Computer Assisted Language Learning
ISSN: 0958-8221 (Print) 1744-3210 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ncal20
Task design and its induced learning effects in a cross-institutional blog-mediated telecollaboration Wen-Chun Chen, Yu-Chih Doris Shih & Gi-Zen Liu To cite this article: Wen-Chun Chen, Yu-Chih Doris Shih & Gi-Zen Liu (2015) Task design and its induced learning effects in a cross-institutional blog-mediated telecollaboration, Computer Assisted Language Learning, 28:4, 285-305, DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2013.818557 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2013.818557
Published online: 30 Jul 2013.
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Date: 16 March 2016, At: 16:19
Computer Assisted Language Learning, 2015 Vol. 28, No. 4, 285–305, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2013.818557
Task design and its induced learning effects in a cross-institutional blog-mediated telecollaboration
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Wen-Chun Chena, Yu-Chih Doris Shihb and Gi-Zen Liuc* a Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan; bDepartment of English Language and Literature, Fu-Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan; cDepartment of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
This research investigated if and how the instructional design affected the learning outcome in a blog-mediated project, namely students’ communicative writing in the social media. Thirty-four college-level English learners from two universities in Taiwan participated in the telecollaboration. The current research continues to highlight the social networking nature of Web 2.0 by locating idea units (IUs) in students’ semi-formal weekly discussions, instead of focusing on syntactic complexity of conventional written modality. In this study, the language learners’ output performance (the quantity of IUs was operationalized as the dependent variable) was hypothesized to be affected by task type and duration time. The findings indicate that both were significant in eliciting the amount of IUs. As a result, the contributions of this study include (a) shedding some light on the academic and educational capacity of blog-mediated telecollaboration, (b) revealing multiple factors that might affect the telecollaborative mechanism with the use of weblogs for language learning purposes, and finally (c) evaluating interactive blogging activities’ educational value for complementing formal-writing training. Keywords: task type; duration time; telecollaboration; social networking; communicative writing; blog
1. Introduction Students nowadays seem increasingly dedicated to and equipped with sophisticated technology and skills when developing the target language (Chiu & Liu, 2013; Liu, 2008, 2011; Liu, Liu, & Hwang, 2011). As Godwin-Jones (2009) claims, “many are fully conversant with and committed to communicating through social networking sites” (p. 3); the integration of mini applications (Apps) and Web 2.0 tools appears to cultivate a “Personal Learning Environment” (p. 3). The present study introduces a crossinstitutional writing project for Taiwanese English learners to participate in and construct a social network as well as a learning community via blog. Textual blogs are devised to offer a free stage for students’ to voice their views with confidence and creativity, compared with the face-to-face (F2F) milieu (Golonka, Bowles, Frank, Richardson, & Freynik, 2012). When blog posts are responded to or commented on, authentic social interaction occurs and tends to stimulate meaningful discussions. This process pedagogically and psychologically encourages non-native speakers (language learners) to communicate in their target language.
*Corresponding author. Email:
[email protected] Ó 2013 Taylor & Francis
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Blogs can be used for academic purposes, yet with a less intimidating and formal undertone. Online discourse is a semi-written and semi-spoken hybrid language that allows learners time to process input and craft output while still retaining the authenticity of verbal language (Hudson & Bruckman, 2001). In an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) country like Taiwan, this may be a protective mechanism for low-confidence/ proficiency learners when generating language output (W. C. Chen, 2012; W. C. Chen & Eslami, 2013). This context is likely to elicit a higher quantity and quality of language production from learners compared to F2F interactions (Blake, 2000; Warschauer, 1996). Blogs, labeled as a kind of Web 2.0 tool, represent knowledge shareability, extendibility, as well as individuality – a free platform for users (both readers and writers) to express themselves and access responses/information from a knowledge source (Ducate & Lomicka, 2008; Stevens et al., 2008; Witte, 2007). In short, the relaxing vibe and the autonomous writing in online settings liberate and empower language learners. Even though the aforementioned studies have shown encouraging results, the best practices of using blogs for language learning purposes and the mechanisms underlining the blogging process for this purpose remain underexplored – “Blogging doesn’t simply happen” (Arena, 2008, p. 1). O’Dowd and Waire (2009) in their review on task design in telecollaboration contended that the choice and the design of tasks have scarcely been reported in the literature; and when they are, they are presented as an “unproblematic fait accompli” (p. 174). A clear pedagogical framework is essential to ensure learning productivity (Pegrum, 2009). This study attempts to enrich the literature with a theme- and taskbased blog-writing project between two groups of college-level English learners launched to connect two universities: one in the north of Taiwan and the other in the south of Taiwan.
