Videoconferencing for EFL transformative learning: The ... … · 2. Transformative learning In the...

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Konin Language StudiesFaculty of Philology, State University of Applied Sciences in Konin, Poland

KSJ 5 (4). 2017. 443-471http://ksj.pwsz.konin.edu.pldoi: 10.30438/ksj.2017.5.4.4

Videoconferencing for EFL transformative learning:The case of Soliya

Sane M. YagiUniversity of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

[email protected]

Zahra Mustafa AwadUniversity of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

[email protected]

Ferial Abu AwwadUniversity of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

[email protected]

AbstractNew trends in foreign language instruction revolve around the learner andthey all attempt to facilitate language acquisition by using one form of infor-mation technology or another. This paper proposes that English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL) instruction use videoconferencing for transformative learning.It makes the case by illustrating how the videoconferencing facility offered bySoliya’s Connect Program (SCP) was able to have a transformative effect onEnglish learning students at the University of Jordan. The study relied on dataobtained by means of the Test of English as a Foreign Language—Internet-Based Test (TOEFL-IBT) as a pre- and post-test, transcribed video-conferencingsessions, the participants’ blog writing, and pre- and post-experiment attitudesurveys to gauge the degree of improvement in fluency accuracy, and intercul-tural attitudes. The analysis of the data showed a significant improvement inthe development of linguistic competence. The learners thought that their in-tercultural communication skills, analytical abilities, as well as their knowledgeabout current issues had improved as a result of participation in Soliya’s vide-oconferencing. They also reported that they had become more empathetic

Sane M. Yagi, Zahra Mustafa Awad, Ferial Abu Awwad

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with the other, and more able to understand and share the feelings of otherswho might have points of view opposite to their own. Videoconferencing em-powered the learners to perceive themselves as becoming more proactive andmore capable of effecting change in their societies.

Keywords: transformative learning; video-conferencing; EFL; CALL; intercul-tural attitudes

1. Introduction

Active learning, student-centered learning, collaborative learning, experientiallearning, and problem-solving learning are all attempts at transforming learnersand maximizing their development, increasing their language competence, im-proving how they learn, and eventually enhancing their lives. In fact, activelearning and student-centered learning represent current guiding principles tosecond or foreign (L2) language instruction. Active learning stresses the im-portance of involving learners in all activities and engaging their higher-ordercognitive strategies. The assigned tasks require learners to articulate their ideasand communicate them, explore attitudes, and utilize analysis, synthesis andevaluation. Student-centered learning, on the other hand, places emphasis ondesigning course content around what learners need, what is within their capac-ity, and what interests them; it is focused on giving learners autonomy and con-trol over course content as well as teaching methodology and the pace of in-struction. Its ultimate goal is the development of learner ownership and per-sonal responsibility for the learning experience.

In order to achieve both active learning and student-centered learning,teachers focus on collaborative learning techniques in the belief that workingwith others is motivating, it helps learners identify gaps in their knowledge, or-ganize their own knowledge differently, observe others, imitate their behavior,model it, learn to synthesize information, communicate it to others, and discussideas. Teachers also engage learners in in- and out-of-class activities that wouldget them to gain personal experiences, as well as engaging in reflection, concep-tualization, and experimentation. All of this experiential learning would culmi-nate in the growth of knowledge, skill development, and reflection on personalvalues and moral choices (i.e., value clarification). Teachers facilitate problem-solving by offering opportunities that would get learners to make determinedeffort to deal with complex problems in small groups, and by providing scaffoldingand opportunities for self-directed learning that would enhance their knowledge,self-efficacy, and problem-solving skills. In other words, the principles of L2

Videoconferencing for EFL transformative learning: The case of Soliya

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learning and these teaching approaches aim at transforming learners and offer-ing them life-changing experiences. For Rosebrough and Leverett (2011), trans-formative teaching is an act of teaching that is designed to change the learneron academic, social, and spiritual levels.

This paper reports a case study on the contribution that the Soliya’s Con-nect Program (SCP) has made to the transformation of Jordanian students of Eng-lish. Teachers claim that students who participate in this program change pro-foundly for the better. This is an attempt to explain to what extent these claimsare true. At first, the paper discusses the concept of transformative learning, andthen it introduces Soliya, the non-profit organization founded in Brooklyn, NewYork, describes the SCP that was started by Lucas Welch in 2003 (Genet, 2010),and outlines some of the advantages of computer-mediated communication(CMC). Subsequently, the research experiment is described, the results are pre-sented, and the gains in terms of fluency, accuracy, and attitude are discussed.

2. Transformative learning

In the paradigm posited by Piaget (1952) and Vygotsky (1978), among others,learning is an active and contextualized process in which knowledge is con-structed on the basis of personal experiences of the environment and hypothe-ses about it. Piaget (1952) theorized that knowledge is internalized by adapta-tion and organization, by assimilating new experiences into the learner’s exist-ing understanding, and by accommodating new experiences that do not fit inwith existing knowledge reframing and reorganizing their mental framework.Through social negotiations and practical experience, learners test their own hy-potheses and see how new information conflicts with their own old information.For them, new knowledge is at first constructed with a group and then adoptedby the individual. According to Vygotsky (1978), learners must be challengedslightly above their current level of development. When they experience successin completing a challenging task, they develop self-confidence and derive moti-vation to take on more difficult tasks.

