1. From Teletandem to usage
based tasks:
learning after doing
Paola Leone
Università del Salento, Italy

2. Topics:
How telecollaboration is implemented at
University of Salento, Italy;
Research topics on telecollaboration ;
Research and teaching: Usage
based/corpora based tasks.

3. Telecollaboration
Written Interaction
Blog, forum, etc.
Oral interaction Teletandem
 face to face tandem version (Brammerts, 2003),
Teletandem
• Reciprocity same time for L1 and L2;
• Learning in collaboration (e.g. Telles 2009)
• Learning autonomously students must plan their
activity on their own (Telles & Vassallo 2006)

4. Europe
North, Central and South
America
Universidade Estadual Paulista
University of Hawaii
University of Miami
University of Washington
Seattle University
Virginia Commonwealth
University (VCU)
Truman State University
Georgetown University
Universidad Nacional Autonoma
de México
• University of
Southampton
• University of Bonn
• University of Lille 3
• University of Salento
• University of Bologna
Asia
Universidade de
Chulalongkorn (Thailand)
University of Yamaguchi
Teletandem network

5. • Interistitutional –
international collaboration
Positive: effective
collaboration with colleagues
working abroad.
It can be a first step towards
internationalization
Problems: Two institutions,
two different
institutionalization forms,
different students’
motivation and involvement
• Intra-istitutional
collaboration
Teletandem at Università
del Salento (unisalento):
Positive:
Professors/Language
Instructors of different
languages work together.
Problems: different level
of familiarity with ICT,
workload, shortage of
financing
Teletandem(Tele)collaboration

6. Institutionalization
- Teletandem is combined with workshops
on different topics (e.g. open resources
on the web for autonomous
learning, webcef, intercultural
communication)
- Teletandem can be combined with
written telecollaboration
- It is part of an optional exam;
- It lasts usually 12 sessions (1 hr each);
- It is based either on free conversation or
on topic oriented discussions

7. (Tele)collaboration at unisalento
Telecollaboration
(Teletandem and/or
written interaction)
Aims
Professors and/or
language instructors
Involved
Italian- English
(University of
Southampton)
To develop:
- oral skills;
- oral and written
computer mediated
interaction
Professors (e.g. English
Literature) language
instructors
Italian/English language
Italian – German
(University of Bonn)
To develop oral
computer mediated
interaction
Professors and language
instructors
Intercomprehension
Romance languages
(Universidade Estadual
Paulista)
MIRIADI
To develop:
- oral
intercomprehension
- written
intercomprehension
Professors and language
instructors

8. Research
Experience
Empirical Approach
Video-recordings
Transcription
• Corpus: COMETE (COrpus
Multilingue di E-learning
and TElecollaboration
• E-learning: Tasks employing
digital technolgies (e.g.
clouds)
Corpus include (in progress):
- Data for research purposes
- Data as pedagogycal
resource for authonomous
language learning (e.g.
tasks but also videoclips)

9. Research topics:
- Discourse structure (e.g. focus on
form and focus on meaning
sequences; Leone 2009; Leone 2013)
- Interactional dominance (i.e. role of
participants in interaction in relation
to content expertize
- Pragmatic –interactional dimension
(i.e. the use of discourse markers: De
Marco & Leone 2012; forthcoming)

10. Intercomprehension among
Romance languages
(intercomprensione tra le
lingue romanze)
- Formal instruction effects
over communication (i.e.
Communicative Strategies
before and after formal
instruction on
intercomprehension)
Future research (march 2014)-Unisalento-UNESP

11. Research and Teaching
Corpus- based language pedagogy (e.g. Tognini
Bonelli 2001; Belz, Vyatkina 2008)
Form-focused instruction during classroom
activities
Data-driven learning (John 1986)
Learners: participants and observers
(Aston, Gavioli 2001; Belz, Vyatkina 2008)

12. Learning scenario:
Collaboration and
troubleshooting
Phase
1. L2 language
level.
2. We learn
interacting
Contents
Objectives. To strenghten
Interlanguage
- Metacommunicative
and cognition
abilities
- An interationist
Interactionist
conception of language
theory,
learning (Long 1981; Gass,
sociocostructi
Varonis 1985) change
vism
believes and attitudes
- Motivation
3.
Negotiation
Troubleshooting of meaning
Resources: Video-recordings clips (COMETE)
of Teletandem sessions