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CALL in CONTEXT

Proceedings

Berkeley, University of California

7 - 9 July 2017

Composed by Jozef Colpaert, Ann Aerts, Rick Kern, Mark Kaiser

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Proceedings, 2017
Cover: Nieuwe Media Dienst, University of Antwerp

ISBN 9789057285509
Depotnummer: D/2017/12.293/19

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Universiteit Antwerpen
Prinsstraat 13
2000 Antwerpen
www.uantwerpen.be

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Table of contents
FOREWORD ........................................................................................................................................................... 9
KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 11
DOROTHY CHUN...........................................................................................................................................................13
Contextual Challenges of Telecollaboration 2.0 ..................................................................................................13
PHIL HUBBARD.............................................................................................................................................................14
Theory in CALL Research: The Role of Context .....................................................................................................14
SELECTED PLENARIES ........................................................................................................................................... 15
LILIANA CUESTA MEDINA, MAURICIO ESTEBAN BUITRAGO ...................................................................................................17
Discovering students’ digital footprints in their learning trajectories .................................................................17
CAROLIN FUCHS ...........................................................................................................................................................26
“I somewhat wasted the chance to communicate” – socio-institutional factors in a Hong Kong-U.S.
telecollaboration..................................................................................................................................................26
HUIFEN LIN .................................................................................................................................................................35
Transparency of Reporting in CALL Meta-analyses between 2003-2015 ............................................................35
PAPER PRESENTATIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 37
SEDAT AKAYOĞLU, GÖLGE SEFEROĞLU .............................................................................................................................39
The Perceptions of Pre-service Teachers of English on Flipped Classroom Model ...............................................39
ANTONIE ALM..............................................................................................................................................................43
From teacher to learner to teacher: building context-awareness for mobile app use through exploration........43
CELIA ANTONIOU..........................................................................................................................................................46
Enhancing the development of the reading and speaking skills of university students online in an l2 academic
context: a socio-cultural theory (sct) approach ...................................................................................................46
ARZAL ARZAL, SHEN CHEN .............................................................................................................................................56
Improving ICT Integration in Language Classrooms: Voices from Teachers in Indonesian Province of Gorontalo
.............................................................................................................................................................................56
EKATERINA BARANCHEEVA .............................................................................................................................................62
Application of foreign language courses in electronic language environment eLang .........................................62
MARIE-THÉRÈSE BATARDIÈRE .........................................................................................................................................66
Observing students’ linguistic variation in an online intercultural exchange ......................................................66
* *, **
BRANISLAV BÉDI , BIRNA ARNBJÖRNSDÓTTIR HANNES HÖGNI VILHJÁLMSSON .....................................................................75
Learners’ Expectations and Experiences in Virtual Reykjavik ..............................................................................75
ANKE BERNS, MANUEL PALOMO-DUARTE, JUAN MANUEL DODERO ......................................................................................83
A mobile learning system to allow students developing their own learning resources .......................................83
FIDEL ÇAKMAK*, GÜLCAN ERÇETIN** ..............................................................................................................................91
Exploring mobile assisted listening strategies by tracking learner behavior: Processes and outcomes ..............91
MÓNICA STELLA CÁRDENAS-CLAROS, LUIS ALBERTO REYES-PAYACÁN, ASTRID CAMPOS-IBACETA, JIMMY VERA-SAAVEDRA.............99
Contextual factors affecting the conceptualization, design and testing of an online platform for L2 listening
skills development ...............................................................................................................................................99
CHING-FEN CHANG .....................................................................................................................................................105
The efficacy of an online writing system for the implementation of process approaches in EFL writing ..........105
CHING-FEN CHANG*, CHENG-CHANG LU** ....................................................................................................................111
Teaching and learning academic writing via an online dialogic feedback system: Tripartite perspectives ......111
HEEJIN CHANG ...........................................................................................................................................................116
E-textbook for an intensive academic writing course in an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) programs:
Design-based research .......................................................................................................................................116

