Modes of teletandem
The Teletandem Brasil Project adopts the institutional teletandem; that is the one with sessions carried out within both participating institutions, in their labs, and mediated by their teaching assistants (MA and Ph.D. Students), language instructors, and/or professors.
We acknowledge the benefits and possibilities of semi-institutional teletandem (when only one of the partners is affiliated to an academic institution) and of non-institutional teletandem (when both partners are not affiliated to an academic institution). However, our ten-year experience with telecollaboration in teletandem projects reveals that the institutional teletandem brings a safer and more assisted learning context to all of our students, including the ones from our partner institutions. Therefore, our partner universities abroad are offered two choices of institutional teletandem when collaborating with us:
The Teletandem Brasil Project adopts the institutional teletandem; that is the one with sessions carried out within both participating institutions, in their labs, and mediated by their teaching assistants (MA and Ph.D. Students), language instructors, and/or professors.
We acknowledge the benefits and possibilities of semi-institutional teletandem (when only one of the partners is affiliated to an academic institution) and of non-institutional teletandem (when both partners are not affiliated to an academic institution). However, our ten-year experience with telecollaboration in teletandem projects reveals that the institutional teletandem brings a safer and more assisted learning context to all of our students, including the ones from our partner institutions. Therefore, our partner universities abroad are offered two choices of institutional teletandem when collaborating with us:
Institutional-integrated teletandem
In its institutionally-integrated mode, the teletandem sessions are a mandatory part of the curriculum and of the activities of a regular foreign language course. The students are assessed before, during and/or after the teletandem sessions. They receive a grade for that and its corresponding additional activities (post-session writing activities in blogs, forum, essays, Facebook, etc.). In this mode, the sessions are carried out at the time of the students' regular foreign language classes. The language instructor must allocate an institutional lab and a specific part of his/her course for the teletandem sessions.
Institutional non-integrated teletandem
In its institutionally non-integrated mode, the teletandem sessions are carried out as extra-curricular activities, out of classroom time. Students either receive no grades or only a minimum grade for participation in and personal commitment to the sessions. They may receive a Teletandem Certificate from the Language Center or Institutional Language Lab, stating that they have carried out a number of sessions and hours of teletandem practice.
- Partner institutions may agree that one side will adopt the institutional-integrated teletandem and the other the non-integrated;
- Our ten-year experience in teletandem collaboration tells us that the institutional-integrated teletandem has better results and commitment on the part of the students;
- For further information and research results on the differences between these modes of teletandem, please, read the article:
CAVALARI, Suzi Marques Spatti. Integrating telecollaborative language learning into Higher Education: a study on teletandem practice. BELT-Brazilian English Language Teaching Journal, v. 9, n. 2, p. 417-432, 2018.
- Any collaboration with the Project Teletandem Brasil is always done completely free of charge.
