Abstract
The development of new technologies and the falling cost of high-speed Internet access have made it easier for institutes and language teachers to opt different ways to communicate with students at distance. The emergence of web-conferencing applications, which integrate text, chat, audio / video and graphic facilities, offers great opportunities for language learning to through the multimodal environment.
This case study aims to explore best practice in applying task-based language teaching (TBLT) via a web conferencing tool Blackboard Collaborate in a beginners' online Chinese course by evaluating the technical capacity of the software and the pedagogical values and limitations of the tasks designed.
Sixteen undergraduate on-campus students who enrolled in an introductory Chinese language course participated in this project. Five fortnightly one-hour online sessions were conducted, which included two jigsaw tasks, two decision-making tasks and one information-gap task. Learners' interaction in the online sessions has been recorded and transcribed for a deep investigation of learners' negotiation actions in peer-peer interaction. Their experiences of using Blackboard Collaborate and tasks were recorded in in-depth interviews and pre and post-session questionnaires.
This case study aims to explore best practice in applying task-based language teaching (TBLT) via a web conferencing tool Blackboard Collaborate in a beginners' online Chinese course by evaluating the technical capacity of the software and the pedagogical values and limitations of the tasks designed.
Sixteen undergraduate on-campus students who enrolled in an introductory Chinese language course participated in this project. Five fortnightly one-hour online sessions were conducted, which included two jigsaw tasks, two decision-making tasks and one information-gap task. Learners' interaction in the online sessions has been recorded and transcribed for a deep investigation of learners' negotiation actions in peer-peer interaction. Their experiences of using Blackboard Collaborate and tasks were recorded in in-depth interviews and pre and post-session questionnaires.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | 5th International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research |
| Subtitle of host publication | conference proceeding booklet |
| Pages | 118 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |
| Event | International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research (5th : 2018) - The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Duration: 14 Jun 2018 → 16 Jun 2018 |
Conference
| Conference | International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research (5th : 2018) |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | CASLAR-5 |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Period | 14/06/18 → 16/06/18 |
Keywords
- computer-mediated communication (CMC)
- CALL evaluation
- TBLT
- web-conferencing
- online Chinese teaching
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'The use of web-conferencing in a task-based beginners' Chinese class'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Cite this
Guo, S. (2018). The use of web-conferencing in a task-based beginners' Chinese class. In 5th International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research: conference proceeding booklet (pp. 118)