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* ** *** ****, **
JIA LI , ESTHER GEVA , CARRIE DEMMANS EPP , CATHERINE SNOW ANDREW BIEMILLER .............................................446
A synthesis study: Evaluating the applicability and generalisability of technology-supported vocabulary
programs and apps for adolescent ELLs ............................................................................................................446
JIA LI ........................................................................................................................................................................452
What contextual factors influence the effect of texting-based instruction on vocabulary acquisition? An
observation of learners’ behavior and perception .............................................................................................452
JIAN LIAO*, KATHERINE ALLYN MASTERS**, XIAOFEI LU*..................................................................................................456
Foreign Language Learning at an Arboretum Using Telepresence Robots ........................................................456
I-TING DORIS LIN*, JUN SCOTT CHEN HSIEH**, WEN-CHI VIVIAN WU* ..............................................................................461
Ubiquitous English idiom learning via mobile applications ...............................................................................461
ZHIHONG LU*, XIANGYUE DIAO*, MAN YANG*, ZHENXIAO LI** ........................................................................................470
Peer scoring on EFL learners’ oral production in CBT environments ..................................................................470
* **
QING MA , JIA LI .....................................................................................................................................................479
Personalisation and self-regulation of university students’ vocabulary learning mediated by mobile
technologies in a Chinese context ......................................................................................................................479
MAHMOOD-UL-HASSAN, ARSHAD BASHIR ......................................................................................................................484
The role of Technology in language learning in a culturally diverse class: A case study of a Pakistani University
...........................................................................................................................................................................484
S. SUSAN MARANDI ....................................................................................................................................................488
Virtual walls and bans: E-learning/CALL hegemonies in the Iranian context ....................................................488
MICHAEL W. MAREK*, WEN-CHI VIVIAN WU** .............................................................................................................496
Seeking a Standard Model for CALL ...................................................................................................................496
CLAUDIA BEATRIZ MARTINS, HERIVELTO MOREIRA ...........................................................................................................504
CALL integration into Modern Languages Courses in Brazil: teachers’ views on the role of context ................504
KERRIE MCKIM ..........................................................................................................................................................511
Cultural Contextualization: Using mobile tools to bring the local context of the learner into the FL classroom
...........................................................................................................................................................................511
BENJAPORN MEEPROM ...............................................................................................................................................515
The Design of English as a Foreign Language Learning through a Language-Learning Digital Game Shaped by
the Social-Cultural Context of Thailand .............................................................................................................515
BING MEI..................................................................................................................................................................530
Preparing pre-service EFL teachers for CALL acceptance: A Chinese perspective ..............................................530
LAUREN A. MENARD ...................................................................................................................................................542
Belief in the Role of Technology by Educational Attainment .............................................................................542
LAUREN A. MENARD, KIMBERLY WALKER MCALISTER .......................................................................................................550
Comprehension of English Text among Saudi Arabian and American Undergraduates ....................................550
LAUREN A. MENARD ...................................................................................................................................................558
A Model for Developing Technology-based Student Learning Targets: Personalizing Assessment and Learning
in Primary Classrooms .......................................................................................................................................558
VERA MENEZES, RONALDO GOMES JUNIOR .....................................................................................................................567
Digital Tools for oral skills development in English ............................................................................................567
BRETT MILLINER .........................................................................................................................................................575
Using online extensive listening to promote language input in an EFL context.................................................575
VINH NGUYEN, ELKE STRACKE .......................................................................................................................................582
The role of CALL in shaping learner autonomy of undergraduate EFL students in the Vietnamese university
setting ................................................................................................................................................................582
ANNA NICOLAOU*, ANA SEVILLA-PAVÓN** ...................................................................................................................589
Redesigning a telecollaboration project towards an ecological constructivist approach ..................................589
HIROYUKI OBARI, STEPHEN LAMBACHER, HIROAKI KOJIMA .................................................................................................598
The Application of Constructivism in Teaching EFL and Worldviews Using Mobile Technologies ....................598
MARINA ORSINI-JONES*, BIN ZOU**, KATE BORTHWICK***, BARBARA CONDE* .................................................................608
B-MELTT (Blending MOOCs for English Language Teacher Training): a ‘Distributed MOOC Flip’ to Explore Local
and Global ELT Contexts and Beliefs ..................................................................................................................608

