Jean-Paul Narcy-Combes Université Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris 3 Diltec – EA 2288 (Paris 3 – Partis 6)

Bertin, J-C., & Narcy-Combes, J-P. (2007). Monitoring the Learner - Who, Why and What For?. Computer Assisted language learning, 20/5 (pp ). Bygate, M., SKEHAN, P., & SWAIN, M. (eds.) (2001). Researching pedagogic tasks: Second language learning, teaching and testing. Harlow : Longman. Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Cambridge : CUP. Ellis, R.S. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching, Oxford : OUP. Lamy, M-N., & Hampel, R. (2007). Online Communication in Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Palgrave. Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking University Teaching. A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. London: Routledge Narcy-Combes, J-P. (2005). Didactique des langues et TIC. Paris: Ophrys. Narcy-Combes, J-P., & Narcy-Combes, M-F. (2007). La tâche, réponse à des problèmes spécifiques dans le contexte universitaire français. Le français dans le monde –Recherches et application Juillet (pp.73-88). Rosen, E (ed.) (2009). La perspective actionnelle et lapproche par les tâches en classe de langue. Le Français dans le Monde – Recherches et Applications (janvier 2009). Paris : CLE international.. White, C. (2003). Language Learning in Distance Education. Cambridge: CUP. Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2007). Doing Task-based Teaching. Oxford: OUP

CSOA :from a blended to a distance course CSOA is the French acronym for scientific oral presentations in English. It is an experimental (action research) course for Master and PhD students in linguistics, applied linguistics or psycholinguistics (Narcy-Combes & Narcy-Combes, 2007, Bertin & al, 2009). It corresponds to an initial face-to-face course of twelve 90–minute sessions in a term of 12 weeks.

initial session: tutor-led introduction to the course; followed by two five-stage sequences of activities; stage one: learners select a research article in their domain; stage 2: learners turn the article into a very detailed plan (titles, headlines, subheads, etc.), they it to tutor who sends feedback in return; second meeting with tutor: feedback and suggestions of micro tasks; stage 3: Powerpoint presentation sent to tutor; who sends feedback in return; stage 4: rehearsed oral presentation ed as audio attachment to tutor, who sends feedback in return; stage 5 : final presentation to a group of no more than 12 learners.

This sequence is repeated a second time. Each of the stages can be justified by referring to theories. Due to their domain of research, the learners are sensitive to this theoretical framework. The cognitive work of the earlier stages is accepted because the final stage is a real- world activity leading to interaction with the other learners and with the tutor (a specialist of the field).

Results are positive: learner satisfaction is high; second presentation is of better quality than the first one (process and product). Phonological nativization (Grosbois, 2006) is not totally overcome and the reading source of the input can be felt in some presentations; Slides have very few misprints, but errors occur in speech.

The reading techniques, the transformation of the article into a detailed series of titles, and the designing of the Powerpoint presentation could be monitored and feedback sent to the teacher and learner (which techniques are not effective, errors not seen to, etc.). Words or phrases that are likely to be difficult to pronounce for a French speaker of English could be indicated with suggestions of practice. A research project is currently under way including the use of teaching agents to see how this could be implemented.

The course will soon be available as a distance course on a web-based platform. Videoconferencing sessions will replace the face-to-face sessions when the presentations are actually given, which will maintain the possibility of collective debate. The videoconferencing sessions will: - structure the course (Lamy & Hampel, 2007) - give face validity to the work done by the learners.

A text in Hungarian is not as transparent as a text in English for speakers of French; Indo-european words do not look the same; Scientific/technical content will need to be known in advance; So far colleagues think such tasks cannot be tackled before year 4 (250 hours), while they can be tackled sooner in English (except for answering questions); Phonology might be less of a problem (predictable regularity),morphology more; Specific training in reading aloud;

Two parallel approaches: (1) a lexical approach (instance-based L production); (2) parallel build up of agglutinative morphological rules in order to deal more adequately with the chunks; Transforming sentences into titles might be too complex; Pair work might be approriate; Finnish will offer more internet-based support (corpora, text-to-speech, etc.).

Resources Texts in English and in Hungarian or Finnish; Preparing one presentation in English and one in Hungarian at the same time might help.

A blended approach has certainly improved the situation and the final presentations are very good. Combination of interaction and individual work is positive. Favouring a plurilingual approach to language learning whenever possible might facilitate the learning and make it more efficient. ICT tools can certainly help but they are not always available in the case of the less taught languages.