Innovation in Language Learning

Teletandem is defined by Telles (2015, p.604) as “a mode of telecollaboration - a virtual, collaborative and autonomous context for learning foreign languages in which two students help each other to learn their own languages (or language of proficiency)”. The author remarks that learning in this context is made possible by the use of text, voice, and webcam image resources of VOIP technology (®) and is guided by the three principles of tandem: autonomy, reciprocity and separation of languages. Although these theoretical principles have remained the same over the years, teletandem context has suffered some adjustments due to the specificities of new partnerships established with different universities around the world. As a consequence, new learning settings have emerged since Telles (2006) first proposed and defined teletandem. One of these emergent settings is institutional integrated teletandem (iiTTD), characterized by Aranha and Cavalari (2014), as a modality that arouse from the necessity of incorporating teletandem practice into the regular foreign language (FL) programs offered at universities. According to these authors, iiTTD can be defined as a series of teletandem sessions that are integrated into the syllabus so that teletandem practice can both feed and be fed by regular FL lessons. The authors propose that such modality, as implemented at UNESP – São José do Rio Preto (SJRP), comprises the following procedures and tasks (i) preparing learners for iiTTD learning; (ii) designing integrating tasks, which blend teletandem oral sessions into the FL syllabus, and (iii) integrating assessment practices, which include self-assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment. In this paper, we present one of these integrating tasks, characterized as a collaborative writing practice in which teletandem partners should jointly produce a text, working together through all the phases involved in the writing process, i.e., gathering ideas and planning, structuring, drafting and revising the text.  This investigation, of a qualitative interpretive nature, is based on the data generated in the second semester of 2015 as the Brazilian students wrote learning diaries and the teacher took field notes. Using data driven from these instruments, our goals are: to describe the collaborative writing task carried out by using two Google Apps® (Google Drive and Google docs) within iiTTD, and to investigate 13 Brazilian learners’ perceptions in carrying out such task, so that we can have insights on the possible challenges and opportunities that this kind of collaborative practice may bring to FL learning in teletandem. A preliminary analysis shows that (i) some Brazilian learners believe that planning and revising seem a more organic and natural activity to be carried out collaboratively while the text drafting might bring some uneasiness and (ii) most of them reckon that their final text was improved by the collaborative activity.