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Anna Nicolaou*, Ana Sevilla-Pavón**

*Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

**Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

anna.nicolaou@cut.ac.cy; ana.m.sevilla@uv.es

Redesigning a telecollaboration project towards an ecological

constructivist approach

Bio data

Anna Nicolaou is an English Language Instructor at the Cyprus University of

Technology. She is a PhD Candidate at the School of Linguistics, Speech and
Communication Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests
include Intercultural Education, Online Intercultural Exchanges, Multilingualism,
CALL, and 21st Century Learning. She has participated in various research
projects and she has published journal articles.

Ana Sevilla Pavón (PhD in Applied Linguistics) is Assistant Professor at the

University of Valencia and researcher at IULMA, SILVA and TALIS. She has
participated in numerous international projects and conferences, and published
journal articles (Ibérica, Revista de Educación a Distancia, and European
Journal of Open and Distance Learning, among others), books and book
chapters (Cambridge Scholars, Springer, De Gruyter, Equinox).

Abstract

This paper reports on a study exploring the process of redesigning a telecollaboration

project towards an ecological constructivist approach. The project aimed at examining the
affordances of digital technology to develop tertiary education ESP students’ intercultural
awareness while fostering the development of 21st century skills. It proposed an
educational intervention over one semester designed around learners’ context, needs and
course curricula, with data collection on intercultural awareness and competence, use of and
perceptions about technology, as well as motivation for and engagement with language
learning at university level. The approach adopted strongly reflects the principles of Design-
based research, an emerging paradigm for the study of learning in context (in this case, ESP
higher education students) through the systematic design and study of instructional
strategies and tools. Under such methodology, research is carried out in iterative cycles of
design, enactment, reflection, refinement, and redesign. The holistic approach underpinning
the Design-based research methodology is in line with the principles of ecological
constructivism, the theoretical framework that has informed the redesigning of the project
in its second iterative cycle. When evaluating the results of the first iteration of the project,
the researchers felt that there was a need to reshape their theoretical framework in the
design of the second iteration towards an ecological constructivist approach that would
explore the telecollaborative context more holistically and with a view to making it a
dynamic learning environment that would enhance learners’ intercultural communicative
competence and 21st century skills. The redesign of the second iteration was informed by
feedback collected through questionnaires and through focus groups interviews with 120

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learners-participants from the two institutions involved. The key findings of the data
analysis enabled the researchers to modify the design of the project, refining the tasks,
activities and settings in an effort to make the affordances of the telecollaborative
environment more salient so as to be noticed and acted upon by learners. In the first
iteration the learners were studying different ESP courses, whereas in the second
participants were learners of a matching ESP (Business Management). Therefore, the
learning context (students' major, which led to the design of different tasks, activities) was
substantially modified. In addition, the researchers aimed at increasing scaffolding in order
to facilitate the learners’ understanding and actions in relation to the tasks and tools of the
online intercultural exchange project while making them engaging and more interactive.

Keywords: telecollaboration, ecological CALL, Design-based Research, 21st century skills,

affordances.

Conference paper

Introduction
Educators continue to seek the alternative best methods to integrate 21st century skills into
the curriculum. Many researchers and practitioners have attempted to define the learner as
well as the teacher of the 21st century and how their profiles and needs have changed with
the advent of new technologies. Antoniadou (2011) emphasizes that the rise of the Internet
and Web 2.0 tools entails new modes of living, and thus new literacies for effective
participation in online communities, doing business, and socializing with people from
different cultural backgrounds. At the same time, students seem to be continuously
engaged in the use of new, sophisticated technologies.

