Virtual exchange in teaching Polish as a foreign language at A1 level – a Polish-Italian case study In today's globalized world, it is vital to teach not only basic skills, such as reading, writing, numeracy, technical abilities, or the knowledge of foreign languages, but also those of more complex nature, such as entrepreneurship, critical thinking, intercultural and civil competences, problem solving, learning to learn, as well as digital literacy. One of the key competences of the 21st century education is invariably the ability to communicate in foreign languages which, like any education field, is expected to respond to the current demands of the youth. Having in mind that their interactions occur not only in a direct manner, but frequently via the Internet, their education needs to take this factor into account as well. Virtual exchanges – also referred to as telecollaboration, online intercultural exchange, e-tandem, or teletandem – are one of the types of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) that appear to be adequately addressing the needs of 21st century learners. Virtual exchanges are defined as an educational form involving the engagement of student groups in intercultural interaction and collaboration, which are conducted online with partners from different cultural backgrounds or geographic locations, under the leadership of teachers and/or expert facilitators. The academic research conducted over the past decades reports the numerous benefits derived from participation in such projects. Those include, but are not limited to, increased intercultural and language competences, the development of digital skills, the enhancement of teamwork skills, and the positive influence on learner autonomy. The participants of most telecollaboration projects described in literature are students at an advanced or intermediate level of language proficiency, and the exchanged languages are among the most commonly taught languages in Europe – predominantly English, often German, Spanish and French, and not uncommonly Italian. However, there exists very little research on the use of virtual exchanges in the didactics of less commonly taught languages (LCTL), and the sole example of telecollaboration, in which students spoke a Slavic language at the beginner level, are projects conducted by a Russian linguist, Ludmila Klimanova. This dissertation attempts to continue research efforts to fill a gap in literature concerning the study of telecollaboration that involves the use of a less commonly taught language, in this case Polish, at the beginner level. The author aims at illustrating virtual exchanges as a modern form of the learning process that corresponds with the needs of contemporary education, as well as at presenting in detail their application in the didactics of Polish as a foreign language at the beginner level. The research objectives of this study, accomplished via an analysis of the lexical resources used by students during a project, were to ascertain which theories of learning/language acquisition are applicable in the teaching process conducted through virtual exchanges. The subsequent research objective – achieved through the analysis of the cultural content provided by the participants of the project – is to determine to what extent the curriculum recommendations for teaching culture in the didactics of Polish as a foreign language are relevant to the process of learning in an online environment. Then, the didactical aim of the dissertation is to verify the usefulness of a telecollaboration model which would be appropriate for those starting to learn Polish as a foreign language. The basis for the presented research are three Polish-Italian telecollaboration projects, carried out successively in 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 between the students learning Polish at the University of Turin and the students of Italian at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University of Lublin at A1 level. The following PhD dissertation consists of seven chapters. The first three chapters constitute the theoretical part of this thesis, while the subsequent three form the research part. The last chapter aims at concluding the dissertation. Chapter I outlines the theoretical basis of this diploma paper – it discusses the status of foreign language teaching and learning (glottodidactics) as a scientific discipline and how glottodidactics of the Polish language fits in it. The considerations presented in this dissertation are concentrated within that field. Next, the most important theories of language acquisition and learning that affect the current state of language didactics are briefly discussed. Chapter II describes how the learning of foreign languages through the participation in virtual exchanges responds to the challenges of the 21st century education. A set of competences necessary for learners in the modern world is presented, with a focus on the following skills: linguistic, digital, personal, social, learning to learn, as well as intercultural. Those are the skills that are developed through telecollaboration-based projects. The