2. Literature review 2.1. The educational use of blogs Blogs, as a social networking tool, have shown multifaceted values for general educational purposes, including the scaffolding effect (Kajder & Bull, 2003), thought-sharing (Boling, Castek, Zawilinski, Barton, & Nierlich, 2008), feedback provision (Blair, 2003), (learning) performance predictor (Du & Wagner, 2005), opinion exchanging, meticulous writing, and motivation booster (Blair, 2003; Wilder & Mongillo, 2007). In short, from the socio-cultural perspective of constructivism, the sheer force to keep the ball rolling comes from the synergy of the learner community: students’ urge to post messages online has gone beyond getting grades (Blair, 2003). They give and gain feedback for a deep understanding of the subject matter and their intended audience. Despite the prevalent support from classroom teachers and researchers, Arena (2008) responded with a candid precaution that the use of blogs may still fail without a proper instructional framework. Pegrum (2009) even used the metaphorical title “From Blogs to Bombs” to address the significance of task design and project implementation, while Krause (2005) demystified the use of blogs by sharing his negative experiences. Krause disappointedly gave up on this highly recommended tool after three lessons were learned: (1) vague learning tasks and an unspecific audience jeopardize students’ participation; (2) blogs sometimes can obfuscate the situation when simple email listserv could have been more effective; and (3) blogs work best for publishing individual texts that are near completion since revision advice is seldom sought on the platform. These doubts collectively indicate that learning outcomes vary with other factors involved in a blog project. As
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blogs are gaining popularity in classrooms, not only is a re-examination with multiple lenses necessary, but discipline-specific studies are also needed to explicitly inform teachers and learners about the affordance of the tool. The next section reviews blogs’ educational capacity in the target context of the present study – language learning.
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2.2. Blogging in L2/foreign language contexts By generalizing the educational benefits of blogs, language teachers/researchers hypothesized that the effects in L2 (second language) contexts would be similar to L1 (first language) in theory (Alm, 2006; Duffy & Bruns, 2006; Jee, 2008; Kim, 2008; Zhang, 2009). Nonetheless, with common psycho-cognitive barriers (e.g., EFL students’ minimal interest and low self-confidence in learning the language or culture from a remote region, as well as their need to rebuild L2 cognitive models identified by Li, 2009), unexpected complications might arise in blog projects for language learning. Empirical accounts grounded in various contexts are needed to verify the ideal hypotheses of L2 blogging. Golonka et al. (2012) pointed out the scarcity of quantitative studies showing how blogs can improve L2 productive skills. In response, the current study adopted textual blogs to mediate learning tasks, with the following review focusing on L2 writing research among blog-mediated projects as a prelude to the chosen research context. The primary purpose of blogging, like most other Internet-based applications, is for communication (Arslan & S¸ ahin-Kızıl, 2010). Several empirical studies have been conducted at the university level or in the professional fields to train learners’ communicative writing (Spence & Liu, 2013); however, divergent enabling objectives and instructional designs yielded inconsistent findings. Pinkman (2005) conducted a small-scaled action research in a foreign language classroom at a Japanese university by incorporating blogs to assist 15 students in an after-class project. Findings from the questionnaire and interviews indicated that the participants’ motivation and interests after a 16-week program increased due to the interaction and feedback from their peers and teacher. The project also helped students’ reading–writing skills as well as their communication needs. Mynard (2008) later reported a case study of 26 female Japanese students keeping journals on blogs (L2 free writing to communicate with the teacher) for a semester. Through a content analysis, she categorized the topics of students’ messages, concluding that blogs have a positive effect on students’ critical thinking. Nevertheless, her participants did not interact with each other via the social networking tool; hence, she recommended an expansion of the blog’s connectivity which then could become a platform for students to exchange personal reflections. More recently, 18 college students (as a treatment group) in P.J. Chen’s (2010) study blogged their daily learning logs and integrated peer reviews. In comparison with a control group receiving conventional composition training, results from a survey, observation notes, TOEFL TWE (Test of Written English) test (pre-test and post-tests), and writing samples from both groups, showed that no significant differences existed between the two groups in the following aspects: linguistic improvement, strategy use, perception of writing class, motivation, and anxiety. However, the treatment group outperformed the control group in meta-linguistic awareness, while the latter excelled in self-efficacy for writing. Using blogs for process-writing training, 13 Taiwanese EFL college students in Liou and Peng (2009) published formal essays and sought peer feedback. Based on students’ revisions, peer feedback, and a perception survey, the researchers found an increase of feedback quality as the project proceeded despite the mediocre feedback on the receivers’ side – the participants had mixed feelings about blog-mediated peer review. At the end of
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the project, participants indicated a desire for outside readers as it might increase their blogging motivation. A similar model was adopted by Arslan and S¸ ahin-Kızıl (2010) in Turkey, where 27 EFL participants in the treatment group of blog-integrated writing instruction outperformed their counterparts (23 in the control group) in the aspects of content and organization, but not in vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Compared to other similar studies, Arslan and S¸ ahin-Kızıl (2010) incorporated five performance indicators to delineate the multi-layered nature of online communicative writing. In fact, language learners need appropriate guidance to customize their writing for various purposes. However, Wu (2006) encountered a different problem with his seven low intermediate learners while using a similar writing task design as Liou and Peng’s (2009) and Arslan and S¸ ahin-Kızıl’s (2010). From the surface view, the students used peer review to give hearty support and extravagant compliments, yet the survey results and the peers’ and teachers’ comments both showed little effect on student writing, and the posting rate was low. Wu in his later research (2008) recruited 51 students in a similar blog-writing project yet focused more on their familiarity and the frequency