In this era of globalization and unending technological growth, telecollaborative learning

projects can provide a fertile background for crossing global boundaries and meeting the
demands of 21st century learners as universal citizens. Telecollaboration (Guth & Helm,
2010), or online intercultural exchange (O’Dowd, 2007) is a form of virtual mobility
(O’Dowd, 2013) which is being increasingly adopted by university educators in Europe and
elsewhere as a substitute or complement for physical student mobility. Foreign language
telecollaboration refers to virtual intercultural interaction and exchange projects between
classes of foreign language learners in geographically distant locations (O’Dowd, 2007). The
term telecollaboration was firstly coined by Mark Warschauer in 1996 and was further
expanded by Belz in 2003 when she defined telecollaboration as being “institutionalized,
electronically mediated intercultural communication under the guidance of a languacultural
expert (i.e. teacher) for the purposes of foreign language learning and the development of
intercultural competence” (p.2). Guth and Helm (2010) have defined telecollaboration in
language learning contexts as an Internet-based exchange aimed at developing both
language skills and intercultural communicative competence while Chun (2014) has also
stressed that telecollaboration is a process that is mediated by technology through online
means which entails communicating and working with other people, individually or in
groups, in different geographical locations. Therefore, bringing together students from
distant locations has become feasible thanks to the technological advancements and to the
practitioners who have managed to recognize the potential benefits of online intercultural
exchanges for the development of foreign language skills, intercultural awareness and skills
related to the global workplace (O’Dowd, 2015). Various studies on telecollaborative
projects have showed that successful online exchanges can contribute to intercultural
communicative competence (O’Dowd, 2006). Intercultural Communicative Competence
(ICC) as Byram (1997) has defined it, is at the core of telecollaboration projects, drawing

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from socio-cognitive paradigms (Kern & Warschauer, 2000) which view language as social
and emphasize the role of cultural context and discourse (Chun, 2015).

Context
The online intercultural exchange project dealt with in this paper was implemented at two
universities from Cyprus and Spain during the academic year 2015-2016. It aimed at
examining the affordable opportunities of digital technology to develop tertiary education
ESP students’ intercultural awareness and competence learning embedded in language
learning. Among the pedagogical goals of the project were to innovate and enrich the ESP
curriculum so as to foster student engagement and involvement in their learning process, as
well as to integrate into the ESP curriculum 21st century competences (Partnership for 21st
Century Skills, 2009) for students’ personal and professional development. Therefore, the
project’s target competences were intercultural communicative competence, language
competence, and 21st century skills. The project proposed an educational intervention over
one semester designed around learners’ needs and course curricula, with pre- and post-
intervention data collection on intercultural awareness and competence, on the students’
use of and perceptions about technology, as well as on motivation for and engagement with
language learning at university level. This paper reports on a study conducted at both
institutions which aimed at redesigning the aforementioned online intercultural exchange
project towards an ecological constructivist approach. The data analysis of the project
during the reflections and evaluation phase upon completion of the online intercultural
exchange denoted a compelling need to restructure the project and iterate, with a view
towards making it a more dynamic and richer in affordances learning environment.
According to Gibson’s theory of affordances (1997), an affordance is the possibility of an
action on an object or environment, but the centrality of Gibson’s theory is not whether
affordances exist in the environment, but whether information is available in ambient light
for perceiving them (p. 60). Van Lier (2010) explains that “affordances are relationships of
possibility, that is, they make action, interaction and joint projects possible (p. 4). The
intercultural exchange project which was redesigned was informed by Gibson’s theory and
related ecology and CALL theories (Van Lier, 2010; Dey-Plissonneau & Blin, 2016) and was
directed towards the synthesis of an environment that would bring out affordances
actualised via technological tools. Such affordances would be salient, visible, perceptible
and, therefore, acted upon by learners. With this in mind, serious contextual modifications
were perceived as necessary by both researchers, which were manifested in various aspects
of the project, such as the learning context, the structure, the sequence of tasks and
activities, the scaffolding on the teachers’ part, the mutual exchanges among interactors,
and the institutional settings. The redesigned project was implemented one year later
during the subsequent iterative cycle.