It is claimed by Social Learning Theory that humans learn by observing thebehavior and attitudes of others, as well as the outcomes of their behavior. Ban-dura (1977) writes: “Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mentionhazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions toinform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observa-tionally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how newbehaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information servesas a guide for action” (p. 22). Thus, learning involves attention to the observedevents and behaviors, retention of what was attended to, reproduction of it, and


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the motivation to imitate it. The highest degree of learning takes place by first or-ganizing and rehearsing the modeled behavior symbolically and then enacting it.Learners acquire a particular behavior when they possess self-efficacy, the beliefthat their modeled behavior will result in the outcomes that they value. Conse-quently, high self-efficacy results in positive attitudes, perseverance, and success.

For learning to be complete, it has to be fundamental enough to be trans-formative and life-changing. In the words of Mezirow (1997), transformativelearning is “the process of effecting change in a frame of reference” (p. 5). Heconsiders the frame of reference as a worldview, a body of experience whichincludes associations, concepts, values, feelings, and assumptions that humansuse to understand the world around them. The frame of reference is “composedof two dimensions: habits of mind and a point of view” (p. 5). Habits of mind arehabitual ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are initially shaped by societyand its culture but are also influenced by idiosyncratic factors such as an indi-vidual’s psychological makeup. Habits of mind are usually reflected in the indi-vidual’s points of view, in their beliefs, value judgments, and attitudes that sur-face in their interpretation of experiences. Mezirow (1997) explains that “pointsof view are subject to continuing change as we reflect on either the content orprocess by which we solve problems and identify the need to modify assump-tions. This happens whenever we try to understand actions that do not work theway we anticipated. We can try out another person’s point of view and appro-priate it, but we cannot do this with a habit of mind. Points of view are moreaccessible to awareness and to feedback from others” (p. 6). Hence, frames ofreference that encompass habits of mind and points of view are the target oftransformative learning.

Transformative learning involves deliberate effort (Kegan, 2000) to modifythese frames of reference. Learning takes place when a human comes across analternative way of thinking and he or she starts to question his or her own habitsof mind. Frames of reference can be transformed through critical reflection onthe assumptions that are at the basis of our beliefs, interpretations, points ofview, and habits of mind. It must be made clear, though, that transformation isvoluntary. Cranton (2006) is of the opinion that if the process of transformationwere forced upon learners, then this would be considered as brainwashing andindoctrination rather than learning.

Lave and Wenger (1991) claim that learning is unintentional and that it issituated within authentic activities, contexts, and cultures. When knowledge ispresented within natural settings, learners would normally interact with otherhuman beings to understand it. With more collaboration, they start to form,with these people, a community of practice that develops its own culture: be-liefs, behaviors, and values. Novice beginners who do not understand that type


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of knowledge would initially be at the periphery of the community; then, as timepasses and they acculturate, they become more active and more engaged withthe community, and then they would eventually move to its center and assumeexpert status. That is when learning takes place.

Human behavior, according to Maslow (1943), is always directed towardgoal attainment. It comes to satisfy a hierarchy of five categories of basic needs,with lower-order needs at the bottom and higher-order needs at the top. He pos-ited that if the lower four categories were not satisfied, humans would feel asense of deficiency that motivates them to seek satisfaction. These four includeat the bottom of the hierarch physiological needs that relate to breathing, drink-ing, eating, and sleeping, etc. They are followed by safety needs (possessions,property, and environment), group belongingness needs (family relations, friend-ship, and love), and, finally, esteem needs (recognition by others, respect, self-confidence, etc). At the top of the hierarchy is self-actualization, the need forgrowth where human behavior is motivated more by the desire to be all that theycan be than by being deprived of what they perceive as essential to their life. Self-actualization covers the need for problem-solving, creativity, morality, etc.

Videoconferencing offers informal learning opportunities to students thatmay contribute to their transformation. Informal learning involves the casualuse of non-educational resources for learning purposes. It results from unor-ganized activity and interaction at work and home, with colleagues, acquaint-ances, and family, for a central or peripheral purpose. According to Schuguren-sky (2013), “we learn many important and relevant things outside of organizededucational programs. Informal learning could be self-directed (intentional andconscious), incidental (unintentional but conscious), or tacit (unintentional andunconscious)” (p. 6). Videoconferencing over the Internet is commonplace now-adays. For this reason, it is incumbent upon us, as educators, to utilize it fully forthe transformation of our learners.

The study reported below investigated the claim that Jordanian EFL stu-dents’ videoconferencing experience and their involvement with the Soliya’sConnect Program (SCP) are transformative and life-changing in a broad sense,as they offer incidental and tacit learning opportunities to the L2 learner. Beforedelving into this, however, a background to Soliya, its Connect Program, and theJordanian involvement will be presented.