of using blogs. He also found a low peer feedback frequency and a wide gap between students’ beliefs and actions: they thought blogging would be beneficial but in fact rarely used it. Echoing Liou and Peng’s conclusion, Wu’s participants also desired collaboration from outside of school. A pedagogical suggestion they shared was the necessary training for peer review and feedback provision. Sun (2010) took a different approach to examine students’ learning performance by recruiting 23 students to engage in academic writing practices on blogs and analyzed the t-units (representing the syntactical complexity) in the first and the last three blog entries. Students’ self-reports and two raters’ scoring both showed a significant difference between before the treatment and after the treatment. Various editing strategies were displayed in the process of self-publishing. In spite of not having interactive peer feedback, most students acknowledged the benefit brought by the blogging treatment for academic writing training. Regardless of the inconsistent results in the aforementioned studies, blogs’ affordances for improving students’ communicative writing (linguistically and/or non-linguistically) have been unanimous. Evidently, the read–write tool facilitates learners’ meaningful communication, and learning progress can be realized within a timeframe. Despite this, if further understanding of how learners’ writing evolves with time is to be pursued, micro- and macro-levels of analyses revealing procedural development should be considered equally crucial – to complement the conventional pre-post evaluative configurations. Students’ perceptions of blogs and blogging have been the most investigated topic in related research (e.g., P. J. Chen, 2010; Sun, 2010). Findings collectively show students’ positive attitudes toward the tool; however, regardless of how popular blogging may be with L2 students, certain instructional precautions and problems should be addressed and remedied: (1) task designs are hardly discussed (Golonka et al., 2012; O’Dowd and Waire, 2009); (2) most researched blog-mediated tasks still target essay writing and peer review (e.g., Arslan and S¸ ahin-Kızıl, 2010; Liou & Peng, 2009; Mynard, 2008; Sun 2010; Wu, 2006) instead of sheer information exchanging or reflection sharing predominantly seen on regular blogs; and (3) learners’ desire to reach out to an outside audience (Bahce & Taslaci, 2009; Liou & Peng, 2009). While communication effectiveness and information exchange are prioritized in the digital era (Warschauer, 2007), an alternative research direction reflecting the affordance of task-based discussions is called for to evaluate blog-mediated activities.
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2.3. Task types Among many variables in task design, educators have explored and found task types to be important for students’ learning, and suggested examining the feasibility of a task from the aspects of task type, interactant, and content (Ellis, 2003). In classroom-based and computer-mediated communication (CMC) based studies, diverse taxonomies of task types have been reported (Ellis, 2003, Nunan, 2004; Pattison, 1987; Pica, Kanagy, & Falodun, 1993; O’Dowd and Waire, 2009; Willis, 1996). Among all the taxonomies, literature has shown that tasks requiring two-way information exchanges can increase negotiation (Ellis, 2003; Pica et al., 1993). Taking this as a premise, under the two-way communicative task type, there are two subtypes: open-ended and closed-ended task types (Pica et al., 1993). The main differences between the two lay in the convergence of outcomes and the amount of teacher’s guidance. Closed-ended tasks, or collaborative tasks (O’Dowd and Waire, 2009), seek convergent goals or singularity of outcomes (e.g., jigsaw, information gap, decision making, and problem-solving), while open-ended tasks allow for multiple outcome options. Closed tasks also feature the stepwise detailed guidance teachers offer (cf. the five-step instruction in Darhower, 2000) to direct students on diverse paths to meet at some common point, which tends to boost negotiation and information exchange more than its open counterpart (Blake, 2000; Pica et al., 1993). Pertinent studies of these two task types have also yielded inconsistent conclusions, and comparative research in CMC contexts is still scarce in the existent body of scholarly works. Some research has shown that in a close-ended task learners can intensively experience comprehension of input, feedback on production, and interlanguage modification while jointly working towards task completion. These effects could be intensified when communication takes place online. Smith (2003) evaluated the learning performance of 14 collegelevel ESL (English as a Second Language) students who participated in his synchronous CMC project to complete closed tasks. Results indicate that one-third of the total relay turns between learners were negotiated interactions (especially whenever non-understandings occurred), while the other two-thirds consisted of collaborative progress toward task completion. Closed tasks in the online environment made learners feel compelled to seek specific closure, leading them to confirm and reconfirm more often than in F2F interaction. Similarly in Blake’s (2000) research, closed tasks (especially jigsaw) elicited noticing effect and induced much negotiation from 50 Spanish learners during text chats. Despite the closed-ended task type being highly recommended, open-ended tasks which do not require the interlocutors to agree or disagree with each other have also been reported to elicit wider lexical and grammatical performance and a more pleasant discussion experience (Darhower, 2000; Kelly-Lally, 2006). In O’Dowd and Waire’s (2009) study, it was reported that task preference can also be culturally related. The American participants in one of the reported case studies sensed more freedom in open tasks, while their Spanish partners preferred the closed tasks due to the more focused and effective exchanges that build a joint understanding of the task objective. Kelm (1992) reported that 15 originally unsuccessful and unmotivated Portuguese learners ended up producing a huge quantity of conversational output (ended with requests or questions) in openended CMC tasks. In other words, open-ended tasks might have the potential to reset L2 learners’ affective filters. However, a side effect should be noted: the more open a task is (i.e., the less guidance teachers offer), the fewer opportunities there are for negotiation and interlanguage to develop. The two task types obviously have their respective pros and cons, and their effects should be contextually re-examined for further clarification. This once again illustrates how task design can affect outcomes and how more research
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should be conducted to bridge the gap in the literature: manipulating closed and open tasks for learners to conduct discussions on blogs may serve as an alternative method to train their negotiation skills. To answer the call for further research, this telecollaboration study aimed to answer the following research questions.