Design-based Research and Ecological Constructivism

The approach adopted for the design of the project strongly reflects the principles of
Design-based research. Design-based research (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992) is an emerging
paradigm for the study of learning in context through the systematic design and study of
instructional strategies and tools. Under such methodology, research is carried out in
iterative cycles of design, enactment, reflection, refinement, and redesign. Educational
interventions are viewed with a holistic perspective, and interactions between learners,
teachers, artifacts, materials, departments, institutions and networks are explored. The
holistic approach underpinning the Design-based research methodology is in line with the
principles of ecological constructivism, the theoretical framework that informed the
redesigning of the online intercultural exchange project in its second iterative cycle.

Ecological Constructivism as a theory is an amalgamation of Social Constructivism,

Sociocultural Theory and Ecological Linguistics (Hoven & Palalas, 2011; Blin, 2016; Blin,

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Jalkanen & Taalas, 2016). According to ecological constructivism, the systems of language,
the processes of language learning, and the systems of interaction among different
participants or interactors and their mutual exchanges are viewed holistically (Hoven &
Palalas, 2011).

Among the principles of ecological constructivism are those pertaining to the affordances
that exist in a dynamic environment, such as a language learning environment, and which
are likely to be perceived and acted upon by learners both individually and in collaboration
with others only when they are perceived as salient by the learners themselves. Once
perceived and acted upon, affordances are then shared among learners who create an
ecosystem comprising new affordances which could not exist without the learners’
interactions with other individuals, groups and networks (Hoven & Palalas, 2011).

The first iterative cycle: The design

An online intercultural exchange project was implemented at two universities, which
brought together 123 students from Cyprus and Spain. The designed intervention was
embedded in the students’ English for Specific Purposes (ESP) modules and aimed at
examining the affordances of digital technology to develop tertiary education ESP students’
intercultural awareness while fostering the development of 21st century skills. The
exchange was twofold as it included two sub-projects: The SCI-TEL: Spain Cyprus
Intercultural Telecollaboration Project, which connected 62 first-year students who were
majoring in either International Business (Spanish university) or Hotel and Tourism
Management (Cypriot university), and the CSI-TEL: Cyprus Spain Intercultural
Telecollaboration Project, which connected 61 first-year students who were majoring in
either Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (Cypriot university) or International
Business (Spanish university). Both researchers decided to implement this virtual exchange
that would bring together participants with different academic needs, backgrounds and
endeavours, hoping that the students would be able to view their varying disciplines as an
asset and that the online intercultural exchange project would act as a bridge that would
enable them to overcome the barriers and benefit from the diversity in their academic
pursuits.

A socio-constructivist, learner-centered, task-based approach to computer-assisted

language learning and teaching was adopted in the design of the project (Nicolaou & Sevilla-
Pavón, 2016). Telecollaboration projects are by definition cooperative or collaborative. As
Dooly (2008) emphasizes, “the basis of both collaborative and cooperative learning is
constructivism: knowledge that is constructed and transformed by students. Learners do not
passively receive knowledge from the teacher; teaching becomes a transaction between all
stakeholders in the learning process” (p.21).

The tasks that were designed, thus, supported collaborative inquiry and the construction of
knowledge. The tasks were designed so as to be authentic, challenging, meaningful and
enjoyable while capable of enabling students to develop linguistic, intercultural, problem-
solving and digital skills, based on the need for European universities to put a clear and
coherent language policy in place that takes into account cultural and linguistic diversity, as
established by the European Commission. The design of tasks followed O’Dowd and Ware’s
(2009) typology which classifies tasks and task sequences into three main categories:
information exchange tasks, comparison and analysis tasks, and collaborative tasks.
Participants worked in dyads or groups of four students (local and telecollaboration) on
offline and online activities. Both teachers acted as facilitators who initiated tasks, informed
about netiquette rules, helped participants get to know each other and then remained at a
distance taking a hands-off approach whenever possible (Hampel & Hauck, 2005).

