The possibilities of computer supported learning in education have opened up avenues for learners to communicate informally. This is a vlog on YouTube by a young American documenting his experiences as a learner of French. This paper discusses the potential uses of vlogging to improve language speaking skills and intercultural exchange with users. The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze informal learning communication through a vlog between an American French language learner sharing her learning experiences on YouTube and her audience. In this paper, we present the opportunities learners have for both speaking and intercultural skills in the vlog environment. The study uses the empirical method of ecological data collection on the Internet. Qualitative analysis focuses on online discourse (Develot, Kern, & Lamy, 2011) through interaction analysis and technical analysis (Paveau, 2015). We discuss qualitative findings based on conducting research using this multidimensional corpus to illuminate the use of vlogs in informal language learning, speaking, and intercultural exchange by YouTube users in a globalized world.
Introduction
But in fact, on the use of Web 2.0 tools for online language learning and intercultural exchange, Guth and Helm (2010) grouped the tools into three other categories that are useful as a platform for mediation and collaboration. Can happen. Nowadays they are: social networks, wikis and blogs. Outside this basket are media sharing communities such as Flickr and YouTube, of which we are more interested in the latter; This has nevertheless been largely overlooked in the case of French language learning, particularly with regard to the possibility of stimulating autonomous language learning online (Barton and Lee, 2013).
Previous studies highlighted learners’ 2.0 skills (Guth and Helm, 2010). Our research is based on Web 2.0 platforms, called “an emerging phenomenon in digital communication” by Herring (2015) that support the convergence of channels or modes (text, audio, video, images) for user-to-user communication. Are.
According to Blommaert and Rampton (2011), “Over the course of these two decades, globalization has changed the face of social diversity, cultural diversity, and linguistic diversity in societies around the world”. Terms such as migration and multiculturalism have been replaced by superdiversity, as discussed by Vertovec (2007); And in this context the processes of globalization are intensifying and complicating the idea of superdiversity with new emerging media and technologies of communication.
The emergence of this vlog form was previously covered and discussed in Combe (2014), Vlogging is a very specific form of vlogging through which language can be practiced while learning online.
What is the role of learner’s vlogs in enriching speaking and intercultural skills? Thus, this study has been designed around this question. The paper will be composed of three main parts: first, it will show the theoretical and methodological framework, and second, the data.
Method
1. A Methodological Framework
The research protocol follows the empirical collection of environmental data. The research is about what constitutes a digital document in the definition given by Paveau (2015), ‘a document that is digitally produced on the web, such as a website, blog, social network, or any digital environment. in which the speech acts are taking place (the YouTube platform in this context).
To analyze users’ comments on YouTube, we applied Bennett’s (1986, 1993) conceptual tool, the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (denial, avoidance, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, integration), to understand the nature of the individual’s reactions. can be understood, and the criteria for adaptation to another culture will become more clear. Bennett’s (1986) six-point scale of sensitivity to difference is interesting for examining emotional and conventional responses when encountering culture shock in online spaces, given that the scale itself seeks to elicit cognitive conceptions of cultural experience. Is based on.
The range of the six-step typology reflects a continuum: We explored how low YouTube comments fell on Bennett’s (1986) scale. However, the development of intercultural sensitivity leads to continued progress development (Bennett and Bennett, 2004). In comparison to the indefinite lifespan of spoken comments on YouTube, which remain as a fixed statement once posted unless later clarified or reproduced by individual users, the steps Continuity has no fixed form.
The method of qualitative data analysis was computer-mediated discourse analysis (Herring, 2015) and analysis with interactions in digital contexts and the most recent French research on their discourse (Develotte, 2012; Paveau, 2015) plus Bennett’s (1986) scale of intercultural sensitivity. Is using.
Adopting a semio-discursive approach, we will analyze a vlogger’s discourse. Furthermore, we proceeded to a preliminary heuristic analysis of the corpus of all comments that YouTube calls Top Comments, that is, the comments voted as best by YouTube users, and the number of polylogs, the number of reactions they generated and Have attempted to manually track all users participating in a conversation.