3. Soliya, Connect Program, and Jordanian involvement

Soliya is a word formed by blending. It consists of the Middle English word sol“the sun personified” (Latin sol “sun” from Proto Indo-European *sewol), andthe obsolete Arabic word ا إ iyaa (masc.) or اة إ iyaat (fem.) “light”. Many Arabic-


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speakers will not recognize this word because it dates back to pre-Islamic times.There are several instances of it in sixth century poetry. Tarfa ibn Al-Abd, forinstance, said in his ode about Khawla:

دله ن دعص الرمل حر خلل

ت منورا ... أن عن أل سم وت

مدث ب ه عل دم

ت ولم أسف ... لثاته

إ الشمس اة إ سقته

(Between brown lips, her smile mirrors marigolds unfolding in white sand on a dew-wet dune; the sun lent it its rays—black antinomy darkened her gums, never toucheda tooth) (Joris, 1999).

Thus, Soliya literally means “sun rays”, for it is a non-profit organization thatshines the light of first-hand knowledge on global matters and divisive culturalissues through authentic dialogue between the West, and the Arab and the Is-lamic World. It aims to improve intercultural understanding in the world. It fos-ters constructive and respectful discourse across the divide about important so-cio-political issues by connecting students to a global community of peers andby engaging them in sustained and substantive dialogue.

Soliya is a non-governmental organization that was founded in New Yorkwith the mission “to improve intercultural understanding in the world, particu-larly between young adults in the US and the Arab and Muslim World”. Soliyadescribes, in its first website, the mission of its flagship, the Connect Program,as follows (https://www.soliya.net/):

Soliya’s Connect Program is a unique cross-cultural education program that enablescollege students in the United States and predominantly Muslim countries in the Mid-dle East to collaboratively explore the relationship between the US and the Arab &Muslim World with the aim of improving intercultural awareness and understanding.Participating students from across the globe literally see and hear one another in a richand intimate online environment utilizing the latest in videoconferencing and onlinecollaboration technology. Recognizing the profound role of media in shaping youngadults’ perceptions of other cultures, Soliya trains participating students to create andexchange video segments illustrating their perspectives on current world events.

The Connect Program, according to Soliya’s first website, aims to (https://web.archive.org/web/20041128134243/http://www.soliya.net:80/):

· Engage students in global affairs.· Expand students’ understanding of and ability to think critically about the rela-

tionship between the US and the Arab-Muslim World.· Sensitize students to the power of media in shaping opinions and perspectives and

provide them with the analytical skills they need to assess the media more critically.


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· Develop multi-media communication skills.· Humanize the “other” through intimate communication and collaboration and

catalyze genuine relationships across borders.· Empower students to work for change on a global level, and provide them with

the skills they need to make a positive impact.

Soliya’s partners in this endeavor are, among others, tertiary educational insti-tutions, Search for Common Ground, Partners in Humanity, Echoing Green Foun-dation, Compton Foundation, Qatar Foundation, US-Islamic World Forum,United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, MIT’s Saxelab Social Cognitive Neurosci-ence Laboratory, iEarn, Global Nomads Group, etc.

Since its launch in the fall of 2004, the Connect Program has been a cross-cultural education program that has brought together native speakers with non-native speakers of English, in an intimate online environment, Eastern and West-ern students, Muslim and Christian cultures for the purposes of engaging themin global affairs and expanding their ability to think critically about global issues.Clearly, then, the Connect Program has transformative learning objectives thatimpact the learner’s life in fundamental ways.

Figure 1 Screenshot of an earlier version of Soliya’s Connect Program

The Connect Program consists of ten two-hour synchronous videoconfer-encing sessions in one semester. Eight-person groups of students from differentparticipating universities meet online once a week to discuss a pre-agreed topic.Figure 1 depicts the earliest configuration of the Connect Program as practicedin 2004. Each Connect Program group nowadays consists of four Eastern andfour Western discussants (one of whom, at minimum, is a native speaker of Eng-lish), and is moderated by two trained facilitators who come from the two cul-tural groups. The discussion takes place on computers equipped with web-cam-eras. On each participant’s computer screen there is a circle of nine windows in


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each of which there is a real-time image of a participant. During the discussion,participants can read each other’s facial expressions and non-verbal language,listen to their voices, and share text messages as they explore perspectives dif-ferent from their own and uncover biases and stereotypes. In a major course as-signment each student uses video-editing software and footage from Aljazeeraand the BBC to prepare a short news report that would make them conscious ofthe impact of media bias on cross-cultural relations. Some of the topics that theprogram offers for discussion include: engaging with difference through dialogue,role of religion in students’ lives, role of the media, youth empowerment, bridgingthe divide, extremism, gender and politics, culture and stereotypes. Participantsare expected to read, from a reading list, articles on the topic of discussion. Theresources include writings by Samuel Huntington on the clash of civilizations, re-buttals of his theory, Gallup poll reports, and articles devoted to the discussion ofthe sources of conflict between Islam and the West, bridging cultural differences,perspectives on American religiosity, religion in Europe, extremism, women veil,etc. Since its inception, Soliya has trained more than 6000 students at universitiesin 27 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Central, South andSouth East Asia. These universities included Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Yale,Frankfurt, Padova, Bradford, Basel, Bergen, Lahore, Ankara, Gulf, Birzeit, Al-Azhar,American University in Beirut and in Cairo, and Al-Akhawayn. The University ofJordan was one of the early partners of Soliya.

