The articulation of language-culture in the co-construction of intercultural competence in a teletandem partnership (Portuguese/Spanish)

• Grant number: 10/02365-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2010
• End date: January 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Ana Mariza Benedetti
• Grantee: Denize Gizele Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 06/03204-2 - Teletandem Brazil: foreign languages for all, AP.TEM

Abstract

Due to the development, propagation and the use of technological artifacts associated to information and communication technologies (ICTs), telecollaborative language learning environments were created where intercultural communication competence (BYRAM, 1997) and meaning relationships occur in an inseparable dimension involving language, culture and society. Considering this context of telecollaborative meetings, whereupon languages relate to each other and produce meaning in the web of linguistic and cultural dimensions, this research, supported by FAPESP (process 2010/02365-8), proposed to investigate how the linguistic and cultural components were managed by learners in the Teletandem context, in order to promote the co-construction of intercultural competence during interactions in the context mentioned. The participants, a Uruguayan, learner of Portuguese, and a Brazilian, learner of Spanish, used Skype, a synchronous communication tool to interact simultaneously (in real time) for about three months. The current research is based on theorical postulates concerning the telecollaboritive language learning (FIGUEIREDO, 2006; SOUZA, 2006; VYGOTSKY, 1998; JURIC, 2009), with special attention to the tandem modality of learning (VASSALLO e TELLES, 2009; BENEDETTI, 2010) and to the guidance principles of virtual learning (VASSALLO e TELLES, 2009; LUZ, 2010; BRAMMERTS, 2002; LITTLEWOOD, 1996; PAIVA, 2005 e SOUZA, 2006). It is also part of the theorical foundation, the Vygotskyan concept of mediation (VYGOTSKY, 1998), culture conceptions (EAGLETON, 2005; GÓMEZ, 1999; WALESKO, 2006; GÓNZALES, 1996); interculturality theories (KRAMSCH, 1993, 2003; 2006, 2009 MENDES, 2010) and the intercultural competence development (BYRAM, 1997; MEYER, 1991; JIN, CORTAZZI, 2001; KLEIMAN, 1998). This is a qualitative research of ethnographic basis (ANDRÉ, 2004). The data were collected by means of 06 interactions, plus 03 interactions diaries produced by the Brazilian participant, the Uruguayan interactant's personal notes and a questionary applied to both participant. Based on the description and data analysis, showed that the contact established in the telecollaboritive language learning context (Teletandem) during the participants' interactions were favorable to the intercultural contact and, consequently, favorable to the learners' intercultural competence construction. The members of this partnership participated in an active manner in the learning process through complex negotiations of linguistic-cultural meanings and confrontation of linguistic and sociocultural values. It was possible to verify that the interactive contact, through the Teletandem sessions, enabled students the observation, analysis, confront, interpretation and shared and critical reflection about the linguistic and cultural manifestation of the languages in contact: Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Uruguay).

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

RODRIGUES, Denize Gizele. A articulação língua-cultura na coconstrução da competência intercultural em uma parceria de Teletandem (Português/Espanhol). 2013. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas. São José do Rio Preto São José do Rio Preto.