartmann (2012) Sadler (2007) Carney (2008) Dooly & Sadler (2013) Hauck (2007) /Hauck & Youngs (2008) Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001) Donaldson & Kötter (1999) Kötter (2003) Quests / interactive tasks 1 Jauregi, Canto, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen (2011) Spot the differences and Jigsaw assignments* 2 Lee (2009a) Lee (2007) Create a blog and comment other blogs 2 Lee (2012) 139

Yang (2011) Collaborative design work 1 Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998) * Lina Lee discusses two different exchanges, but both include jigsaw and spot-the-differences assignments. Yet, one of the two (2007) relies on videoconferencing, whereas the other (2009a) uses synchronous chat. Table E2 Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing Tasks Task Studies Discussing the Task Feedback / tutoring 1 Sauro (2013) Text-based discussions 4 Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) Savignon & Roithmeier (2004) Michell (2011) Lenguan (2008) Audio-visual discussions (topic-based) 1 Lin (2010) Discussions and collaborative final product 1 Esch, Evans & Fisher (2001) Quests / interactive tasks 1 Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Create a blog and comment other blogs 2 Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob (2011) Ware (2009) Create and share a portfolio 1 Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) 140

Appendix F: Target Languages Specified Table F1 University Studies Investigated Discussing Target Languages Language Studies Discussing the Language French 2 Ritchie (2009) Kinginger (1998) Spanish 6 Jauregi, Canto, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen (2011) Lee (2007) Lee (2012) Lee (2009a) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Dutch 1 Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012) Italian 1 Tudini (2007) English 15 Gephardt & Kostelníková (2012) Liaw & Bunn-Le Master (2005) O Dowd & Ritter (2006) Kung (2002) Yang (2011) Mouhadjer (2013) Sadler (2013) Bray & Iswanty (2013) German and English 10 Belz & Müller-Hartmann (2003) / Belz (2001;2002;2003 and 2005) Ware (2005) Müller-Hartmann (2006) O Dowd & Eberbach (2004) Schneider & Von der Emde (2005) Kötter (2003) Spanish and English 5 Lee (2009b and 2011) Ware & O Dowd (2008) O Dowd (2005) Willms (2011) Darhower (2007 and 2008) Japanese and English 5 Carney (2008) Bower & Kawaguchi (2011) Kabata & Edasawa (2011) Edasawa & Kabata (2007) Pasfield-Neofitou (2006) Brazilian Portuguese 1 Brinckwirth (2012) and English French and English 1 Hauck (2007) / Hauck & Youngs (2008) Chinese and English 1 Jin & Erben (2007) Chinese Mandarin 2 Zhang (2013) Jin (2013) Worajittipol (2010) Liaw (2006) Menard-Warwick (2009) Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998) Dooly & Sadler (2013) Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) Basharina (2007 and 2009) Fuchs, Hauk & Müller-Hartmann (2012) Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001) Chun (2011) Donaldson & Kötter (1999) 141

Table F2 Secondary Education Studies Investigated Target Languages Language Studies Discussing the Language Chinese 1 Lin (2010) French 1 Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) English 5 Sauro (2013) Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob (2011) Ware (2009) Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Lenguan (2008) French and English 2 Esch, Evans & Fisher (2001) Michel (2011) German and English 1 Savignon & Roithmeier (2004) Spanish and English 1 Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) 142

Appendix G: Functions of the Target Languages Specified Table G1 University Studies Discussing the Function of the Target Language Function Lingua Franca 4 L1 and L2 to both participants L1 to one of the participants 23 22 Studies Discussing the Target Language Bray & Iswanty (2013) Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) Yang (2011) Basharina (2007 and 2009) Belz & Müller-Hartmann (2003) / Belz Brinckwirth (2012) (2001; 2002; 2003 and 2005) Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Ware (2005) Yamaguchi (1998) Müller-Hartmann (2006) Ritchie (2009) Lee (2009b and 2011) Dooly & Sadler (2013) Ware & O Dowd (2008) Hauck (2007) / Hauck & Youngs O Dowd (2005) (2008) O Dowd & Eberbach (2004) Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter Schneider & Von der Emde (2005) (2001) Carney (2008) Darhower (2007 and 2008) Bower & Kawaguchi (2011) Chun (2011) Edasawa & Kabata (2007) Donaldson & Kötter (1999) Fuchs, Hauk & Müller-Hartmann (2012) Kötter (2003) Pasfield-Neofitou (2006) Gephardt & Kostelníková (2012) Liaw & Bunn-Le Master (2010) O Dowd & Ritter (2006) Kung (2002) Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012) Jauregi, Canto, Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen (2011) Mouhadjer (2013) Sadler (2007) Lee, (2007) Lee (2012) Worajittipol (2010) Liaw (2006) Menard-Warwick (2009) Lee (2009a) Kabata & Edasawa (2011) Willms (2011) Zhang (2013) Kinginger (1998) Tudini (2007) Jin & Erben (2007) Jin (2013) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Table G2 Secondary Education Studies Discussing the Function of the Target Language Function Lingua Franca 2 L1 and L2 to both participants L1 to one of the participants 4 5 Studies Discussing the Target Language Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob (2011) Esch, Evans & Fisher (2001) Michell (2011) Savignon & Roithmeier (2004) Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) Lin (2010) Ware (2009) Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Lenguan (2008) Sauro (2013) 143