The first implementation of Soliya’s Connect Program at the University ofJordan took place in the fall of 2007, when 11 students volunteered to join theprogram. The majority of these students were from a senior-level course at theLinguistics Department called Language and society. In spring 2008, 15 studentsfrom an elective senior-level course called Computer-Assisted Language Learning(CALL) also joined the Connect Program on a voluntary basis. This shy participa-tion was primarily motivated by exploration. At first, the Connect Program wasperceived as an intercultural experience; then due to its significant media compo-nent, the CALL course was perceived to be most appropriate. However, upon thecompletion of the second attempt, it became clear that the Connect Program wasstrong on honing synchronous communication skills; hence, the decision wastaken in 2008 to embed the Connect Program in the sophomore-level Publicspeaking course. As this course is designated as compulsory in the Applied Eng-lish BA study plan, student participation in the Connect Program became oblig-atory with 10% of the course grade being allocated to the evaluation report thatSoliya sends at the conclusion of all videoconferencing activity. Since the fall of2008, an average of 35 Jordan University students have joined the Connect Pro-gram every semester and tens of students have been turned away because theycould not be accommodated. Soliya has plans to expand the experience through


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the new Exchange 2.0 program. If it takes off, all Applied English and possibly Fac-ulty of Foreign Languages students will be required to join it.

Furthermore, Soliya trains facilitators on conflict resolution, on engage-ment of participants in productive and respectful dialogue, and on the develop-ment of group dynamics that would encourage exploration of perspectives. TheUniversity of Jordan is currently working with Soliya on offering an advancedonline course that would be focused on the development of leadership and ini-tiative, critical thinking, cross-cultural collaboration, and teamwork. These arelife-changing skills that can be expected to drive the transformation of students.

What drew the University of Jordan to Soliya’s Connect Program (SCP)were the pedagogical benefits inherent in computer-mediated communication(CMC). Since the SCP is conducted outside of class, weekly online sessions be-come an extension of foreign language learning beyond the confines of theclassroom. Therefore, it maximizes learning opportunities and also makes lan-guage learning the responsibility of the student. SCP enhances L2 learning byaffording the learner opportunities for active interaction between participantsas they discuss authentic issues that concern their lives. Such interaction ena-bles them to identify gaps in their information which, in turn, motivates themto seek new information from conversation partners. SCP also offers immediacyof feedback which enables the learner to validate guesses and make self-correc-tions when necessary, two essential learning strategies. Furthermore, it givesextended opportunities for the development of cultural awareness.

4. The study

Teachers who participate in SCP claim that their students change in profound waysas a result of the completion of the program. However, as SCP lasts less than 10weeks, some other faculty members are doubtful. To verify the extent to whichthe claim of improvement is true, the researchers decided to conduct an experi-ment and invited novice recent junior recruits to integrate SCP into their fresh-man-level Pronunciation and speech course rather than the usual sophomore-level Public speaking. The following experimental procedures were adopted:

(1) Participants were invited to take the TOEFL IBT Speaking Test upon thestart and completion of the program (henceforth, the pretest and post-test). They were informed about the two tests in advance.

(2) They filled out the Soliya survey at the start and completion of the pro-gram (henceforth, the pre-survey and post-survey).

(3) Video recording of the earliest and latest SCP sessions were analyzedafter securing the participants’ consent.

(4) Participants’ blogs were analyzed as well.


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Below is a description of the participants, the data collection, and the proce-dures of data analysis.

4.1. Participants

At the start of the semester, 26 English majors enrolled in the freshman-levelPronunciation and speech course that integrated SCP. Students usually enroll inthree to five other courses, the nature of which cannot be easily established ina credit-hour system where they are free to take any combination of compulsoryand elective courses from baskets of university, college, and departmental re-quirements. These students were probably taking at least one other Englishcourse. Only 16 students completed the Pronunciation and speech course whichincluded the SCP. Other students dropped out and postponed it to another se-mester. This is quite normal for students to do during the drop-and-add enroll-ment period, with the instructor and class timing often being major determiningfactors. It is possible, however, although quite unlikely, that some participantsmight have dropped out from the course because of the SCP. The instructor ofthe Pronunciation and speech course this semester was a novice junior memberof staff. It should be added that 87% of these participants were female, a situa-tion that is typical of all departments at the College of Foreign Languages. Theirages ranged between 18 and 21. Some of them spoke reasonable English, butmost had problems with grammar and the majority were too hesitant and tooshy to speak English. Participation in the SCP gave most of them their first op-portunity to use English for real-life communication.

Culturally, these students were all Jordanian but in terms of their palce ofresidence, some were urban, some were rural, and some came from a nomadiccultural background. The majority came from conservative backgrounds but be-cause the university is in the heart of the capital city, they all had liberal aspira-tions. Even though more than 80% of the female students covered their heads,they were not necessarily religious. The university subculture does not encouragepolitical activities and, thus, the students claimed to dislike political discussions.