latter ones have also become a stimulus for reflecting on the didactics of culture in the process of teaching foreign languages, especially in the context of teaching Polish as a foreign language. The chapter raises the issue of the competences necessary for the 21st century teachers and the skill set needed for an effective coordination of virtual exchanges. The aim of Chapter III is to present the role of virtual exchanges in computer-assisted learning. It outlines the history and definitions of that field, as well as its importance in the process of teaching Polish as a foreign language. The further part of the chapter focuses on issues directly related to telecollaboration – the definitions and chronology of its development, followed by the topic of designing virtual exchanges. The general typology of such projects, their various stages, and characteristic tasks along with the criteria for their creation are outlined as well. What is more, the attention is drawn to the small number of activities available for those learning foreign languages at the beginner level, amidst the materials aimed at teachers-coordinators of the telecollaboration. The set of frequently used tools in virtual exchange projects and the typology of challenges and problems that accompany its planning and implementation are also presented. Chapter IV aims at introducing the research section of the study. It presents general information about the three Polish-Italian virtual exchange projects undertaken by the author and the research project that was based on them. It defines the aims of implementing telecollaboration in the process of teaching Polish as a foreign language at the University of Turin, as well as the objectives of the planned study accompanied by a review of the subject literature. It discusses the educational context of foreign language learning at the two involved universities, as well as the factors shaping its organization. In the last part of the chapter a general outline of the conducted Polish-Italian virtual exchange projects is presented, together with a justification for the choice of the case study as the main research method adopted in the paper. Chapter V is devoted to a presentation of the results of the preliminary study based on data from the first edition of the Polish-Italian telecollaboration, which was carried out in the academic year of 2018/2019. The chapter outlines aspects directly related to the implementation of the project – the coordinators, the participants, the curriculum and the tools that were used – as well as those concerning the preliminary research design: the adopted methodology and the research questions aimed at assessing the adequacy of the difficulty degree of proposed tasks, in relation to the language level of the students performing them, the assessment of the tools that were used, and the attempt to identify the root of the problems that emerged during the implementation of the telecollaboration. For this purpose, several research methods were used simultaneously, following the concept of data triangulation: observations performed by the author of the dissertation throughout the project, a post-project survey conducted amongst the Italian participants, and a quantitative-qualitative analysis of the linguistic material, which consisted of all the students' utterances collected during the virtual exchange. The compilation of data obtained through the research methods mentioned above made a detailed evaluation for each exchange task possible and helped to provide answers to the previously posed research questions. As a result, it was determined that the digital tools were selected adequately to the performed activities, and that the problems that arose during the telecollaboration were caused by insufficient amount of time allocated to the project, as well as by deficiencies in the system of its coordination. What is more, two tasks proved to be overly challenging for the students in terms of language. Furthermore, it was stated that the students felt that their participation in the virtual exchange allowed them to learn new Polish vocabulary and contributed to an increase in their knowledge of the Polish culture and what it is like to live in Poland. The conclusions from the conducted analysis were utilized to improve the Polish-Italian telecollaboration project in its two subsequent editions. The most significant improvements included: extending the duration of the exchange, changing the project's coordination model, and removing and replacing certain tasks with new ones. Chapter VI presents the second and third editions of the Polish-Italian telecollaboration, which were carried out in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, and the main conducted research which was based on them. Moreover, it verifies the cited students' opinions on the benefits gained from the virtual exchange, as well as analyses the lexical means used in the project and the cultural content included in the participants' utterances. The main goal of the research project was to determine which theories of language acquisition and learning can be applied to teaching through