The Inalco Chinese Studies Department's eTandem programs

1. Introduction



Among many weak points in the teaching/learning of Chinese, we noticed that speaking proficiency is considered by students as a "difficult" (75%, n =26) or "very difficult" (13%, n =26, survey conducted among Licence 2 students in the Chinese Studies Department at Inalco, 2018) subject.



Indeed, first of all, the spoken Chinese language is very different from French. Because of the complex tone systems and intonation of Chinese, without regular practice with a native speaker, the French-speaking learner alone masters pronunciation skills very poorly. Added to all this is the very limited time dedicated́ to this learning: for first- and second-year Chinese degree students, they have just one and a half hours of speaking lessons, spread over the whole academic year, i.e. 39 hours a year. This is obviously not enough time for them to master this skill.



At the same time, in unnatural contexts, learners have few opportunities to meet native Chinese speakers and very little possibilitý to work on speaking outside the classroom. As a result, they progress very slowly and feel frustrated when they want to express themselves in Chinese.



"My own difficulties stem from a very imperfect memorization of tones first, then from my total lack of Chinese practice, so I find it very difficult to make correct sentences in spontaneous exchange without having time to think" (LM).







2. eTandem in foreign language teaching/learning





Tandem learning is learning between two people belonging to two different mother-tongue communities who collaborate with the aim of a) mutually learning each other's mother tongue; b) getting to know each other; c) discovering each other's cultures (Lewis and Stickler, 2007/2009). During an online exchange session, via a communication application, the learner and his/her native pair practice the target language together for a limited period of time, then switch to the native language (or vice versa) for the same length of time. Each plays both the role of learner and assumes the role of expert, providing language and cultural support to his or her partner. Participants in eTandems need to have a certain level of autonomy to manage their work. Working to a common timetable, the two learners must define the date and time of each exchange together. They're also expected to be able to solve any problems themselves that might create obstacles to their exchanges. Autonomy is thus a prerequisite for successful eTandem work. It is also through their autonomous work that they reinforce this same skill.







3. The first Chinese eTandem schemes at Inalco - feedback





eTandem has been introduced to the Chinese Studies Department at Inalco since 2012. The "Inalco/Geneva/Hubei eTandem" project is Inalco's first official Chinese eTandem scheme. Every year, during the 1st semester, 20 students from Inalco's Licence 1 in Chinese and around ten students from the University of Geneva's Licence 1 in Chinese form groups of 2 or 3 people with around 30 Chinese students studying French at Hubei University. Each group has to carry out 8 exchanges, each lasting 30 minutes for each language. On the Inalco side, participants are exempt from face-to-face oral classes, but are free to attend classes if they wish.



In 2017, two other eTandem schemes were created. These are the "eTandem Inalco-Chinese University of Hong Kong" and "eTandem Inalco-ParisTech". Unlike the "eTandem Inalco/Geneva/Hubei", where the teacher-tutor is almost absent on the Inalco side, these two new arrangements operate differently. For the eTandem with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, all exchanges take place in the presence of the teacher in a classroom. These are live online exchanges as part of a face-to-face course. We introduced it as a trial. Three exchanges took place with around ten Licence 0 students. As for the "Inalco-ParisTech eTandem", eight exchanges were offered to volunteer Licence 2 students. They worked in pairs with Chinese students studying French at ParisTech. These exchange sessions are organized in addition to the classroom courses.





Based on feedback from learners and teachers of these three schemes, thanks to questionnaires and informal interviews conducted between 2018 and 2019, we can summarize some strengths and weaknesses of the eTandem schemes.



eTandem schemes boost participants' motivation and provide valuable opportunities to practice oral language with native speakers. They help improve oral and cultural skills. However, an eTandem program requires rigorous management on the part of the supervising teacher. Tutoring and regular monitoring are essential to keep track of participants' progress. We have found that without supervision, evaluation and a predefined program, learners easily abandon the experience or participate in activities only irregularly.


Many participants would have liked to have had more language correction from their pairs. They mention that during exchanges, native speakers don't often, if at all, correct their mistakes. After working, learners don't feel they've learned much, nor do they know if their level is improving.