In terms of information technology (IT) skills, all freshmen take computerliteracy courses as part of their compulsory university requirements. Social sta-tus being a determining factor, some students would have computers with In-ternet access at home but a significant minority would rely on IT technology oncampus. Thus, the SCP is allocated an open-access computer-lab that all partic-ipants are encouraged to use during their videoconferencing sessions. Partici-pants were informed that they would be taking part in action research and weretold to join another section of the course that was not involved in the research pro-ject if they had any reservation or concerns. They were told of the various


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components of the research and what each entailed as far as they were concerned,and they all gave their consent to use their data for the purpose of the study.

4.2. Data collection

The data used in this study were obtained from four different sources, that is:Test of English as a Foreign Language—Internet-Based Test, SCP online discus-sion video transcripts, attitude surveys, and participants’ blogs. More infor-mation about each source is provided below:

1. TOEFL-IBTTo confirm the degree of improvement SCP participants made, it was necessaryto measure their fluency and accuracy in English at the start and completion ofthe program. Although it is a fact that the development of language competenceis slow and cumulative and that it is a sure bet that improvement in 10 weekswould be too slow to measure, administering the TOEFL-IBT as a pre-test and apost-test was expected to yield some indications of improvement; hence, it wasdeemed necessary to establish the TOEFL-IBT as a benchmark.

The TOEFL-IBT Speaking test was given to participating students upon thestart and completion of the SCP experience and thus performed the role of apre-test. The pre-test consisted of three questions that required spoken an-swers. The first question was about choosing to study a discipline for the firsttime. In the second, participants listened to a recorded dialogue between twostudents on the effect of a sudden university holiday on their life and were askedto offer their opinions. The third question required them to summarize the in-formation in a mini-lecture on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Theanswer time for the three questions was 44, 59, and 59 seconds, respectively.The post-test also consisted of three questions with the same answer time allo-cation. Participants were required to record their answers. The first questiontapped their opinions about the importance of having a lot of money for a happylife. In the second, they had to provide their point of view on sustainability ininvestment after listening to a dialogue between two brothers on investingmoney. The last question required them to listen to a mini-lecture on the im-portance of assignments in school education and then to state their opinion.

2. Video transcriptsIn order to establish to what extent each participant improved their communi-cation skills, it was necessary to inspect the content of their videoconferencingsessions. Camtasia was unobtrusively used to create a video recording of allevents on a computer station in each SCP session. These recordings were stored on


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external media on a daily basis. Despite all the efforts, however, it was not possi-ble to obtain video records of the same session for all participants. Sometimes, aparticipant missed the session, but most often Camtasia would freeze and the re-cording would be lost. Because it was not possible to obtain consent from non-Jordanian participants, their contributions to SCP’s discussions were edited outexcept for the prompt that a local student responded to. Therefore, only Univer-sity of Jordan (UJ) students’ contributions would be commented on here.

Start and finish clock times were recorded for each spoken contributionmade by a UJ student. Turns were counted and the duration of each turn wasrecorded in seconds. All turn durations were summed for each session as well. UJstudents’ speaking turns were transcribed verbatim and their written commentson the chat line were also literally copied. Syllables, words, and propositions werecounted in each spoken and written contribution. Hesitations, false starts, filledpauses, and long silences were marked, and so were instances of mispronuncia-tion, misleading intonation patterns, and grammatical and spelling errors.

Table 1 A sample of attitude questions in the SCP surveys

1. Please rate your ability to express your ideas in a way that people from different backgrounds can un-derstand.

2. Please rate your ability to critically analyze global issues.3. Please rate your knowledge of the relationship between Western and predominantly Muslim societies.4. Please rate your knowledge of the issues surrounding US & European involvement in the Israel/Pales-

tine conflict.5. I have a good understanding of the views of Americans on the relationship between Western and pre-

dominantly Muslim societies.6. I have a good understanding of the views of people in Europe on the relationship between Western

and predominantly Muslim societies.7. I have a good understanding of the views of people in the Middle East on the relationship between

Western and predominantly Muslim societies.8. I have a lot in common with my counterparts in Europe.9. I have a lot in common with my counterparts in the Middle East.

10. I have a lot in common with my counterparts in the US.11. I have spoken out or acted to promote awareness about an issue related to the relationship between

Western and predominantly Muslim societies.12. I have challenged media misrepresentation about the relationship between Western and predomi-

nantly Muslim societies.13. I am glad that I chose to participate in the Soliya Connect Program.14. How would you rate the effectiveness of your facilitators?15. How would you rate the contribution of the real-time dialogue sessions to your learning experience?