virtual exchanges, and to determine to what extent the existing curricula of teaching the culture of Polish as a foreign language are consistent with the cultural content shared by the partners in an online environment. In order to perform an analysis of the aforementioned issues, a quantitative-qualitative study was conducted, based on a language corpus created from student utterances collected during the Polish-Italian virtual exchange projects conducted in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. The generated frequency lists were compared with the vocabulary introduced during the university classes of Polish as a foreign language, which made it possible to determine which lexical means are being retained owing to the participation in the virtual exchange, and which are considered new for the students. This also helped create a basis for determining the contribution of imitation and creation processes in vocabulary learning during telecollaboration at the beginner level. In the second part of the research, all excerpts of the participants' utterances containing cultural content were identified. Based on its quantitative-qualitative analysis, it was determined how often they occur in the students' interactions, what topics they relate to, and which tasks trigger them. Then, it was established to what extent they correspond to the curricula for teaching the culture of Polish as a foreign language, comparing them to the categories included within. The results obtained made it possible to claim that during the process of vocabulary acquisition, learners use actions based on imitation of linguistic forms, as well as on creation, forming new utterances using previously unknown words or structures. The research results also provided an affirmative verification of the participants' perceptions about the linguistic and cultural benefits of the participation in a virtual exchange. Moreover, it was observed that the cultural topics tackled by the students largely refer to popular culture, which is predominantly absent from the curricular proposals for the teaching of culture of Polish as a foreign language. Chapter VII provides a summary of the conducted research and reflects on the application of virtual exchanges in teaching Polish as a foreign language at A1 level. It confirms that virtual exchange can be a valuable form of learning for learners of Polish at the beginner level who, despite limited linguistic competence, are able to effectively perform the proposed tasks and gain various benefits, such as the development of intercultural competence (mainly in terms of factual knowledge), linguistic competence (by reinforcing the already known lexical and grammatical structures and learning new ones), and digital competence (by becoming familiar with new tools and their functions). It is also stated in the chapter that the complications that emerged during the Polish-Italian telecollaboration demonstrate that the language level of the participants does not influence the types of difficulties faced by their coordinators. The summary of the dissertation includes comments on the limitations of the conducted study and the implications for the future.
Lo scambio virtuale nell’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera al livello A1: studio di caso polacco-italiano Nel mondo globalizzato di oggi è necessario insegnare non solo abilità di base come lettura, scrittura, calcolo, abilità tecniche e abilità linguistiche, ma anche abilità più complesse, come imprenditorialità, pensiero critico, competenze interculturali e civiche, problem solving e capacità di apprendimento nonché competenze digitali. Una delle competenze chiave nell’istruzione del XXI secolo è invariabilmente la capacità di utilizzare le lingue straniere, che, come ogni campo dell’istruzione, dovrebbe rispondere alle esigenze attuali dei giovani. Poiché i contatti tra di loro avvengono non solo direttamente, ma spesso anche tramite Internet, anche la loro formazione dovrebbe tenere conto di questo fattore. Gli scambi virtuali, denominati anche telecooperazione, scambio interculturale online, e-tandem o teletandem, sono una delle forme di insegnamento delle lingue straniere assistite da computer (CALL), che sembra essere adeguata alle esigenze degli studenti nel XXI secolo. Gli scambi virtuali sono definiti come una forma di educazione che prevede il coinvolgimento di gruppi di studenti nell’interazione e cooperazione interculturale online con partner provenienti da diversi contesti culturali o aree geografiche, sotto la guida di insegnanti e/o facilitatori appositamente preparati. La ricerca condotta negli ultimi decenni conferma i numerosi vantaggi della partecipazione a tali progetti. Questi includono, tra l’altro, un aumento delle competenze interculturali e linguistiche, lo sviluppo delle competenze digitali, un aumento delle capacità di lavorare in gruppo e un impatto positivo sull’autonomia degli studenti. La maggior parte dei partecipanti ai progetti di telecollaborazione descritti nella letteratura scientifica è costituita da studenti di livello di competenza linguistica avanzato o intermedio mentre