2. Corpus
Given the scope of the data and the instability of multimodal online research corpus, it should be clearly stated that we selected a reference corpus from the vlogger’s ‘texfrancis’ channel content3. As of January 5, 2016, this corpus consists of 38 videos, 0:10 – 15:56 minutes, published from June 28, 2011, and the written segments inspired by them.
The current corpus of the study consists of three vlogs (‘Unpronounceable words for us Americans’, ‘Differences between France and the USA’, and ‘American slang’), with a total duration of over 14 minutes and over 7000 comments on YouTube. Have been posted.
Discussion
Thus, the first results of our research show that the vlogger’s peer group strongly promotes the vlogger (with apparently strong socio-emotional aspects), engages in multilingual exchanges, and supports the vlogger as a student and teacher. Both create (practicing French, also teaching American slang), and verbal knowledge and reflection are shared informally among users (without signs of tension or formality).
Vlogs provide an opportunity to practice speaking skills, as stated in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, but this type of undertaking is often very difficult to achieve in the real-life context of communication outside the classroom. By their very nature, vlogs invite the use of digital capabilities and speaking skills in front of the camera, and publishing (speech acts and gestures, improvising the final media product before posting, adding text, and emoticons that use speech acts) represent) encourage. Topics like terminology and pronunciation generate exchanges, leading to rich debates.
Vlogging is a space for collaboration and hetero-peer learning. Users often give linguistic explanations without demonstrating expertise in phonetics. So attempts to explain how to pronounce words appear to be limited by both the medium (YouTube comments) and peers’ knowledge of the topic. Moreover, vlogs help a lot in understanding the meaning of words in a foreign language.
Because of each individual’s own perspective, cross-cultural issues can cause some serious tension. The vlogging space on the Internet is also an opportunity for the exchange of conflicting opinions about cultural status or statements and stereotypes posed by users. Most of the vlogger’s perceptions are going to generate various comments where users give their perceptions about what the vlogger posted and raise differences of viewpoint on a local basis (France and its regions) as well as about Paris and the rest of France. which also serve to divide users into in-groups and out-groups (Bennett, 1993). Ethnocentric approaches of denial, defense and minimization reflect the inter-regional cultural bias of some users.
Others consolidated in-group and out-group divisions that some users minimized while issues of acceptance and integration were also observed. One such user takes each point developed by the vlogger and positions himself on those points, demonstrating the acceptance stage on Bennett’s (1986) scale by topics such as the school system in France, smoking in high school, and TV channels. and provides a personal explanation on youth behavior in France. In this way, vlogs are limited in their possibilities as a tool for developing speaking and intercultural skills. Commercial ethics and privacy issues with sharing on social networks should be taken into account when using online interaction in educational contexts.
Conclusion
Perhaps, it can be inferred that the potential for informal language learning and intercultural exchange through YouTube has been highlighted in this article. It turns out that, through the mirror of the screen, a vlogger is almost transformed into a fantasy creature, a movie character or a completely digital being.
Our case study illustrated using the example of a vlog (‘texfrancis’ channel) incorporates new multimedia and multimodal interactions to learn and practice foreign languages informally. Vlogs therefore promise to improve opportunities for speaking skills, digital literacy skills, multilingual peer learning, socialization through cross-cultural stereotypes and opinion conflicts, and develop students’ competencies in these subjects. Ethical issues and the language proficiency levels of social network users limit vlogs. The ‘texfrancis’ channel therefore becomes a helpful resource for teachers to think about what can be done with interactive platforms of multimodal interface in formal teaching to practice language and digital literacy skills.
The issues raised by this case study are different and more fundamental in the present-day globalized world, where large-scale digital communication creates new and diverse interactional contextual spaces. There is perhaps much more to be done in terms of analyzing interactions in the fluid context of production as well as how language vlogs can be of interest from a pedagogical perspective.
Read Also:
- What is Vlogging
- History of Vlogging
- What Is Vlogging? Definition & Impact on Digital Media
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