3. Attitude surveysAs Soliya offers entry and exit surveys of student opinions, permission was soughtto use UJ students’ data for research purposes. Soliya uses a five-point Likert scaleto rate students’ attitudes towards issues that relate to their experience in the


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SCP. The pre- and post-SCP surveys included 12 questions concerning partici-pants’ intercultural attitudes, critical thinking abilities, knowledge of current af-fairs, and pro-activeness (see Table 1). The post-SCP survey also contained 19questions in addition to those in the pre-SCP surveys. The additional questionsoffered feedback to Soliya about facilitators, video-conferencing sessions, read-ing assignments, pair-discussions, e-mail communication, and technical sup-port. Only the 12 common questions are of concern to this research, so UJ stu-dents’ pre- and post-responses to them will be contrasted and then their aver-age improvement will be compared against overall SCP average improvement.

4. BlogsParticipants were instructed at the beginning of semester to write in their blogsreflections on the weekly SCP sessions that they attended. They were told thattheir purpose should be to encourage other students to join SCP or to discouragethem. The topic of each entry that they wrote was always related to the topicsdiscussed in the SCP sessions. The average number of blogs that they wrote wasfive, with two students writing as few as two blogs, and three writing as many asseven blogs. Some entries were as short as 39 words in length and some as longas 612 words, with the average being 176 words per blog. The average amount ofwriting that the SCP involvement entailed was higher than the amount that sometraditional writing courses at the University of Jordan require of their students.

4.3. Data analysis

If a claim is to be made that SCP improved EFL learners’ language performance,then the implication is that they either improved in their fluency or accuracy orin both. Foreign language fluency is viewed by Lennon (1990) as being the pro-duction of speech at the tempo of native speakers, unimpeded by silent pausesand hesitations, filled pauses (ers or erms), self-corrections, repetitions, falsestarts, etc. A number of temporal measures of fluency have been used in theliterature (e.g., Stockdale, 2009), such as speech rate, articulation rate, andmean length of run (MLR) (run is a “speech burst without any perceivable paus-ing). Thus, it was necessary to obtain the following data from all the transcriptsof UJ students’ speech in both the TOEFL-IBT and SCP videoconferencing ses-sions: counts of syllables, words, and propositions, durations of speech burstsand pauses; number and content of fragments, hesitations, false starts, filledpauses, code-mixing instances, and pronunciation mistakes. Because it was notpossible to obtain video recordings for the same SCP sessions for all the studentsand because video recording failed frequently due to the crashing of Camtasia,a decision was taken to analyze the earliest and the latest available sessions for


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all the students who attended five sessions or more. The rationale for limiting theanalysis to five sessions was that the student had to be genuinely involved in theprogram to benefit from it. Hence, the data were collected from the earliest andthe latest SCP sessions only. Out of the 16 students who participated in the SCP,there were only six who attended five sessions or more, who provided video re-cordings of their first or second videoconferencing session and seventh or eighthsessions, and whose blogs and attitude surveys were complete. Therefore, theresults discussed here will be limited to those of these six students.

Accuracy manifests itself in smaller numbers of pronunciation and grammarerrors that learners make. Therefore, all errors were identified in the transcriptsof UJ students’ speech as well as in their written production. They were classifiedinto broad categories to give an idea about the error types that the SCP partici-pants made prior to joining the program and upon its completion. Furthermore,their blogs were analyzed quantitatively using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Levelreadability index for assessing the level of sophistication in their writing. This testassesses the degree of difficulty of a piece of text using the US school-grade-levelindex. For example, if the readability of a text passage is 10, then it is understand-able to a US school student in grade 10. Most textual material intended for a gen-eral audience is typically written at the level of 7. The formula used in the Flesch-Kincaid readability test is that used in Microsoft Word:

(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59

where:

ASL = average sentence length (the number of words divided by the number of sentences)

ASW = average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by thenumber of words).(https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Test-your-document-s-readability-85b4969e-e80a-4777-8dd3-f7fc3c8b3fd2#__toc342546558)

To study students’ attitude improvement, their Likert scale responses to the pre-and post-SCP survey questions were coded numerically and then subjected todescriptive statistical analysis. Since this data is ordinal in nature, the mode wasused to indicate the most frequent responses.

4.4. Results and discussion

Below the results of the study are presented and discussed under three head-ings: fluency, accuracy, and intercultural attitudes.


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4.4.1. Fluency

Foreign language fluency is manifested in the ability to speak the language nat-urally and without much hesitation. The majority of the SCP participants whosevideo recordings were analyzed appeared to have developed enough self-confi-dence to speak for more than half the length of time that is their share per ses-sion. If an assumption is made that the session time of 120 minutes (7200 sec-onds) is shared equally between the 10 participants and facilitators in a vide-oconferencing group, then each of them would be entitled to around 12 minutes(720 seconds) of speaking time. Figure 2 shows the total speaking time exclusiveof pausing that UJ participants used in the earliest and the latest sessions thatthey attended. E-Duration stands for duration of earliest session and L-Durationfor duration of latest session in seconds.