le lingue utilizzate appartengono a quelle tra le più insegnate in Europa, principalmente inglese, spesso tedesco, spagnolo e francese, e non di rado anche italiano. Ci sono poche ricerche sull’uso degli scambi virtuali nell’insegnamento delle lingue meno insegnate e l’unico esempio di telecooperazione in cui gli studenti hanno usato una lingua slava a livello principiante sono i progetti guidati dallalinguista russa Liudmila Klimanova. Questa tesi di dottorato è un tentativo di continuare le indagini della suddetta studiosa e volte a colmare il vuoto nella letteratura scientifica riguardante la ricerca sulla telecooperazione nello studio di una lingua raramente insegnata, in questo caso il polacco, a livello principiante. L’autrice mira a presentare gli scambi virtuali come una forma moderna di apprendimento che soddisfa le esigenze dell’istruzione odierna, nonché ad illustrare dettagliatamente la loro applicazione nell’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera a livello principiante. Gli obiettivi di ricerca della tesi di dottorato comprendono l’analisi dei mezzi lessicali utilizzati dagli studenti durante il progetto, al fine di determinare quali teorie dell’apprendimento/acquisizione linguistica sono applicabili nel processo didattico condotto tramite gli scambi virtuali. Un altro obiettivo scientifico, realizzato attraverso l’analisi del contenuto culturale fornito dai partner del progetto, è determinare in che misura le proposte di programma nel campo dell’insegnamento della cultura nell’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera sono adeguate per l’apprendimento nell’ambiente online. Invece l’obiettivo della tesi di carattere didattico è quello di sviluppare un programma di telecooperazione, adeguato per i principianti che imparano il polacco come lingua straniera. La base per la ricerca qui presentata è costituita da tre progetti di telecomunicazione italo-polacca, realizzati successivamente negli anni 2018/2019, 2019/2020 e 2020/2021 tra studenti della lingua polacca all’Università di Torino e studenti della lingua italiana all’Università Maria Curie-Skłodowska di Lublino al livello A1. La tesi di dottorato in questione è composta da sette capitoli, di cui i primi tre costituiscono la parte teorica, i successivi tre la parte di ricerca e l’ultimo capitolo è di carattere riassuntivo. Il Capitolo I delinea i fondamenti teorici della tesi: vengono discussi lo status della glottodidattica come campo scientifico e il posto occupato in quest’area dalla glottodidattica del polacco. È nel suo ambito che ricadono le considerazioni presentate nella tesi. Vengono quindi brevemente discusse le più importanti teorie sull’acquisizione linguistica e sull’apprendimento che influenzano lo stato attuale della didattica delle lingue. Il Capitolo II descrive come l’apprendimento delle lingue straniere, attraverso la partecipazione a scambi virtuali, risponda alle sfide dell’istruzione del XXI secolo. Presenta un insieme di competenze necessarie per gli studenti nel mondo di oggi, con particolare enfasi sulle abilità linguistiche, digitali, personali, sociali e di apprendimento nonché su quelle interculturali, poiché proprio queste vanno sviluppate nei progetti di telecollaborazione. Questi ultimi hanno anche contribuito alle riflessioni sulla didattica della cultura nell’insegnamento delle lingue straniere, soprattutto nell’ambito dell’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera. È stata sollevata anche la questione delle competenze necessarie per gli insegnanti nel XXI secolo nonché l’insieme delle competenze necessarie per coordinare efficacemente gli scambi virtuali. Lo scopo del Capitolo III è presentare il ruolo degli scambi virtuali nell’apprendimento assistito da computer. Presenta la storia e le definizioni di questo campo, nonché la sua importanza nell’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera. La parte successiva del capitolo è dedicata alle questioni direttamente legate alla telecooperazione: vengono discusse le definizioni e la cronologia dello sviluppo di questa forma di apprendimento e quindi il tema della progettazione degli scambi virtuali. È stata delineata una tipologia generale di tali progetti, le loro singole fasi e i compiti che le caratterizzano, nonché i criteri per la loro creazione. Inoltre, è stato rilevato un esiguo numero di attività disponibili per coloro che imparano le lingue straniere a livello principiante tra i materiali destinati ai docenti-coordinatori della telecooperazione. Viene inoltre presentata una serie di strumenti utilizzati di frequente nei progetti di scambio virtuale, nonché una tipologia di sfide e difficoltà che accompagnano la loro pianificazione e implementazione. Il Capitolo IV costituisce un’introduzione alla parte dedicata alla ricerca. Presenta informazioni generali sui tre progetti di scambio virtuale polacco-italiano realizzati dall’autrice, nonché un progetto di ricerca basato su di essi. Definisce gli obiettivi dell’attuazione della telecooperazione per l’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera presso l’Università di Torino e gli obiettivi dello studio pianificato