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(1) Does task type affect students’ communication output in terms of idea units (IUs) in blogs? (2) Does the quality of students’ communicative writing change as telecollaboration proceeds with time?
3. Methodology 3.1. Participants The current project was conducted through a telecollaboration between two writing classes in an urban university in northern and a rural one in southern Taiwan. Thirty-four English-majors (17 from each university) between the ages of 17 and 21 formed 17 dyads and engaged in 10-week blog-mediated discussions. The orientation included video conferencing via Skype between the two classes for ice-breaking, the use of Blogger (a free blog platform provided by Google Inc.), and an introduction of ground rules to both groups.
3.2. Instructional design In order to promote the depth of discussion through two-way blogging, the theme “SelfAwareness” closely related to the participants’ daily lives was set to elicit various personal opinions – their contemplations on thinking, learning, and living in the contemporary world as a college student. This approach is validated by previous research: two-way communication tasks optimize group productivity and language output (Coughlin & Duff, 1994; Ellis, 2003, 2005). A theme also cognitively facilitates learners’ productions and recalls of IUs (i.e., “semantic units”; Benton, Glover, & Plake, 1984, p. 195) (Esmaeili, 2002; Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins, 2001). Meanwhile, concept identification should retrieve a wider range of lexical knowledge from learners (Skehan, 1998). A weekly writing prompt was announced on a project website titled The Rights to Write accessible to all participants. Students were expected to reflect on and respond to the prompts in a tandem and dialogical manner. This project was embedded as part of the writing assignments for two classes (Composition/Composition & Conversation); each student was instructed to post at least one initial message and then offer feedback (as much as preferred) to the counterpart in their own time. Despite the project being part of the course requirement and students’ earning credits from completing the project assignments, the instructors mainly graded them by their level of dedication: timely responses, responsiveness to their partners’ inquiries and prompts, and task completion. The instructional objective was to encourage students to continuously engage themselves in inspiring discussions, growing to manifest semantic richness, and complexity (IU density) during the information exchange period in the target language. This meaningful activity concerned the researchers far more than the task products; moreover, the products served to raise communication needs and thus only included a trivial percentage of the score. After all, as blogs are intended for socializing in nature, completing a specific product is never the primary
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function (Pegrum, 2009). Students’ opinions (knowledge contribution or negotiation), writing styles, and tones of voice were not judged; their language errors were neither corrected nor penalized. The lenient ground rules intended to cultivate a freedom-of-speech ambience and simulate most blogging contexts. Compared to the conventional formal writing training, the blogging activities were apparently more casual and liberal. This dialogical training (conversations with an authentic target reader) departed from conventional formal writing – the other thread of the curriculum, including textual analysis, TOEFL/TOEIC/GEPT written tests, and argumentation in the semester. The evaluation and instructional emphases were also very dissimilar between the two: the blog project highlighted peer-interaction and information exchange, and written tests/essay exercises concerned grammatical accuracy, syntactical clarity, and topical cohesion. It should be noted that no attempt was made to make this blog-based writing project a stand-alone writing curriculum. Students’ performance, either in this project or during that period of time, was accumulative from their holistic L2 learning experience – the development was a continuum. In other words, their improvement, if shown, could be inevitably affected to some extent by their another study. However, this blogging activity should be considered as a formative assessment in which writers interpreted and reacted to responses from a real audience and chose proper writing techniques/styles/genres (argumentative, narrative, etc.) to communicate or negotiate effectively online. In the present study, all the topics and task types were not in specific order to form any specific combinations. The topics were not pre-determined, but emerged naturally with the social news or current events. More specifically, all topics were chosen based on one principle: they were closely related to the students or/and frequently mentioned during the class time and/or in the news. Two types of tasks were included: open vs. closed. The step-wise instruction coupled with the requirement of co-constructing a task product was used to set a clear dichotomy between the two. An open task, judging by its goal orientation and outcome option(s), allowed divergent (open-ended) results or conclusions, whereas a closed task should target a convergent (close-ended) result and only one outcome option (Pica et al., 1993). For example, the implementation chart in Figure 1 showed the open tasks which did not require negotiation and decision making by the dyads. These tasks were descriptive such as “Introducing your city” and “My favorite task.” The closed tasks required decision-making and problem-solving skills of the learners for a final product such as a letter to the editor or a decision to the political election. As aforementioned, the effects of the two task types on learners’ performance in CMC are inconclusive, and this factor is rarely discussed in a blogging context. Hence, the present study highlighted this critical variable to mend the gap in the literature. 3.3. Data collection and analysis In the present study, the main focus was on the procedural development of online discussion, rather than the conventional emphasis on task product evaluation as Ellis (2003) suggested. The final products from the closed tasks were not included for analysis in this study. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through three instruments: blog message archives (to examine information content and procedural growth of writing), supplemented with a perception survey (to indicate students’ attitudes toward the project implementation in Part 1 and task design in Part 2, see the Appendix), and two rounds of self- and peer-appraisals (to inspect the partnership and peer performance). In this research, language learners’ output performance (quantities of IUs and the texts used for each IU in their weekly posts) was hypothesized to be affected by task type and the
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Figure 1. Implementation flowchart.