Figure 2 Students’ speaking time duration in the earliest and latest videoconfer-encing sessions as reflected in the SCP

The average speaking time utilized by UJ students was 357 seconds in theearliest session and 477 seconds in the latest session. If the total session timeof videoconferencing was divided equally between the eight SCP participantsplus two facilitators, each person would be entitled to 720 seconds of speakingtime (two hours being equal to 7200 seconds divided by 10 conversation partic-ipants). In other words, each of UJ students took advantage of 50% of their shareof speaking time in the earliest session but 66% in the latest session. This showsthat not only were the UJ students able to speak more but they also developedenough self-confidence to take the floor more often. Figure 3 compares thenumbers of speaking turns the participants took in the earliest session (E-turns)with those in the latest session (L-turns).


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Figure 3 Students’ speaking Turns in the earliest and latest videoconferencingsessions as reflected in the SCP

On average, a UJ participant made use of 23 opportunities to hold thefloor in the earliest session but as many as 37 opportunities in the latest session.Hence, it is clear that they must have developed more self-confidence and morecourage to be able to venture out and express their views on issues of discus-sion. If the content of their contribution were to be taken into account, the num-ber of words should be inspected. Table 2 displays the number of words in thetotal speaking contribution that each UJ student made in the earliest (E-words)and in the latest sessions (L-words).

Table 2 Students’ speech quantity in the earliest and latest videoconferencing sessionsL-wordsE-wordsParticipants

14801229R451324A410282D698531N461345T548358H

The average number of words that they uttered in the earliest session was512 words, compared to 675 words in the latest session. This is an indication thatthey became more fluent and more able to elaborate on their ideas. In terms ofthe quality of contribution, however, it might be necessary to consider their ideas.Table 3 shows the number of propositions in the total speaking contribution thateach UJ participant made in the earliest (E-propositions) and in the latest (L-prop-ositions) SCP sessions that they attended. Improvement in fluency is manifestedhere as well. The average number of propositions that UJ participants made in the


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earliest session was 43, but it stood at 64 in the latest. This shows that they didnot speak in vain but rather they contributed ideas to their videoconferencing dis-cussions. Obviously, some shared more ideas than others, but, on the whole, anaverage student improved substantially in comparison to the start of the study.

Table 3 Number of propositions in students’ earliest and latest sessionsL_PropositionsE_PropositionsParticipants

12087R4535A3526D7543N6240T4427H

Qualitywise, UJ students’ fluency improved significantly. Fragments andincomplete sentences became less frequent in the latest session than in the ear-liest, as shown in Figure 4. The participants produced an average of 7.3 frag-ments in the earliest session (E-fragments) but 2.2 in the latest session (L-frag-ments). They also had fewer false starts in the latest sessions in comparison tothe earliest SCP sessions, with the means of 2.20 and 0.83, respectively. Theyused less English-Arabic code-mixing as well, with an average of 0.5 instances inthe latest session compared with 2.0 in the earliest.

Figure 4 Students’ fragments in the earliest and latest videoconferencing ses-sions as reflected in SCP

What is surprising is that pause fillers increased significantly in the latestsession compared to the instances in the earliest session. Figure 5 shows howprevalent this phenomenon was in the speech of UJ students. On average, theyeach had about 62 instances of false starts in the earliest SCP session (E-pause fill-ers) compared to 97 instances in the latest session (L-pause fillers). An assumption


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can be made that they were imitating native speakers as they were composingtheir thoughts extempore.

Figure 5 Students’ pause fillers in the earliest and latest videoconferencing ses-sions as reflected in SCP

It can be safely claimed that UJ students became relatively more fluent inEnglish and one may venture to claim that this is partly attributable to their par-ticipation in SCP. They spoke more frequently, their turns were longer, thy elabo-rated more on their ideas, they made more thoughtful contributions to conversa-tions, and they exhibited fewer speech fragments. This could not have been invain and it must have contributed to improvement in their English fluency.

Figure 6 The number of words in the speaking section of the TOEFL-IBT that par-ticipants took before and after their participation in SCP

A pertinent question was whether fluency improvement was reflected aswell in participants’ performance on an independent competence assessment


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measure. To answer this question, the same gauges of fluency were used in thestudents’ performance on the pre- and post TOEFL-IBT speaking tests. Figure 6displays the number of words in pre- and post-SCP performance on such tests.Clearly, UJ students spoke in the 162 seconds of the answer time more in the post-test than in the pre-test. They spoke an average of 183.8 words in the TOEFL-IBTSpeaking test that they took before the start of SCP and 292.8 words in the sametest that they took at the completion of the SCP. In fact, other fluency parametersshow improvement in the post-test as well, as illustrated in Table 4.

Table 4 Averages of fluency parameters in the speaking section of the TOEFL-IBTthat participants took before and after their participation in SCP

Post-IBTPre-IBT295.0180.6Words

19.69.2Propositions5.64.6Fragments

24.220.8Hesitation00Code-Mixing

5.41.8False Starts022.8Pause Filler

The SCP participants not only increased the amount of speech in the post-test, but they also communicated more ideas, produced fewer fragments, andhad no instances of pause fillers. What is surprising, however, is that they man-ifested slightly more instances of hesitation and false starts, but it is possiblethat this is the price that they had to pay for producing more ideas as reflectedin the number of propositions. It is also possible that UJ participants learnedfrom their SCP experience that hesitation and false starts are natural attributesof native speaker speech as well.

