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Using Activity Theory to understand the contradictions in an online transatlantic collaboration between student-teachers of English as a Foreign Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2011

Victoria Antoniadou
Victoria Antoniadou*
Affiliation:
Department of Language and Literature Education and Social Science Education, Building G5, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), 08193, Barcelona, Spain (email: Victoria.Antoniadou@campus.uab.cat)
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Abstract

This article describes the contradictions reported by student-teachers in Barcelona who engaged in telecollaboration with transatlantic peers via Second Life, during their initial training in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The data analysis draws upon Grounded Theory and is theoretically informed by Activity Theory and the notion of contradictions. The study discusses technology-based, intra- and inter-institutional contradictions, their impact on the development of the telecollaborative activity, and outcomes in bolstering student-teachers’ conceptual understanding of Network-Based Language Instruction.

Keywords

telecollaborationteacher educationcontradictionsActivity Theory
Type
Research Article
Information
ReCALL , Volume 23 , Special Issue 3: Special issue on CALL and CMC teacher education research , 01 September 2011 , pp. 233 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 2011

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