function of time; the potential relationships between the variables and students’ output were revealed by a linear regression analysis and plotting. When performing the regression analysis, closed tasks were coded as dummy variable of 1 and open tasks as 0. The analysis identified which task type had a higher likelihood to elicit more IUs. For the function of time, the researchers attempted to see how the writing telecollaboration might change students’ writing behaviors as the project progressed. We postulated that if the training could generate positive impact on their communicative writing, there should be upward trend lines indicating participants’ improvement of idea elaboration (Biber & Gray, 2010; Liaw & Bunn Le-Master, 2010) and writing complexity (Benton et al., 1984) as collaboration time increased. Possible alteration was made visible by plotting the weekly ratios between word and IU counts, i.e., the amount of text that describes an idea. The self- and peer-appraisal and perception survey results would be used to triangulate students’ learning performance. Students’ communication output was operationalized as the IUs appearing in students’ blog message archives. The written discourse used for blogging is mostly semi-spoken and semi-written; therefore, IUs (targeting semantic dimension) were an appropriate choice to quantify the blog-mediated communication output due to the focus on idea content over lexical or syntactic complexity. In other words, IUs can reflect the
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communicative essence of the blogging corpus better than t-units used for conventional written modality or utterances for stream of speech (see Crookes, 1990; Kroll, 1977 for more detailed definitions). Hincks (2010) used IUs to determine the amount of information content and help conclude a significant difference in students’ oral presentations between initial and final stages. In other words, students’ message archives on their blogs should disclose the information transmission and the growth of their self-expressions in L2 (if shown). Students’ self- and peer-appraisals and their responses to the perception survey were supplemented to the quantitative analyses for the purpose of data triangulation. The appraisals were self- and peer-evaluation scores (ranging from 1 to 100); students gave to themselves and to each other (keypals). Appraisal guidelines were offered as part of the orientation, and judged from three aspects of dedication: (1) responding in a timely manner; (2) addressing their partners’ inquiries and prompts; and (3) completing the task – with each item valued at 1/3 of the total score. The survey questions were primarily sourced from Bakar and Ismail (2009, p. 55–57) and Sun (2010), and later customized by the constructs of the present study (for the key variables). The validity of the questionnaire and appraisals were already verified in a pilot study conducted in the prior year (W. C. Chen & Shih, 2010). A total of four experienced raters (including the researchers) shared the coding task. To establish inter-rater reliability, the four raters first coded 20% of the data and then met for six times to compare their results. After reviewing the differences, detailed clarifications allowed the raters to re-establish the agreements on the coding. Then they worked individually to process the remaining data yet still met occasionally when confusions occurred to re-calibrate everyone’s understanding. The project design serves as an example to address “a range of (writing) genres generated situationally for different media” (Kern, Ware, & Warschauer, 2008, p. 284) in the Web 2.0 era. The findings will hopefully offer future researchers or classroom practitioners clear guidelines on how to manipulate variables to attain the desirable learning outcomes in a CMC-supported learning project. 4. Results and discussion During the 10 weeks of blog-mediated collaboration, 17 dyads generated a total of 708 messages (x ¼ 2:08, SD ¼ 0.86) and a word count of 139,412 (x ¼ 411:85, SD ¼ 174.38). To further reveal the density of information content in the messages and texts, 14,429 IUs (x ¼ 84:88, SD ¼ 30.54) were identified and the weekly ratios between word, message, and IU counts were calculated. To answer the first research inquiry, task type was examined to identify possible effects on students’ communication quality. Among 10 tasks, four were open and six were closed. Each open task averagely induced 13,229 words (SD ¼ 3132.33), 68.5 messages (SD ¼ 20.49), and 1253 IUs (SD ¼ 280.58) from all the participants; each closed task induced averagely 14,416 words (SD ¼ 2281.05), 72.33 messages (SD ¼ 16.83), and 1569 IUs (SD ¼ 303.17). While word and message counts are fairly close between the two task types, IU counts indicate a possible discrepancy. A linear regression with task type as the independent variable and IUs as the dependent variables was performed. As indicated in Table 1, compared to open tasks, closed tasks inclined to induce significantly more IUs in each weekly discussion (p < 0.005, R2 ¼ 0.53, and B ¼ 0.433) which means 53% of the variance in IUs can be explained by the task-type predictor. This outcome is consistent with Pica et al. (1993) and Darhower (2000), who conducted respective studies in an F2F setting and in an online environment. Closed tasks required an end product from the dyads (e.g., Strawberry Generation as
84.373 0.433
B
b
6.138 0.106
Std. error
Unstandardized coefficients
649,337.843 1375,448.000 b
Residual Total
Sum of squares
0.528
726,110.157
a
R2 square
Regression
0.727
R
Predictors: Open_Close. Dependent variable: IU. Note: a value of 0.05 is the cut-off point.
a
Constant (open) Closed
Model
Coefficients
1
Model
ANOVA
1
Model
Model summary
Table 1. Linear regression results (task type – IUs).
0.727
Beta
Standardized coefficients
169 170
1
df
0.525
Adjusted R 2
13.747 14.111
t
3842.236
726,110.157
Mean square
61.98577
Std. error of the estimate
0.000 0.000
Sig.
188.981
F
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72.256 0.371
Lower bound
96.489 0.494
Upper bound
95.0% confidence interval for B
0.000
Sig.