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Students’ participation and level of engagement was monitored continuously and evaluated
at the end of the telecollaboration project. Students were assessed based on their level of
dedication, responsiveness and task completion. Communication modes included
synchronous and asynchronous interaction in a blended learning environment. Web 2.0
tools included the use of Google+ Communities for asynchronous interaction, Google+
Hangouts for synchronous communication, and Google Drive for collaborative completion of
tasks. Both instructors agreed on a monolingual configuration whereby students used
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). This configuration allowed students to feel confident and
less worried to make mistakes in language use (Hoffstaedter, & Kohn, 2015).

Methodology
When evaluating the results of the online intercultural exchange project between the two
universities, the researchers felt that there was a need to reshape their theoretical
framework in the design of the second iteration towards an ecological constructivist
approach that would explore the telecollaborative environment more holistically and with a
view to making it a dynamic learning environment that would enhance learners’ intercultural
communicative competence and 21st century skills. The redesign of the second iteration
was informed by feedback collected through questionnaires and through focus groups
interviews with 120 learners-participants from both universities. For the purposes of this
paper, qualitative data collected from focus groups interviews and post-intervention
questionnaires with students will be presented. Focus groups interview questions were
semi-structured and open-ended and explored themes such as students’ overall experience
with the online intercultural exchange project, the perceived benefits and shortcomings of
the exchange, the contributions of the project to the development of different competences,
as well as the elements they would add to or remove from the project. Post-intervention
questionnaire questions were open questions that explored the students’ attitudes towards
the project. These data were collected in the reflection and evaluation phase of the first
iterative cycle, upon completion of the online intercultural exchange project. The data were
analyzed using the NVivo software.

Results
Despite the fact that the online intercultural exchange project was positively received by the
majority of students, a number of shortcomings were identified which may have hindered
the maximal emergence and actualisation of the exchange’s affordances, leading to a lower
than optimal benefit for the students involved. This is what guided the researchers to reflect
on the project, refine and iterate it.

The most important contextual modification on the project was that the learning context
was changed in that it aimed at bringing together higher education students majoring in the
same or near-same degree. Therefore, while the initially designed online intercultural
exchange project connected students studying diverse English for Specific Purposes courses,
the redesigned project connected students studying the same ESP course (Business English)
who were engaged in telecollaborative activity with particular emphasis placed on
business/international business tasks with an intercultural and global awareness
perspective. A Spanish student of International Business points out the need for
collaborating with peers pursuing similar academic degrees:

”… I don’t know if it’s possible but I think if we choose a group from a… who are mmm
studying something similar to us –they actually don’t- maybe they would be a little
more…a little more involved... and closer to us.”

As far as task design is concerned, in the first iterative cycle, tasks were more generic in terms
of discipline as participants were majoring in varying degrees. However, in the redesigned

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version, tasks and activities truly reflected the students’ common ESP (Business English)
curriculum.

This major contextual change, which was implemented in the second iterative cycle, impacted
significantly on the establishment of rapport among students-participants who felt more
related to each other. Moreover, it made the whole project more relevant to them as the tasks
and activities were pertaining to the students’ current academic needs, and anticipated future
professional careers. The researchers decided to make this crucial modification in the learning
context and task sequence, adopting the activity theoretical framework according to which “the
features of a CALL environment only become affordances when they are related to the users’
needs and activity” (Dey-Plissonneau & Blin, 2016, p. 298).

Another important modification that was deemed necessary was related to the structure of the
online intercultural exchange project. In the first iterative cycle, the sequence of tasks was
organised chronologically, i.e. pre-exchange tasks, exchange tasks, and post-exchange tasks,
with various activities designed in each phase pertaining to various thematic areas (e.g.
stereotypes, globalisation). Both researchers observed that while students’ initial reactions and
feelings towards the project were positive, their enthusiasm was gradually diminishing and
their feelings evolved negatively. An International Business Spanish student mentions:

“At the beginning it was exciting but then it was...a boring thing because they were not
responding.”

Similarly, a Mechanical Engineering student from Cyprus explains how enthusiasm declined
and communication broke down because of lack of interest:

“It started off with great enthusiasm...that we would speak with students from a
different country, but after a while, communication broke down because they wouldn’t
log in.”