insieme a una revisione della letteratura. È stato inoltre discusso il contesto educativo dell’apprendimento delle lingue straniere in entrambe le università partecipanti al progetto, nonché i fattori che ne influenzano l’organizzazione. L’ultima parte del capitolo presenta una descrizione generale dei progetti di scambio virtuale polacco-italiano condotti, nonché una giustificazione per la scelta dello studio di caso come principale metodo di ricerca adottato nella tesi. Il Capitolo V è dedicato alla presentazione dei risultati dello studio preliminare basato sui dati della prima edizione della telcooperazione polacco-italiana, condotta nell’anno accademico 2018/2019. Sono evidenziate le questioni direttamente legate all’attuazione del progetto: i coordinatori, i partecipanti, il programma e gli strumenti utilizzati, nonché quelle relative al progetto di ricerca iniziale, ovvvero la metodologia adottata e le domande di ricerca volte a valutare l’adeguatezza del livello di difficoltà dei compiti proposti al livello linguistico degli studenti che li svolgono, la valutazione degli strumenti utilizzati e l’individuazione delle cause dei problemi sorti durante l’attuazione della telecooperazione. A tal fine, sono stati utilizzati contemporaneamente più metodi di ricerca, secondo il principio della triangolazione dei dati: le osservazioni fatte dall’autrice della tesi durante il progetto, un’indagine svolta dopo la sua conclusione tra i partecipanti italiani e un’analisi quantitativa e qualitativa del materiale linguistico, che comprendeva tutte le dichiarazioni degli studenti raccolte durante lo scambio virtuale. La compilazione dei dati ottenuti con le suddette metodologie di ricerca ha consentito di valutare dettagliatamente ciascun compito dello scambio e di rispondere alle domande di ricerca poste in precedenza. Di conseguenza si è riscontrato che gli strumenti digitali sono stati selezionati in modo adeguato alle attività svolte e che le difficoltà derivanti dalla telecooperazione sono state causate da un tempo insufficiente dedicato al progetto e da imperfezioni nel suo sistema di coordinamento. Inoltre, due compiti si sono rivelati troppo difficili per gli studenti in termini di lingua. Inoltre, è stato constatato che, secondo loro, la partecipazione allo scambio virtuale li ha permesso di ampliare il loro lessico in polacco e ha contribuito ad aumentare il livello di conoscenza della vita in Polonia e della cultura polacca. Le conclusioni dell’analisi svolta sono state utilizzate per migliorare il progetto di telecooperazione italo-polacca nelle due edizioni seguenti. Le modifiche più importanti comprendevano: l’estensione della durata dello scambio, il cambiamento del modello di coordinamento del progetto nonché la rimozione di alcuni compiti e la loro sostituzione con dei nuovi. Il Capitolo VI presenta la seconda e la terza edizione della telecooperazione italo-polacca, realizzata negli anni 2019/2020 e 2020/2021, e lo studio principale basato su di esse. In questo capitolo è stata eseguita una verifica delle opinioni degli studenti sui benefici dello scambio virtuale e un’analisi dei mezzi lessicali utilizzati nel progetto e dei contenuti culturali presenti nelle dichiarazioni dei partecipanti. L’obiettivo principale del progetto di ricerca era scoprire quali teorie sull’acquisizione e sull’apprendimento delle lingue possono trovare applicazione nell’insegnamento attraverso gli scambi virtuali, nonché determinare in che misura i programmi esistenti per l’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera siano coerenti con i contenuti culturali trasmessi reciprocamente dai partner nella comunità online. Al fine di analizzare le suddette tematiche è stato condotto uno studio quantitativo e qualitativo, basato sul corpus linguistico delle dichiarazioni degli studenti raccolte durante i progetti di scambio virtuale polacco-italiano realizzati negli anni 2019/2020 e 2020/2021. Le liste di frequenza generate sono state confrontate con il vocabolario introdotto durante le lezioni universitarie del polacco come lingua straniera, il che ha permesso di determinare quali mezzi lessicali vengono consolidati grazie alla partecipazione ad uno scambio virtuale, e quali sono nuovi per gli studenti. Su questa base è stata anche determinata la partecipazione dei processi di imitazione e creazione all’apprendimento del lessico nella telecooperazione al livello principiante. Nella seconda parte dello studio, sono state contrassegnate tutte le parti delle dichiarazioni dei partecipanti con dei contenuti culturali e, sulla base della loro analisi quantitativa e qualitativa, è stato determinato quanto spesso essi si verificano nelle interazioni degli studenti, quali argomenti riguardano e quali compiti li attivano. È stato successivamente definito in che misura corrispondono ai programmi didattici della cultura polacca come lingua straniera, confrontandoli con le categorie in essi incluse. I risultati ottenuti hanno permesso di affermare che nel processo di acquisizione del vocabolario gli studenti utilizzano sia azioni basate sull’imitazione di forme linguistiche sia sulla loro creazione, formando