TY - JOUR
T1 - Let me learn with my peers online!
T2 - Foreign language learning through reciprocal tutoring
AU - Dekhinet, Rayenne
AU - Topping, Keith
AU - Duran, David
AU - Blanch, Silvia
N1 - dc.publisher: Nova Southeastern University
A Spanish version of this article has been published under the title "Una experiencia de tutoría entre iguales virtual para el aprendizaje del castellano y del inglés" In - La evaluación de competencias comunicativas, (2008), pp. 89-101
(Original abstract) As technological tools are now almost indispensable for foreign language teaching (Sotillo 2000), innovative pedagogy and methodology are required for the successful integration of computers into the foreign language curriculum. Like any other classroom tool, technology for language learning must offer opportunities to practice the language in authentic contexts and user-friendly environments. Internet technologies, because they have the potential to connect students across national and linguistic boundaries, abound with such opportunities.
In particular, the Internet and related technologies can give new power to peer-assisted learning techniques by allowing language learners to communicate with native speakers of the language they are studying. In summer 2006, two primary schools, one in Scotland and one in Spain, participated in a novel program that incorporated peer-tutoring techniques in tandem learning activities and evaluated the effect on students' writing development in their second languages. The program linked English-speaking learners of Spanish with Spanish-speaking learners of English, capitalizing upon the novelty and purposefulness of using peers in another country as an audience. This small-scale research, which is part of a bigger project, seeks to assess the pedagogical value of reciprocal peer-tutoring methodologies via the Internet as an effective and engaging language learning tool.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Rayenne Dekhinet, Keith Topping, David Duran, and Silvia Blanch describe a pilot project on the use of Internet-assisted reciprocal peer tutoring in foreign-language learning. The eight-week project connected Spanish-speaking English-language learners at a primary school in Catalonia with English-speaking Spanish-language learners at a Scottish primary school. Children were matched in pairs and acted as language tutors in their own mother tongue to their peers. Each week, the children wrote or corrected a text, depending on their role for that week, and sent messages to their peers. During and after the intervention, data were collected in the form of observations, participant and teacher interviews, and analysis of student writing in the target languages. The results of this study show how Internet technology can be leveraged with reciprocal peer tutoring to enhance language learning. (Contains 8 exhibits and 1 figure.)
AB - Rayenne Dekhinet, Keith Topping, David Duran, and Silvia Blanch describe a pilot project on the use of Internet-assisted reciprocal peer tutoring in foreign-language learning. The eight-week project connected Spanish-speaking English-language learners at a primary school in Catalonia with English-speaking Spanish-language learners at a Scottish primary school. Children were matched in pairs and acted as language tutors in their own mother tongue to their peers. Each week, the children wrote or corrected a text, depending on their role for that week, and sent messages to their peers. During and after the intervention, data were collected in the form of observations, participant and teacher interviews, and analysis of student writing in the target languages. The results of this study show how Internet technology can be leveraged with reciprocal peer tutoring to enhance language learning. (Contains 8 exhibits and 1 figure.)
KW - Computer-mediated communication
KW - Peer tutoring
KW - Language learning
KW - Second-language acquisition
KW - Primary school pupils
KW - Scotland
KW - Spain
M3 - Article
SN - 1552-3233
VL - 4
JO - Innovate: Journal of Online Education
JF - Innovate: Journal of Online Education
IS - 3
ER -