Another remark concerns the retention of knowledge learned during exchanges. Indeed, words and expressions acquired during exchanges are often repeated orally. Participants don't need to write them down. Consequently, without regular review and easy recall, this knowledge would be quickly erased from learners' memories.



These observations prompted us to implement specific measures to improve the weak points of this type of device in order to better exploit their potential. This is what we have done in the new eTandem device created in 2018, the "Inalco-BFSU[1] French Chinese eTandem" project.







4. The "Inalco-BFSU Chinese/French eTandem"
program.




4.1. General structure



At the start of the 2018 academic year, we began designing an Inalco-BFSU eTandem program. The aim of this program is to enable Chinese Licence 2 students from Inalco and French Licence 2 students from BFSU to meet and practice both languages in a regular, guided way. It also aims to correct the shortcomings of other previously established eTandem schemes.



The program is organized as a 15-week hybrid course, combining face-to-face and distance learning sessions. On the one hand, we have proposed five face-to-face sessions during which the linguistic and cultural points of the subjects to be worked on remotely are introduced. On the other hand, for a period of eight weeks, each learner works with his or her Chinese partner at a distance. Two face-to-face conversation workshops are also organized in parallel with the eight weeks of exchange work. The last two weeks of the semester are devoted to evaluation and assessment, in the form of an individual interview between the learner and the teacher.





4.2. Online activities



For each online work session, we designed three compulsory activities: "communicating in Chinese and French", "making a report", and "summarizing my learning".



"Communicating in Chinese and French" is the focus of the online work. We've asked them to discuss in Chinese (for Inalco students) topics already covered in face-to-face classes. The discussions take various forms: presenting a situation, exchanging opinions, exchanging information, and very occasionally role-playing. Once this part of the work is done, they are free to choose topics of their own interest to discuss. Practice time is a minimum of 45 minutes for each language, but if they wish, they can extend the communication time or organize additional online sessions.



The second compulsory activity is "debriefing". This involves writing down in the native language one or two points of the content presented by one's partner during the discussions. This type of activity serves two purposes: firstly, it enables us to check whether the learner has really participated in a discussion session; secondly, it enables the teacher to find out what topics the students are interested in discussing. In this report, we also asked each participant, as an expert, to note the recurring errors made by his or her pair during communication. This list of frequent errors can be consulted on the platform by the learner after the exchange, enabling him/her to learn more about his/her weak points and improve them.



Finally, the "Summarize what I've learned" section lists the linguistic and cultural knowledge that the learner has acquired thanks to the help of his/her partner. Of course, not everything has to be written down. We encouraged them to write down the points they found most relevant and interesting. Thanks to this summary work, each learner can gradually build up a personalized learning file, archiving the knowledge acquired during all the exchange sessions with their online partner. To stimulate regular revision, we informed learners that the contents of this file would be discussed during the final assessment interview.





4.3. Implementation and feedback



We experimented with this device from February 2019 and throughout the second half of the year.



In 2019, 26 Inalco student volunteers took part in this program. Among them, two learners had never communicated with a native Chinese speaker, 17 (63%) had never taken an online course or training. In 2020, 24 students took part in this program. 11 (55%) had never taken an online course or training.



Chinese students in BFSU's French department numbered 25 in 2019 and 26 in 2020. For them, the program consisted of a conversational practice workshop, as part of an optional course. The Chinese students had to follow the same instructions as the French students.



During our observations between 2019 and 2020, we found that this eTandem program provided valuable opportunities for learners to work on speaking. Learners improved language skills and enriched their cultural knowledge about China and France. They also developed metalinguistic awareness and applied it during exchanges with native speakers. This skill enabled them not only to better locate their language weaknesses, but also to motivate themselves to make extra efforts to improve.



We are very encouraged by the results, and new eTandem schemes have been set up or are in the process of being set up within the department.







Jing GUO, Associate Professor of Chinese, Department of Chinese Studies, Inalco.

Member of the laboratoire EA4514 PLIDAM, Inalco







Bibliography



Lewis, Tim & Stickler, Uschi, "Collaborative learning strategies during a tandem exchange via the Internet", Lidil [Online], n°36, 2007, online 01 June 2009, accessed 7 January 2022.

URL: http://journals.openedition.org/lidil/2543

DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/lidil.2543





Notes



[1] Beijing Foreign Studies University.