nuove frasi utilizzando parole o strutture precedentemente sconosciute. I risultati dello studio hanno anche consentito una verifica positiva della percezione dei partecipanti sui benefici linguistici e culturali della partecipazione allo scambio virtuale. Inoltre, è stato osservato che i temi culturali sollevati dagli studenti si riferiscono in gran parte alla cultura pop, che di solito non è presente nelle proposte di programma di insegnamento della cultura polacca come cultura straniera. Il Capitolo VII costituisce un riassunto della ricerca svolta e una riflessione sull’uso degli scambi virtuali nell’insegnamento del polacco come lingua straniera al livello A1. È stato confermato che lo scambio virtuale può essere una preziosa forma di apprendimento per gli studenti della lingua polacca di livello principiante che, nonostante le loro limitate competenze linguistiche, sono in grado di svolgere efficacemente i compiti proposti e trarne vari benefici, come lo sviluppo di competenze interculturali (principalmente nel campo della conoscenza pratica), linguistiche (consolidando quelle conosciute e imparando nuove strutture lessicali e grammaticali) nonché digitali (grazie all’apprendimento di nuovi strumenti e delle loro funzioni). È stato inoltre riscontrato che le complicazioni derivanti dall’attuazione della telecooperazione italo-polacca mostrano che il livello linguistico dei partecipanti non influisce sul tipo di difficoltà affrontate dai loro coordinatori. Nel riassunto della tesi sono stati compresi i commenti riguardanti i limiti della ricerca condotta e le sue conseguenti implicazioni per il futuro.
Wymiana wirtualna w nauczaniu języka polskiego jako obcego na poziomie A1 – polsko-włoskie studium przypadku Virtual exchange in teaching Polish as a foreign language at A1 level – a Polish-Italian case study
PIECZKA, ANNA MARIA
2022
Abstract
Virtual exchange in teaching Polish as a foreign language at A1 level – a Polish-Italian case study In today's globalized world, it is vital to teach not only basic skills, such as reading, writing, numeracy, technical abilities, or the knowledge of foreign languages, but also those of more complex nature, such as entrepreneurship, critical thinking, intercultural and civil competences, problem solving, learning to learn, as well as digital literacy. One of the key competences of the 21st century education is invariably the ability to communicate in foreign languages which, like any education field, is expected to respond to the current demands of the youth. Having in mind that their interactions occur not only in a direct manner, but frequently via the Internet, their education needs to take this factor into account as well. Virtual exchanges – also referred to as telecollaboration, online intercultural exchange, e-tandem, or teletandem – are one of the types of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) that appear to be adequately addressing the needs of 21st century learners. Virtual exchanges are defined as an educational form involving the engagement of student groups in intercultural interaction and collaboration, which are conducted online with partners from different cultural backgrounds or geographic locations, under the leadership of teachers and/or expert facilitators. The academic research conducted over the past decades reports the numerous benefits derived from participation in such projects. Those include, but are not limited to, increased intercultural and language competences, the development of digital skills, the enhancement of teamwork skills, and the positive influence on learner autonomy. The participants of most telecollaboration projects described in literature are students at an advanced or intermediate level of language proficiency, and the exchanged languages are among the most commonly taught languages in Europe – predominantly English, often German, Spanish and French, and not uncommonly Italian. However, there exists very little research on the use of virtual exchanges in the didactics of less commonly taught languages (LCTL), and the sole example of telecollaboration, in which students spoke a Slavic language at the beginner level, are projects conducted by a Russian linguist, Ludmila Klimanova. This dissertation attempts to continue research efforts to fill a gap in literature concerning the study of telecollaboration that involves the use of a less commonly taught language, in this case Polish, at the beginner level. The author aims at illustrating virtual exchanges as a modern form of the learning process that corresponds with the needs of contemporary education, as well as at presenting in detail their application in the didactics of Polish as a foreign language at the beginner level. The research objectives of this study, accomplished via an analysis of the lexical resources used by students during a project, were to ascertain which theories of learning/language acquisition are applicable in the teaching process conducted through virtual exchanges. The subsequent research objective – achieved through the analysis of the cultural content provided by the participants of the project – is to