linq 2013 session_red_1_diadori_peppoloni

Università per Stranieri di Siena P

rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S Training Language Teachers

Through Multimodal

Classroom Observation: the

CLODIS Project

Prof. Pierangela Diadori

Dr. Diana Peppoloni


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Overall goal of the

project CLODIS aims at creating a network of

digital resources based on a corpus of video recordings of classroom interaction in Italian as a foreign language to train student teachers of Italian as a second language.

Focus on:

communicative-linguistic, cultural and didactic aspects.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Concept

Natural spoken and multimodal interaction

=

crucial for language learning

Therefore teachers need to be trained to adapt

their language to their students and to

interact with them during the lesson.

Classroom observation is a good method in

language teacher education (Kelly & Grenfell 2004);

We think that it could be enhanced through

observation and guided analysis of videorecorded

lessons.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Concept

STRUCTURED DIGITAL DATA (audio + video + text =

multimodal corpus) could be really useful in

teachers training.

They promote the (semiautomatic) analysis of

teacher talk and on its specific conversational

patterns

(thight link between Conversation Analysis and

Corpus Linguistics)


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Steps of the project

• Selection and recording of some videolessons regarding interactions in a classroom of italian as L2 or as foreign language (in Italy and abroad);

• Selection of some communicative functions realized by the teacher (ex. to give instructions, furnish explanations etc.)

• Transcription of the collected data;

• Informatic treatment of the transcribed data (tagging, parsing, extraction of statistical index etc.)

• Analysis of the results;

• Development of learning objects headed for the training of Italian L2 teachers.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Final results

• 5 DVD (corresponding to different

modules) dedicated to various

didactic aspects:

– “explanations”,

– “instructions for classroom activities”,

– “oral detection of student’s mistakes”,

– “transparency strategies in teacher’s spoken

interaction”,

– “different techniques to promote interaction

inside the classroom”.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Final results

• Each module will be structured in five

units, each one focused on a sub-

theme (total = 25 units);

• Each sub-theme will be related to

short videorecorded lessons (5

minutes) taken from italian L2

classrooms


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Final results

• An electronic GUIDE

• AN ON LINE CORPUS, easily accessible through the usage of keywords, containing the recorded lessons, organized on the topic theme and on the student’s profile, the referred transcriptions, the description of the setting.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Present work

- Informatic treatment of the videofiles

and of the written files (actual

database: 116 textual units, each one

referred to videolessons of variable

length);

- Review of the available transcriptions;

- Development of an on line database

(written parts + videos).


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Building the corpus

• CLODIS aims at being representative of the

innumerable and diversified situations where

Italian is learnt and taught in the world. Therefore

various and balanced examples of classroom

contexts have been selected according several

parameters.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Building the corpus

- the place (in Italy and abroad),

- the kind of institution (school, university, private

language centre, association, etc.),

- the type of teacher (Italian mother tongue or non

mother tongue),

- the age of the learners (children, teenagers or

adults),

- their language and culture (plurilingual classes,

monolingual classes),

- their motivation (migrants in Italy, learners of Italian

origin abroad, Erasmus students, seniors in

lifelong learning courses, etc.).


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Student’s profiles

– CHILDREN (kindergarten and elementary

school) in Italy and abroad

– TEENAGERS (junior and senior high

school) in Italy and abroad

– ADULTS in Italy (University, private schools,

CTP or other authority)

– ADULTS abroad (University, private

schools, IIC or other authority)


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

CLODIS DATA IN NUMBERS


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

CLODIS DATA IN NUMBERS

Adults

(92)

In Italy (64)

CTP (3)

Associations(4)

Private schools(10)

University (46)

Popular universities(1)

Abroad (28)

Private schools (2)

University (19)

Popular universities(1

Associations (6)


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

I dati disponibili in cifre


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

The transcription

system Next phase:

revision of the transcription

of these video lessons using the well-known Jefferson

transcription system (Jefferson 2004; Wallis 2007; Jenks

2011).

It meets the following principles:

• Expandability of the notation for increased granularity;

• Readability of the transcript;

• Lack of ambiguity;

• Iconicity.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

An example of

the transcribed text

1 Teacher (0.4) va bene (0.4) allora (0.2) di che tipo di testo si tratta (.) prima di tutto. (2.0)

2 Stud. 1 °difficile°

3 Teacher difficile?

4 Stud. 2 °si (.) si (.) per me°

5 Stud. 3 perché non so (0.3) eh: perché (0.4) eh: (0.8) i verbi sono (.) in (.) que:sto: tempo

6 Teacher ((annuendo) benissimo eh)


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

An example of

the transcribed text The previous example is composed of three

columns, including different kinds of information:

1- in the first one there are progressive numbers, that

stand for the succession of the various dialogic

turns;

2- the second one specifies the role of each speaker

involved in the interaction;

3- the last one contains the sentences pronounced

by the speakers, enriched with the relative

transcription symbols.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Why a multimodal

corpus

After having transcribed the verbal interaction related to

each video sequence, data have been stored in a software

for a multimodal annotation.

Advantages:

• redundancy of the informations;

• multiple points and modalities of observation of the

treated phenomena;

• solution of the ambiguities typical of a single modality,

through the informations inferred by another one.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Why a multimodal

corpus

The images referred to a text are not representations but

interactions

They are often used to persuade someone, to inform, to

explain something, to advise. So they can be considered as

real acts, modifying the reality and the world around us.

Each video-lesson is a multimodal text (a communicative

system made of multiple semiotic codes, that cooperate to

the comprehension of its entire meaning).


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Why a multimodal

corpus

Lessons

=

a process, a complex field where both the

participants and the final users can exchange useful

information and experiences, through different

sensorial channels.

CLODIS aims to capture and manage all this set of

interactions within its data.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

ELAN

A linguistic software annotator that allows to

create visualize trace modify

every useful information inserted in the texts

composing CLODIS.


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

ELAN

Developed by the Max-Planck Institut für

Psycholinguistik of Nijmegen

Different modalities of visualisation are provided for

the users; among them we have chosen:

- The Annotation Mode;

- The Transcription Mode


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

ELAN


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Teacher talk analysis

and corpus linguistics

Automatic treatment of digital data has revealed many

aspects of language in use, both in the written and in the

oral dimension, contributing to the production of teaching

materials and dictionaries (McEnery & Wilson, 2001; Sinclair

1992).

Less often ICT and multimodal corpora have been applied to

enhancing the quality of language teaching and learning,

which is the aim of the CLODIS project.

It should offer new insights to the study of teacher talk

features like interaction patterns, turn taking or language

use (Walsh & O’Keeffe 2010).


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Teacher talk analysis

and corpus linguistics

First step: encoding and tagging of the transcribed data;

Second step: application of statistic parameters in order to

automatically extract contextual and semantic

knowledge.

We can calculate automatically: frequency, keyness,

concordances etc.

Tagger: TreeTagger

Statistic software: WordSmith Tool


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

Further Perspectives

To maximise and amplify the potential of such data,

disposable in machine readable form, the project aims also

to elaborate an application for smartphones as self-study

tool, aimed at improving

linguistic pedagogical

competencies skills


rog

ett

o C

L O

D I

S

SUPERVISOR OF THE PROJECT

CLODIS:

Pierangela Diadori

[email protected]

RESEARCHER:

Diana Peppoloni

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

linq 2013 session_red_1_diadori_peppoloni

Education