The researchers decided to restructure the project in an effort to enable active and
participative online communication that would be seamless and sustained. Therefore,
Salmon’s (2013) five-stage model for online collaborative learning was adopted according to
which the sequence of tasks was structured in five stages, namely: Access and Motivation,
Online Socialisation, Information Exchange, Knowledge Construction, and Development.
Salmon’s five-stage model provided a framework for increased scaffolding and well-paced
task sequence.

Another important refinement in the online intercultural exchange pertained to the mutual
exchanges among interactors. In an effort to increase communication and collaboration
among students, and therefore enhance their intercultural communicative competence and
learning, the redesigned project required more synchronous exchanges through the
assigned tasks that promoted interdependency and mutuality between students.
Collaborative tasks are the most challenging ones in a telecollaborative project due to their
complexity, but at the same time they can be very constructive and effective in developing
students’ cross-cultural, linguistic, digital, collaborative and communication skills. They also
enable students to establish rapport and a sense of connection amongst them. Finally, they
enhance additional 21st century skills, such as responsibility and leadership, productivity
and accountability, as well as flexibility and adaptability.

The increase of synchronous mutual exchanges was one of the suggestions students put
forward upon completion of the online intercultural project. A Spanish student studying
International Business notes:

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“I would have done more video camera activities like for talking to them.”

Similarly, a Cypriot student studying Mechanical Engineering stressed the need for increased
online synchronous online collaboration:

“I would like to have English classes at the same time so as to do the tasks all together
in class.”

This feedback led to further modifications in the redesigned project pertaining to the
institutional settings. Specifically, the researchers opted for coinciding timetables between
the ESP classes at both universities, thus allowing for synchronous and collaborative
completion of tasks in class and even enabling a plenary meeting at the end of the project.

Concluding remarks
The key findings of the data analysis enabled the researchers to modify the design of the
project. Through the redesign of the project, the researchers redefined the project learning
context, the tasks, activities and settings in an effort to make the affordances of the
telecollaborative environment more salient so as to be noticed and acted upon by learners
(Hoven & Palalas, 2011). In addition, the researchers increased scaffolding in order to
facilitate the learners’ understanding and actions in relation to the tasks and tools of the
online intercultural exchange project while making them engaging and more interactive.
Therefore, the telecollaborative environment became a richer and more dynamic context, an
ecosystem embodying learners, mutual interactions, teachers, institutions, and networks.
This ecosystem allowed for the emergence and actualisation of affordances that were
observed, used and shared by the students involved.

CALL in Context

The contextual aspects played a major role in the redesign of the project. One of the
modifications which were made in the redesigning of the research was to design and
implement a telecollaborative project where participants were learners of a matching ESP
(Business English). In the first iteration the learners were studying different ESP courses.
Therefore, the learning context (students' major, which led to the redesign of different tasks
and activities) was substantially modified. Furthermore, the project employed Design-based
research which is contextual in nature as the researcher aims at meeting the needs of users
in a specific educational context (in this case, ESP higher education students). According to
DBR, a study is carried out in a real learning context which comprises of researchers,
teachers and learners. The design is performed with real users of a particular context in
mind, and it produces usable knowledge that is transferable in other contexts (in this case,
in other ESP contexts).

References

Antoniadou, V. (2011). Telecollaboration 2.0: language, literacies and intercultural learning

in the 21st century. Language and Intercultural Communication, 11(3), 285-288.

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Belz, J. A. (2003). Linguistic perspectives on the development of intercultural competence

in telecollaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 10(1), 42-66.

Belz, J. A. (2007). The development of intercultural communicative competence in

telecollaborative partnerships. In R. O’Dowd (Ed.) Online intercultural exchange: An
introduction for foreign language teachers (pp. 127-166). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Blin, F. (2016). Towards an ‘ecological’ CALL theory: theoretical perspectives and their
instantiation in CALL research (Chapter 3). In F. Farr & L. Murray (Eds.), The Routledge
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