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Figure 2. Sample (closed) task. Note: Source: CWTV (2010).
shown in Figure 2); their prompts were hence explicit and step-wise in the course of forming a work plan – aiming toward product completion, e.g., “ . . .How about we start googling online and get back to each other in a day or two. . .” (an excerpt from Task 8). Open tasks did not require a final product, and elicited mainly personal sharing or information exchange (e.g., identifying a foreign site as shown in Figure 3); hence, succinct and thought-provoking prompts emerged, e.g., “. . .Some people said it’s gonna be the end of the world, ya think?” (an excerpt from Task 10). Specifically, closed communicative tasks were found to promote in-depth and intensive negotiations among group members: the goal orientation of seeking a convergent solution/conclusion and the singular outcome option harnessed learners’ on-task discussions (Pica et al., 1993). In order to reach the joint goal, learners manipulated input (including the information, opinions from the partners, and instructional prompts) to form a work plan (output) (Ellis, 2003). In contrast, open tasks focusing on information exchange and opinion sharing are comparatively more fun (Darhower, 2000; O’Dowd and Waire, 2009); however, when discussing a topic online without a specific pre-determined goal, much random chitchat and/or superficial discussion occurs (Hamid & Akter, 2009). Part One of the survey results revealed students’ attitudes toward the task and topic designs (cf. Appendix for item means and SD). Student participants were asked to fill out a Likert-scaled survey, where a response of four indicated strong agreement and one strong disagreement, while a response of five meant that the question was not applicable (N/A) to their situation. On the whole, students reflected positively on the task design, based on their acceptance of both task types and controversial topics. However, if
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Figure 3. Sample (open) task.
comparing between the two, 68% preferred closed tasks to open ones: they preferred structured closed tasks with explicit instructions. This seems to reflect the findings of O’Dowd and Waire’s (2009) study in which culture became a factor in task design. Meanwhile, 63% did not feel that blog writing should aim at a task product. In fact, blogs originally were created for social networking purposes. In order to identify the possible effects of topic selection, four items verified the positive reactions (53%–80%) students had for all topics under the Self-Awareness theme, and also acknowledged the freedom inherent in open tasks (61%). Although task types have certain influence on learning outcomes, it is also crucial to choose reverberating (conceptually debatable) topics to elevate learners’ motivation (Arnold & Ducate, 2006). To examine the function of time and its effect on communication quality as the writing project proceeded (the second research inquiry), the ratios of word and IU counts (indicating increased/decreased idea elaboration in each IU, namely the amount of words used to describe each IU) from Tasks 1 to 10 were computed. The scatter plot in Figure 4 shows all the ratios generated by each dyad each week. As the trend lines (lines of best fit) indicate, most of the dyads improved steadily and gradually (ranging from 5% to 67%). This indicates the increase of text elaboration and semantic complexity in blogging. This improvement with the function of time was not (at least not directly) contributed by the training of written tests and argumentative writing taught during the semester, since they focused on grammatical accuracy, syntactical clarity, and organization. Excerpts 1 and 2 illustrate the tangible evidence of procedural growth of a student (in Dyad 7) from his Week 2 and Week 6 posts. The texts are presented in their original form, i.e., unedited for language errors. The marks [/] indicate how the IUs were identified. Although both have seven IUs and both were opinion elaborations, the Week 6 excerpt, compared to that of
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Figure 4. Scatter plot and trendlines of ratios between word and IU counts generated by every dyad (D) every week.
Week 2, apparently contains more lexico-descriptors for the main issue, implying the ability to create a more concrete and detailed background picture followed by explicit and supported comments for readers. With richer lexis and despite grammatical errors, the student became more expressive. In telecommunication behaviors (Tetzchner & Nordby, 1991), this ability of giving vivid descriptions or powerful statements is important for writers in online communication where little assumption should be made regarding the readers’ prior experience and/or knowledge. Week 2 post (41 words/7 IUs) I was tutoring a student, [/] discovered that he was listening to rap. [/] Being curious and surprised [/], I asked him what his opinion about American music is. [/] So he answered me, “dark, and real!!!”, [/] but no one should judge [/] Compared to my friends [/]. . .
