View Content #21156

by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

“Internet communication tools cannot be fully apprehended from a positivist vantage point as generically 'there' in the world. Cultural artifacts such as global communication technologies are produced by and productive of socio-historically located subjects. Such artifacts take their functional form and significance from the human activities they mediate and the meanings that communities create through them.” (Thorne, 2008, p. 58)

The use of digital technologies to facilitate human communication is an ever growing phenomenon, with more and more tools available each day to share our lives and explore the lives of others around the world.  As we consider ways to integrate these technologies into the language classroom, especially by connecting learners via tellecollaboration projects, the cultures-of-use model invites us to ponder more deeply the human activity attached to those technologies. In his 2008 paper, Thorne presents three case studies as exemplars of possibilities, with both challenging and exciting results, for digitally-mediated intercultural communication activity in language learning. In other words, what happens when you connect learners of French with French students learning English or pair Spanish students with English learners in Mexico to complete a task? Most critical to these findings is the call to explore the complex nature of mediated human connection in all communicative contexts which facilitate intercultural communication.

As language teachers, we are in the unique position to both create the ideal contexts for meaningful interaction via tellecollaboration and, at the same time, are always in danger of oversimplifying the intercultural communicative process. The cultures-of-use model reminds us to continually consider the complex without shying away from it.

1. If you build it, they will come…but not always in the ways you expect.  Research on tellecollaboration and intercultural communication projects suggests digitally-mediated, intercultural communication can result in both amazing experiences and changed viewpoints, as well as inherent miscommunication or reinforced stereotypes. As language teachers, we can foreground these potential challenges and help learners approach their language partners with resources for varying types of digitally-mediated interactions and deep reflection around both positive and negative experiences.
2. Consider the task and the platform. Just as rhetoric and genre vary in face-to-face interaction, digital contexts also form their own behavioral expectations. Before asking learners to engage with a tool in a certain way, it is fundamental to consider the human behaviors associated with that space. For example, with the advent of instant messenging and video conferencing, synchronous collaboration via email is no longer the best option. Likewise, learners way be wary of Facebook as their instructional platform, but happy to collaborate via Facebook messenger. Whatever the choice of task and behaviors, the tool should match and we, as teachers, should be well versed in the communicative norms of the space.

Reference

Thorne, S. L. (2008). Artifacts and cultures-of-use in intercultural communication. Language Learning and Technology (7) 2, 38-67.  Available at: http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/thorne.pdf