Abstract
From 1988 to 1990 several collaborative “cross-country” intermediate French classes at Harvard and Stanford became one class. Students combined their efforts and insights in the accomplishment of a semester-long task, in most cases the publication of a student newspaper or magazine, using the electronic mail (e-mail) network to contact each other, elaborate their plans, and bring their projects to successful conclusion. Additional experiments of a similar nature took place between Harvard and the University of Pittsburgh (in the spring of 1990) and between Stanford and the University of Pittsburgh during 1991–1993. This paper suggests that this type of task-oriented learning through distance-communication is applicable at many different course levels and has considerable merit as an approach to teaching and learning. The key phases of this task-based model are presented along with technological information regarding computers and networks, as a guide to colleagues interested in pursuing similar lines of experimental teaching. Also included are samples of student messages, with their varied and often highly colorful discourse features, which attest to the motivation of students and reveal the strong personal investment made by the participants as they join hands across the miles in a productive, communication-based enterprise. The language and learning styles generated by technology and computers fully deserve closer investigation by researchers and teaching practitioners alike. The authors summarize the experiments, discuss assessment, and present research issues, concluding that good pedagogy and quality technology must share a vision of what can be accomplished in this rapidly evolving educational work place.
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The original collaborative project, on which this article is based, was undertaken at the suggestion of Professor Ralph M. Hester, Chair of the Department of French and Italian, Stanford University, and was funded by the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning. The authors would also like to thank Francçoise Herrmann, Garth McCavana, and Louise Wills for their assistance.
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Barson, J., Frommer, J. & Schwartz, M. Foreign language learning using e-mail in a task-oriented perspective: Interuniversity experiments in communication and collaboration. J Sci Educ Technol 2, 565–584 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00695325
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00695325