Week 6 post (59 words/7 IUs) The sudden disqualification of Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yanh Shu-chun is like an exploding volcano. [/] The unstoppable smoke and rage keep spreading all over [/] from China to Taiwan and Korea. [/] The incident built the tension between the three countries. [/] I asked my father his opinion about the disqualification verdict. [/] He said everything was kinda fishy. . .. [/] and we aren’t supposed to judge from the surface.[/]
One problematic pair (Dyad 11) failed to benefit from the collaboration. The student in Dyad 11 often complained to the instructors about her keypal for his frequent procrastination during their blog discussions. Since the writing project was part of the course requirements, the irritated participant was often anxious about the consequences of failing the assignments; the interruptive interaction logically jeopardized their partnership and learning performance. O’Dowd and Waire (2009) suggested that the “tuning-in process” (p. 184) is the key in
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telecollaboration. Various degrees of tuning-in could explain the unequal performance (indicated by the different slopes of the trend lines in Figure 4) across the dyads in the present study. Part Two’s survey results were consistent with the quantitative statistical analysis above (cf. Appendix for item means and SD). Most of the students reflected positively on the weekly discussions, and voiced their thoughts online more than in real life (77%). As the project proceeded, students felt this comparatively informal blogging activity also benefited their formal writing (83%) and even possibly their oral fluency (72%). These two benefits might result from their expanded thematic vocabularies (among 92% of the participants) and the understanding of taking readers’ feelings into consideration (74%), which could explain the difference between the Week-2 and Week-6 writing excerpts. The regular blogging also enriched their general learning experience. Eighty-two percent enjoyed the interaction with outside readers, and 97% felt unleashed from the physical classroom. Sixty percent often chatted about the weekly topics with friends, 89% felt inspired or intrigued by their keypals’ comments, and 83% agreed that the crossinstitutional online collaboration could complement in-class activities. Although students’ online dialogues might imply a colloquial writing style or the tolerance of careless linguistic forms (Kern, 1995), most students (97%) sensed that the reduced time pressure to when blogging is a merit. Ninety-four percent still checked their language despite the casual nature of blog writing, and 77% suggested having pre-task discussions in class before posting on blogs. Consistent with the trend lines in Figure 3 and the survey result of Part Two, significant differences (p < 0.05 in Pairs 1 and 2 t-tests) can be seen in Table 2 between students’ mid-term and final self-appraisal results from both sides. The participants reported having gained a higher level of satisfaction with their own learning performance at the end compared to the middle of the semester. Moreover, the peer-evaluation results showed no significant differences (p > 0.05 in Pairs 3 and 4 t-tests) between the two universities in both the middle and the end of the project. As mentioned earlier, this finding indicates that most of the participants might have acknowledged each other’s and personal efforts in the collaboration. The positive atmosphere grew as the project proceeded. 5. Conclusion Innovative applications of blog with sophisticated technology may lead to multiple opportunities for telecollaborative students to further develop the target language (Ducate & Lomicka, 2008; Liaw & Bunn Le-Master, 2010; Sun, 2010). Findings of this study indicate that closed-type tasks are likely to induce more IUs than open-type tasks when discussion topics are not considered. Meanwhile, communicative writing via Web 2.0 media is trainable when a suitable project is designed and implemented for a continuous period of time. Students can be taught through adequate training how to successfully utilize Web 2.0 to improve their language learning and communicative writing skills in a foreign language. What we have learned from this project is that a critical awareness is needed of the complexity of task design, as well as the factors involved, leading to desired outcomes. For instance, the decisions and effects of discussion topics were unpredictable and hence hard to measure. We attempted to choose hot topics (from instructors’ view) to induce students’ willingness to communicate (Kang, 005), and still left them plenty of freedom and flexibility to optimize the “openness” in open-ended tasks, as Ducate and Lomicka (2008) suggested. However, it is undeniable and inevitable that topic selection may affect
Mid_Self_School1 Final_Self_School1 Mid_Self_School2 Final_Self_School2 Mid_Peer_School1 Mid_Peer_School2 Final_Peer_School1 – Final_Peer_School2
Pair 1
12.77636
7.15480
5.76471
0.88235
4.51712
6.17647
6.87333
Std. deviation
Mean
2.35294
17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17
N
78.8235 85.0000 78.8235 84.5882 83.5294 81.1765 84.1176 85.0000
Note: a value of 0.05 is the cut-off point.
Pair 4
Pair 3
Pair 2
Pair 4
Pair 3
Pair 2
Mid_Self_School1 Final_Self_School1 Mid_Self_School2 Final_Self_School2 Mid_Peer_School1 Mid_Peer_School2 Final_Peer_School1 Final_Peer_School2
Pair 1
Mean
3.09872
1.66703
1.73529
1.09556
Std. error mean
5.686,64
5.88688
1.18100 7.45135
2.08605
3.85398
Upper
9.44337
8.49896
Lower
95% confidence interval of the difference
2.07973 1.76777 1.68958 0.75760 2.25916 2.20833 2.78637 2.30887
Std. error mean
Paired differences
8.57493 7.28869 6.96631 3.12368 9.31476 9.10519 11.48849 9.51972
Std. deviation
Table 2. Paired samples t-tests between self- and peer-appraisals.
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0.285
1.411
3.322
5.638
t
16
16
16
16
df
0.779
.177
.004
.000
Sig. (2-tailed)
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communication output, which constitutes the first limit of this study. In addition, the development of keypal partnerships can also affect students’ level of devotion to the collaboration, as what was raised as part of the findings, which is a common limitation in networked learning projects (W. C. Chen, 2012). Furthermore, it is possible that a different group configuration in a similar project could affect students’ discussion patterns (KellyLally, 2006). These underexplored factors are also worthy topics for future research. Finally, this blog project was not intended to replace conventional writing training. Instead, it serves as a supplementary role to actualize communicative writing for Web 2.0 media, and enrich students’ experience in writing classes. The progress students showed was not only linguistic but also cognitive and affective. Despite the above limitations, this research still offers the following contributions: (1) shedding light on the academic and educational capacity of blog-mediated telecollaboration; (2) revealing multiple factors that might affect the telecollaborative mechanism with the use of blogs for language learning purposes; and finally (3) validating interactive blogging activities’ educational value for complementing formal writing training. In light of telecommunication behaviors (Tetzchner & Nordby, 1991), this unconventional blogging project may turn the geographical constraints into advantages: for EFL or introverted learners: writing in such projects affords “anonymity and the lack of situational cues. . . may actually enhance closeness rather than distance [between readers and writers].” Furthermore, bloggers in such a project have the opportunity to learn nonverbal communication conventions in the Web 2.0 era.