determine to what extent the curriculum recommendations for teaching culture in the didactics of Polish as a foreign language are relevant to the process of learning in an online environment. Then, the didactical aim of the dissertation is to verify the usefulness of a telecollaboration model which would be appropriate for those starting to learn Polish as a foreign language. The basis for the presented research are three Polish-Italian telecollaboration projects, carried out successively in 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 between the students learning Polish at the University of Turin and the students of Italian at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University of Lublin at A1 level. The following PhD dissertation consists of seven chapters. The first three chapters constitute the theoretical part of this thesis, while the subsequent three form the research part. The last chapter aims at concluding the dissertation. Chapter I outlines the theoretical basis of this diploma paper – it discusses the status of foreign language teaching and learning (glottodidactics) as a scientific discipline and how glottodidactics of the Polish language fits in it. The considerations presented in this dissertation are concentrated within that field. Next, the most important theories of language acquisition and learning that affect the current state of language didactics are briefly discussed. Chapter II describes how the learning of foreign languages through the participation in virtual exchanges responds to the challenges of the 21st century education. A set of competences necessary for learners in the modern world is presented, with a focus on the following skills: linguistic, digital, personal, social, learning to learn, as well as intercultural. Those are the skills that are developed through telecollaboration-based projects. The latter ones have also become a stimulus for reflecting on the didactics of culture in the process of teaching foreign languages, especially in the context of teaching Polish as a foreign language. The chapter raises the issue of the competences necessary for the 21st century teachers and the skill set needed for an effective coordination of virtual exchanges. The aim of Chapter III is to present the role of virtual exchanges in computer-assisted learning. It outlines the history and definitions of that field, as well as its importance in the process of teaching Polish as a foreign language. The further part of the chapter focuses on issues directly related to telecollaboration – the definitions and chronology of its development, followed by the topic of designing virtual exchanges. The general typology of such projects, their various stages, and characteristic tasks along with the criteria for their creation are outlined as well. What is more, the attention is drawn to the small number of activities available for those learning foreign languages at the beginner level, amidst the materials aimed at teachers-coordinators of the telecollaboration. The set of frequently used tools in virtual exchange projects and the typology of challenges and problems that accompany its planning and implementation are also presented. Chapter IV aims at introducing the research section of the study. It presents general information about the three Polish-Italian virtual exchange projects undertaken by the author and the research project that was based on them. It defines the aims of implementing telecollaboration in the process of teaching Polish as a foreign language at the University of Turin, as well as the objectives of the planned study accompanied by a review of the subject literature. It discusses the educational context of foreign language learning at the two involved universities, as well as the factors shaping its organization. In the last part of the chapter a general outline of the conducted Polish-Italian virtual exchange projects is presented, together with a justification for the choice of the case study as the main research method adopted in the paper. Chapter V is devoted to a presentation of the results of the preliminary study based on data from the first edition of the Polish-Italian telecollaboration, which was carried out in the academic year of 2018/2019. The chapter outlines aspects directly related to the implementation of the project – the coordinators, the participants, the curriculum and the tools that were used – as well as those concerning the preliminary research design: the adopted methodology and the research questions aimed at assessing the adequacy of the difficulty degree of proposed tasks, in relation to the language level of the students performing them, the assessment of the tools that were used, and the attempt to identify the root of the problems that emerged during the implementation of the telecollaboration. For this purpose, several research methods were used simultaneously, following the concept of data triangulation: observations performed by the author of the dissertation throughout the project, a post-project survey conducted amongst the Italian participants, and a quantitative-qualitative analysis of the linguistic