Dr. Jason Jolley Assistant Professor of Spanish

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Dr. Jason Jolley Assistant Professor of Spanish

• Teaching Fellowship Program Project
• Fall 2004 Spring 2005
• Videoconferencing and Learner Motivation
  Attitudinal Effects of Participation in an Online
  Language Exchange Community

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Going from Teaching Hunch

• The use of certain Internet-based communications
  tools, i.e. message boards, e-mail, instant
  messaging, and voice- or video-enabled chat might
  boost the motivation levels of language learners.

To Numbers Crunch?
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SOTL Project Design Model

• Problem/need statement
• Review of relevant literature
• Project goals
• Procedures and research methods
• Assessment of results and project
• Dissemination of results for public review

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Problem/Need

• Students have only three hours in class per week.
• Students have little or no exposure to native
  speakers (authentic input).
• Many students lack the resources to travel or
  study abroad.
• Some students seem to lack motivation to work in
  and out of classroom.

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Review of Relevant Literature

• There is already a corpus of research regarding
  motivation in second language acquisition (SLA)
  studies.
• Self-determination Theory is an influential model
  within research on motivation in other
  disciplines.
• Previous SLA studies on motivation do not explore
  technology as a variable.

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Goals for My Project

• Determine the effect of participation in an
  online language exchange (OLE) on learners in
  terms of specific motivational orientations.
• Determine whether participation in OLEs affects
  learners disposition to engage in other types of
  autonomous learning activities.
• Measure effects on learners attitudes regarding
  the specific technologies employed.
• Provide a replicable model for sound OLE design.

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Procedures and Research Methods

• Students from my Spanish 202 course at SMSU
  interact with ESL students from the Universidad
  Autónoma de Nuevo León using a variety of
  Web-based tools.
• A survey is administered before and after the
  12-week exchange period.
• Questionnaire measures for changes in affective
  variables, especially motivation.

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MSN Groups as Exchange Host
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Welcome Page of Language Exchange
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Pictures Menu
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Students from Monterrey, Mexico
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Students from Springfield, Missouri
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Message Board Index
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Index of Assigned Topics
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Example of an Assigned Topic
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Responses to Topics
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Responses in Both Languages
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Questionnaire Items on Technology
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Questionnaire Motivation Section
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Questionnaire Autonomy Section
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Assessment of Results and Project

• Statistical analysis to compare changes between
  T1 and T2 of questionnaire.
• T2 may include additional qualitative or
  interpretive items.
• A separate assessment tool will gather feedback
  about the implementation of the exchange itself.

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Dissemination of Results

• I plan to present the results and share what I
  have learned about online language exchange
  design at a national or international conference.
• Submission of an article to a
• peer-reviewed journal dedicated to
  computer-assisted language learning or second
  language acquisition.

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Benefits of TFP Participation

• Introduction to the scholarship of teaching and
  learning.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation.
• Opportunities to revise and expand proposals.
• Accountability and Support.