New Directions in Telecollaborative Research and Practice:
The Second Conference on Telecollaboration in University Education
21-23 April 2016
Keynote talk by Professor Andreas Müller-Hartmann, University of Education, Heidelberg
A task is a task is a task is a task... or is it? Researching tasks in telecollaborative teacher education – the need for more qualitative research
The concept of task has become central not only to an understanding of language learning per se, but also to the design and research of telecollaborative learning environments. But what kind of task concept is conducive to supporting language learning, and how can we best research this?
To answer these questions, I will specifically look at the role of the learner in my talk. While research on the design of tasks in telecollaborative settings has been very productive, we still lack insights into the interaction processes on the micro level when learners negotiate task content. What are learners doing, and how can we find out about it?
The most appropriate research approach to tackle these questions at the interface between telecollaboration, task-based language learning and teaching, and learner orientation is a stronger reliance on qualitative research and mixed method designs.
The context in which an attempt will be made to shed light on these questions will be telecollaborative teacher pre-service education because it is especially here that the learner role should be the center of attention. Being learners themselves, pre-service teachers are in the process of developing competences in designing telecollaborative task sequences for their future learners, following a reflective, and with that research-based approach to their competence development.
The Academic Committee gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the conference sponsors:
- Fáilte Ireland / MeetInIreland.com
- Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute
- Trinity College Dublin Association and Trust
- Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Trinity College Dublin