Appendix H: The Function of English Specified Table H1 University Studies Investigated Discussing The Use of English Language English as L1 one of the participants English as Lingua Franca (ELF) Studies Discussing English 13 Gephardt & Kostelníková (2012) Liaw & Bunn-Le Master (2005) O Dowd & Ritter (2006) Kung (2002) Yang (2011) Mouhadjer (2013) Sadler (2013) Worajittipol (2010) Liaw (2006) Menard-Warwick (2009) Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998) Dooly & Sadler (2013) Basharina (2007 and 2009) 2 Bray & Iswanty (2013) Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) Table H1 Secondary Education Studies Investigated Discussing The Use of English Language English as L1 one of the participants English as Lingua Franca (ELF) Studies Discussing English 4 Sauro (2013) Ware (2009) Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Lenguan (2008) 1 Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob (2011) 144

Appendix I: Time Paths Specified Table I1 University Projects Discussing Time Paths Time Studies discussing the Time Path 2 school years 1 Dooly & Sadler (2013) 1 school year / 2 semesters 1 Ware & O Dowd (2008) 9 months 1 O Dowd (2005) 1 semester 6 Schneider & Von der Emde (2005) Kung (2002) Lee (2012) Ritchie (2009) Zhang (2013) Tudini (2007) 5 months 1 Pasfiel-Neofitou (2006) 14 weeks 1 Donaldson & Kötter (1999) 3 months 2 Kötter (2003) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) 12 weeks 2 O Dowd & Eberbach (2004) Basharina (2007 and 2009) 10 weeks 7 Fuchs, Hauck & Müller-Hartmann (2012) Lee (2009b and 2011) Brinckwirth (2012) Hauck (2007) / Hauck & Youngs (2008) Darhower (2007 and 2008) Chun (2011) Jin (2010) 9 weeks 1 Yang (2011) 2 months 3 Müller-Hartmann (2006) Jauregi, Canto, De Graaff, Koenraad & Moonen (2011) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) 8 weeks 6 Edasawa & Kabata (2007) O Down & Ritter (2006) Menard-Warwick (2009) Kabata & Edasawa (2011) Willms (2011) Jin & Erben (2007) 7 weeks 3 Belz & Müller-Hartmann (2003) / Belz (2001; 2002; 2003 and 2005) Carney (2008) Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001) 6 weeks 5 Jauregi, De Graaf, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012) Liaw & Bunn-Bower & Kawaguchi (2011) Le Master (2010) Sadler (2007) Lee (2009a) 5 weeks 1 Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998) 1 month 1 Kinginger (1998) 4 weeks 1 Gephardt & Kastelníková (2012) 3 weeks 1 Ware (2005) 145

undefined 5 Mouhadjer (2013) Lee (2007) Bray & Iswanty (2013) Liaw (2006) Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) 2-8 months (vague) 1 Warojittapol (2010) Table I2 Secondary Education Projects Discussing Time Paths Time Studies discussing the Time Path 1 school year / 2 semesters 3 Lin (2010) Prieto-Arranz, Juan-Garau & Jacob (2011) Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) 1 semester 1 Sauro (2013) 4 months 2 Esch, Evan s & Fisher (2001) Ware (2009) 10 weeks 1 Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) 8 weeks 1 Lenguan (2008) 3 weeks 1 Savignon & Rothmeier (2004) undefined 2 Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) Michell (2011) 146

