Towards an Ecological Approach in Telecollaboration

oleh: Rodrigo Schaefer, Christiane Heemann

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 2021-12-01

Deskripsi

In recent years, telecollaboration has been allowing the practice of foreign languages as well as the contact between people from different countries and cultures (O’DOWD, 2003, 2013, 2016, 2018; TELLES, 2015a, 2015b). According to O’Dowd (2013, 2018), telecollaboration refers to the use of online technologies in the context of language education between students who are geographically dispersed. This study aimed at discussing, through an ecological approach, which focuses on the relationship of people with the environment, different aspects that influenced the participants’ interaction in the telecollaborative sessions. For the interpretative analysis, data from telecollaborative sessions, experience reports, interviews and reflective diaries were included. The data analysis revealed five aspects that influenced the participants’ interaction in the telecollaborative sessions, among them “restricted language abilities”, “concern because the telecollaborative session was being video-recorded” and “technical problems”. In order to deal with various contexts (e.g. online and face-to-face classes), we suggest that different approaches are needed, and the ecological approach, used in this study, seems to be one of them.