material, which consisted of all the students' utterances collected during the virtual exchange. The compilation of data obtained through the research methods mentioned above made a detailed evaluation for each exchange task possible and helped to provide answers to the previously posed research questions. As a result, it was determined that the digital tools were selected adequately to the performed activities, and that the problems that arose during the telecollaboration were caused by insufficient amount of time allocated to the project, as well as by deficiencies in the system of its coordination. What is more, two tasks proved to be overly challenging for the students in terms of language. Furthermore, it was stated that the students felt that their participation in the virtual exchange allowed them to learn new Polish vocabulary and contributed to an increase in their knowledge of the Polish culture and what it is like to live in Poland. The conclusions from the conducted analysis were utilized to improve the Polish-Italian telecollaboration project in its two subsequent editions. The most significant improvements included: extending the duration of the exchange, changing the project's coordination model, and removing and replacing certain tasks with new ones. Chapter VI presents the second and third editions of the Polish-Italian telecollaboration, which were carried out in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, and the main conducted research which was based on them. Moreover, it verifies the cited students' opinions on the benefits gained from the virtual exchange, as well as analyses the lexical means used in the project and the cultural content included in the participants' utterances. The main goal of the research project was to determine which theories of language acquisition and learning can be applied to teaching through virtual exchanges, and to determine to what extent the existing curricula of teaching the culture of Polish as a foreign language are consistent with the cultural content shared by the partners in an online environment. In order to perform an analysis of the aforementioned issues, a quantitative-qualitative study was conducted, based on a language corpus created from student utterances collected during the Polish-Italian virtual exchange projects conducted in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. The generated frequency lists were compared with the vocabulary introduced during the university classes of Polish as a foreign language, which made it possible to determine which lexical means are being retained owing to the participation in the virtual exchange, and which are considered new for the students. This also helped create a basis for determining the contribution of imitation and creation processes in vocabulary learning during telecollaboration at the beginner level. In the second part of the research, all excerpts of the participants' utterances containing cultural content were identified. Based on its quantitative-qualitative analysis, it was determined how often they occur in the students' interactions, what topics they relate to, and which tasks trigger them. Then, it was established to what extent they correspond to the curricula for teaching the culture of Polish as a foreign language, comparing them to the categories included within. The results obtained made it possible to claim that during the process of vocabulary acquisition, learners use actions based on imitation of linguistic forms, as well as on creation, forming new utterances using previously unknown words or structures. The research results also provided an affirmative verification of the participants' perceptions about the linguistic and cultural benefits of the participation in a virtual exchange. Moreover, it was observed that the cultural topics tackled by the students largely refer to popular culture, which is predominantly absent from the curricular proposals for the teaching of culture of Polish as a foreign language. Chapter VII provides a summary of the conducted research and reflects on the application of virtual exchanges in teaching Polish as a foreign language at A1 level. It confirms that virtual exchange can be a valuable form of learning for learners of Polish at the beginner level who, despite limited linguistic competence, are able to effectively perform the proposed tasks and gain various benefits, such as the development of intercultural competence (mainly in terms of factual knowledge), linguistic competence (by reinforcing the already known lexical and grammatical structures and learning new ones), and digital competence (by becoming familiar with new tools and their functions). It is also stated in the chapter that the complications that emerged during the Polish-Italian telecollaboration demonstrate that the language level of the participants does not influence the types of difficulties faced by their coordinators. The summary of the dissertation includes comments on the limitations of the conducted study and the implications for the future.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14242/71363
URN:NBN:IT:UNIGE-71363