Appendix J: Benefits Specified Table J1 University Projects Investigated Discussing Benefits Type of Benefit University Projects Discussing the Benefit Motivation /participation Kung (2002) Carney (2008) Belz (2002) 8 Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012) Mouhadjer (2013) Brinckwirth (2012) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Intercultural awareness/competence Mouhadjer (2013) Bray & Iswanty (2013) Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) 8 Lee (2009b) Jin (2007) Basharina (2009) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Intercultural communicative 2 Hauck & Youngs (2008) competence (ICC) Community building Language learning/skills Confidence in using L2 Authentic input (stimulates L2 development) Autonomy 3 13 3 11 2 Tudini (2007) Worajittapol (2010) Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998) Hauck & Youngs (2008) Belz (2002) Gephardt & Kastelníková (2012) Lee (2007) Pasfield-Neofitou (2006) Bray & Iswanty (2013) Worajittapol (2010) Kabata & Edasawa (2011) Ritchie (2009) Edasawa & Kabata (2007) Darhower (2008) Basharina (2009) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Brinckwirth (2012) Worajittapol (2010) Darhower (2008) Carney (2008) Mouhadjer (2013) Sadler (2007) Lee (2007) Pasfield-Neofitou (2006) Lee (2012) Worajittapol (2010) Belz (2002) Kabata & Edasawa (2011) Zhang (2013) Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001) Fuchs, Hauck & Müller-Hartmann (2012) Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001) 147

Table J2 Secondary Education Projects Investigated Discussing Benefits Type of Benefit Secondary Education Projects Discussing the Benefit Motivation /participation Michell (2011) 2 Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) Communicative skills 1 Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) Intercultural awareness Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) 2 Michell (2011) Community building Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) 2 Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) Language learning/skills Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) 3 Lenguan (2008) Ware (2009) Understanding language Michell (2011) 1 learning Confidence in using L2 Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) 2 Michell (2011) Authentic input 1 Languan (2008) 148

Appendix K: Ways of Obtaining Results Specified Table K1 University Studies: Ways of Obtaining Results Study Kung (2002) Carney (2008) Belz (2002) Jauregi, De Graaff, Van den Bergh & Kriz (2012) Mouhadjer (2013) Brinckwirth (2012) Jauregi & Bañados (2008) Canto, Jauregi & Van den Bergh (2013) Bray & Iswanty (2013) Keranen & Bayyurt (2006) Lee (2009b) Jin (2007) Basharina (2009) Hauck & Youngs (2008) Tudini (2007) Worajittapol (2010) Yee, Mitchell, Naka, Morozumi & Yamaguchi (1998) Gephardt & Kastelníková (2012) Lee (2007) Pasfield-Neofitou (2006) Kabata & Edasawa (2011) Edasawa & Kabata (2007) Ritchie (2009) Darhower (2008) Von der Emde, Schneider & Kötter (2001) Sadler (2007) Zhang (2013) Fuchs, Hauck & Müller-Hartmann (2012) Way of obtaining results Measured by counting the number of messages Measured by counting the number of messages Measured by counting the number of messages Self-reporting by participants (questionnaire) Measured by analysing participants messages Observed by researcher Combination of analysis of participants messages and the participants self-reported information (questionnaire) Combination of measuring & analysing data, surveys and observations (pre-service teachers) Participants self-reporting and opinions (questionnaire) Combination of analysis of participants messages and the participants final reports (self-reporting) Combination of measuring & analysing data and surveys Combination of measuring & analysing data and surveys Participants were interviewed and surveyed Combination of measuring & analysing data and surveys Analysis of the participants chatlogs Combination of measuring & analysing data (chatlogs), surveys and reflective notes (participants)? Analysing participants reflections and existing literature Analysing samples (video), interviews and participants reflections Analysing participants chatlogs (data), interviews and existing literature (online) Analysing transcripts (data) and participants reflective logs Measured by analysing participants messages Analysing participants messages (data), surveys and interviews Measured by analysing participants messages Measured by analysing participants messages Students self-reporting Analysing participants messages Combination of analysing participants messages, journals, portfolios, and questionnaire results (selfreporting). 149

Table K2 Secondary Education Studies: Ways of Obtaining Results Study Way of obtaining results Michell (2011) Observations made by researcher, questionnaires (participants self-reporting) and interviews Iseli, Joly & Lam (2008) Teacher observations Cifuentes & Murphy (2000) Participants portfolios, reflections (teachers, participants) and interviews Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer (2009) Analysis of participants chatlogs (data), interviews and researchers observations Lenguan (2008) Analysing participants messages (data), questionnaires and interviews Ware (2009) Analysing participants writing (prompts and assignments) 150