Acknowledgements We are grateful to the 34 students who participated in the study. This work was partially supported by the National Science Council in Taiwan (NSC 101-2410-H-194-111, NSC 1002511-S-006-001-MY2, and NSC 98-2511-S-006-003-MY2), and by the 2011 KPI Research Project at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.
Notes on contributors Wen-Chun Chen received her PhD degree in curriculum and instruction from Texas A&M University, College Station, and an MA degree in TESOL from New York University, USA. She is currently an assistant professor as National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi County, Taiwan. Her major research interests include cross-cultural communication and teacher education for technology-supported language teaching/learning. In the past 10 years, she has worked with ESL/EFL/ESP learners of all age groups in both the USA and Taiwan. Yu-Chih Doris Shih received her PhD degree in curriculum and instruction (with an emphasis of educational technology) from Texas A&M University, USA. She is an associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Fu-Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of foreign languages and cultural learning with technologies, multimedia education, and distance learning. Gi-Zen Liu received his PhD degree in instructional systems technology from Indiana University Bloomington, USA. He is director of the Foreign Language Center and an associate professor of Foreign Languages & Literature Department at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan City, Taiwan. He has received five research awards from the College of Liberal Arts at NCKU in 2007–2011 and another from the National Science Council of Taiwan in 2012. His research interests include instructional technology and design, CALL, CMC, and blended language learning.
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Appendix Question Items in the Final Perception Survey (translated from Chinese into English)
Student participants were asked to rate their responses on a Likert scale, with 4 indicated strong agreement and 1 strong disagreement, while 5 indicated that the question was not applicable to their situation.
Part 1. Task/topic designs 1. I like open-ended tasks (no need to reach an agreement/decision/ conclusion).
Positive (3þ4)
Negative (1þ2)
Mean
SD
93%
7%
3.48
0.72
(Continued on next page)
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Negative (1þ2)
Mean
SD
2. I prefer conclusive tasks (striving to reach a consent) than open-ended tasks (no need to reach an agreement/decision/conclusion).
68%
38%
2.38
0.59
3. I like controversial topics (e.g., Strawberry Generation). 4. I prefer the tasks which require a task product. I can gain a sense of accomplishment (e.g., a letter to the editor). 5. I like a completely open task, i.e., we can decide to discuss any topic of our choice. 6. I prefer the prompts tying to famous current news (e.g., municipal election). 7. I like the tasks requiring clue/ information searching, e.g., guessing a foreign city. 8. I prefer the tasks focusing on selfdiscovery (e.g., personal political views, moral, or values). 9. Sometimes I would talk about the blogging topics with my friends. 10. Sometimes I would expand the blog discussion topics to my other assignments/courses. Part 2. Project Setup 11. I can express myself more freely and more candidly on the blog than in real life. 12. The online informal English writing benefits my formal writing skills. 13. The online informal and conversational writing benefits my verbal communication in English. 14. Engaging in thematic online discussions enriches my vocabulary in English. 15. The cross-institutional telecollaboration allows me to interact with outside audience in English, rather than being limited to communicating with my teachers and classmates in the classroom. 16. Social networking media, like blogs, are supposed to break the boundary of physical classroom, broaden our thoughts, and open information exchange channels. 17. Sometimes my classmates and I would talk about our online discussions with our keypals.
80%
20%
3.15
0.74
63%
47%
2.20
0.79
61%
39%
2.88
0.99
61%
39%
2.70
0.85
53%
43%
2.70
0.99
80%
20%
3.05
0.81
73%
27%
2.93
0.89
76%
24%
2.88
0.69
77%
23%
3.11
0.76
83%
17%
3.20
0.72
72%
28%
3.02
0.86
92%
8%
3.34
0.64
82%
18%
3.23
0.77
97%
3%
3.40
0.55
60%
40%
2.80
0.76
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18. Sometimes I would ponder on my keypals’ opinions about the discussion topics. 19. Sometimes I surprise myself by the way in which I talk online with my keypal: I am bold, blunt, and provocative, unlike how I am in real life. 20. I would take the readers’ feelings and resonance into consideration when I post comments online. 21. I take my time processing and/or searching for information when publishing my comments on social media, since I do not feel pressured or nervous like I do in class discussions. 22. Although it is an informal and almost conversational writing, I would still do grammar and spelling checks, and pay attention to the passage flow. 23. This kind of online crossinstitutional collaboration compliments classroom activities. 24. If an in-class discussion on the weekly topic can take place before the weekly blog posting begins, it will help my online discussions a lot.
305
Positive (3þ4)
Negative (1þ2)
Mean
SD
89%
11%
2.66
0.76
45%
55%
3.43
0.70
74%
26%
2.54
0.74
97%
3%
3.40
0.55
94%
6%
3.34
0.60
83%
17%
3.14
0.77
77%
23%
2.97
0.66
Note: (1) The original questionnaire was in Chinese to prevent any confusion our freshmen students might have due to their limited English reading proficiency. A verbal guidance was offered before the students filled out the questionnaire. (2) No one rated 5 (N/A) hence were not recorded.
