Development of educational materials for the use of the Tandem Canada platform in university teaching
(2023). Programme d’appui à l’innovation pédagogique (PAIP) – Volet appui à l’élaboration et à la mise à jour de cours et au développement pédagogique (6 083, 34$).
Responsable du projet: Sabrina Priego
Development of the Tandem Language Learning Research Group website
(2022). Soutien au développement de la recherche, de la création et de la recherche-création - BDR – Soutien à la diffusion. (5 000$)
Responsable principale: Sabrina Priego
Coresponsables du projet: Susan Parks et Laurence Capus
A Tandem Approach to Language Learning: Re-Envisioning the Teaching and Learning of ESL–FSL in Canada (2020-2023)
Main researcher: Susan Parks. Coresearcher: Sabrina Priego et Laurence Capus
Organization: Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education of Quebec.
Program: Research-action program on digital technology in education and higher education (2021-0EUA- 292376) ($ 221 929 ).
Summary of the project:
This research-action examines the way in which TLL can facilitate the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL) in elementary and high school students as well as Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) in high school students. For the purpose of this project, the ESL learners collaborate with French as a second language (FSL) and French as a foreign language (FLE) learners in English-speaking regions of Canada and of the United States while ELE learners do so with FSL learners in Mexico or South America. The exchanges take place via the platform Tandem Canada (https://tandem.ulaval.ca/), which was launched in 2018 with the help of a subsidy from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education of Quebec. The platform aims to facilitate the management of tandem language exchanges and the execution of synchronous and asynchronous activities.
Since not all learners in Quebec schools have the opportunity to participate in student exchanges, this virtual collaboration technique gave everyone the chance to benefit from intercultural communication with native speakers of the language they are learning (Guth, Helm & O'Dowd, 2012; Parks, Capus & Priego, 2019).
This project directly answers to the need for research of the FRQSC for the success of all people.
Rooted in a paradigm of qualitative research (Merriam, 2002), this project aims to determine (1) how etandems help to motivate students in their learning process of a target language, (2) how they contribute to the acquisition of the target language and (3) how stakeholders in schools perceive this activity. A gender-based analysis will be conducted to determine if boys and girls were equitably involved in the activity.
A Virtual Tandem Learning Project with ESL and FSL Students (2016-2017)
Main researcher : Susan Parks. Coresearchers: Sabrina Priego, Laurence Capus, Thomas Michael Power.
Organization : Ministry of Education and Higher Education of Quebec.
Program: Canada-Quebec Agreement for Education in the Minority Language and Second Languages ($119 543)
Summary of the project :
The main objective of this project is to facilitate exchanges between students registered in ESL courses in the province of Quebec and those registered in FSL classes English-speaking regions of Canada (or elsewhere, for instance the United States). To do so, we have created a virtual platform that allows for the identification of partners and can be used to maintain written and oral exchanges on a technical and pedagogical level. Another one of our goals is to promote a tandem-based approach in second-language teaching (Little et Brammerts, 1996; Priego, 2011). According to this method, students communicate half of the time in their second language (L2) and half of the time in their first language (L1); this not only gives them the chance to practice their L2, but also to provide feedback on the quality of their exchanges with this partners in their L1. Since native speakers take part in these exchanges, they are able to correct and help their partners to express themselves properly. All English teachers in Quebec, whether that be at the college or university level, can take advantage of the services that the platform offers, which allows for three different types of tandem exchanges: via email, synchronous chat and oral/audio-visual interaction in both official languages.