It is clear that the results of the TOEFL-IBT Speaking test corroborate the resultsobtained in the videoconferencing session analysis. Both sets of results indicate thatthe participants improved their fluency. What is far from conclusive, however, iswhether it was the SCP that was exclusively responsible for this improvement. It iswell-established that L2 acquisition involves change over time in holistic phonological,morphological, syntactic, and semantic systems and that it is a gradual process. Swainand Lampkin (1998) point out that: “Learning is cumulative, emergent, and ongoing,sometimes occurring in leaps, while at other times it is imperceptible” (p. 321). It isalso well-established that L2 learning is an active and contextualized process, thatmuch of it is unintentional and it comes through authentic activities, and that its ve-hicle is observation and modeling. Since the SCP affords all of these, it is unequivocalthat it must have been at least partly responsible for the observed improvement inUJ students’ fluency in English.


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Soliya’s videoconferencing appears to have given Jordanian learners theopportunity to practice real world social negotiations, as they discussed topicsimmediately related to their own lives (e.g., why they use head scarves, whethersociety impinges on their freedom as women, etc.). The discussion group mem-bers must have challenged some of their beliefs about these issues, so they hadto clarify their positions and probably modify them to accommodate the viewsof their conversation partners. At times, they succeeded in getting these part-ners to appreciate their point of view, and when they did, they experienced suc-cess. This success is what motivated them to continue to attend subsequent vid-eoconferencing sessions and to keep talking. In consequence, they developedself-confidence and became more fluent in spoken communication, which ac-counts for the observed increase in fluency in terms of the number of wordsthey uttered, the number of speaking turns they took, and the number of prop-ositions they communicated.

4.4.2. Accuracy

Analysis of the participants’ answers in pre and post TOEFL-IBT Speaking testindicates that there was noticeable improvement in the accuracy of their per-formance after participation in Soliya’s Connect Program. This accuracy wasmanifested in decrease in the frequency of errors that they made in pronuncia-tion, vocabulary, and grammar.

4.4.3. Pronunciation

Stress and lax vowels are generally problematic for Arab learners of English. How-ever, while six students made errors like these in the pre-test: /ɪnstɪd/ for /ɪnstɛd/,/ɪfɪ kt/ for /ɪ fɛkt/, /gʌvɛrmənt/ for /gʌvərmənt/, and /hibrú/ for /híbru/, only twomanifested this type of error in the post-test. Similarly, consonantal clusters areusually difficult, so Arab learners of English often resort to epenthesis. There weretwo students who resorted to epenthesis in the pre-test, pronouncing ‘Lincoln’ as/lɪnəkən/ instead of /lɪŋkən/ and ‘obstacles’ as /ɑbəstəkəlz/ instead of /ɑbstəkəlz/,but they did not do so any more in the post-test.

Of the most typical pronunciation errors that native speakers of Arabicmake when they speak English, voicing the voiceless bilabial stop is the mostpersistent. There were six out of 23 UJ students in the pre-test who confusedthe /b/ and /p/ phonemes, pronouncing one as the other. In the post-SCP TOEFLIBT, five of them continued to have problems with it but none of these was oneof the students investigated here, that is to say, none of our experiment partici-pants pronounced /p/ as /b/. The second most prevalent pronunciation error


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that Arabs make when they speak English relates to mid vowels. They often con-fuse the mid front and central vowels together and the mid and low back vowelstogether. This error persisted in the post-test for those SCP participants whomade it in the pre-test. Thus, errors like these continued throughout the SCP:pronouncing /bráðər/ for /brʌðər/, /bót/ for /bɑt/, etc.

All in all, the results of the TOEFL- IBT showed improvement in pronunci-ation but fossilized problems persisted without much change. Interacting withnative speakers of English during the SCP videoconferencing activity, however,made UJ students conscious of their pronunciation problems. These studentsmust have tried hard to pronounce words properly because they wanted to beunderstood by their conversation partners, which is evidence, for example, inthe reduction of some pronunciation errors. The participants probably wantedto avoid the embarrassment of having to repeat words that were not under-stood; hence, the improvement observed in their post-SCP speaking test.

4.4.4. Vocabulary and grammar

It is assumed that UJ students’ productive language skills were reflected in theirblog writing. Thus, an analysis of each participant’s earliest and latest blogs oughtto reveal any progress they made in L2 learning. Thus, the earliest (E-blog) andlatest blogs (L-blog) were subjected to readability assessment as reflected in theFlesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index. The results are summarized in Table 5.

Table 5 Readability of students’ earliest and latest blogsL_BlogE_BlogStudent

10.49.4R9.99.5A

11.811.7D7.17.1N139.6T

9.46.5H

Table 6 Percentage of complex words in students’ earliest and latest blogs

L-blogE-blogStudent8.56.1R

10.36.6A5.78.9D9.88.1N

15.78.6T12.89.3H


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It may be safe to conclude that there is about one grade level improvementin the sophistication of UJ students’ written production. In fact, the readabilitystatistics indicate that students used, in their writing, vocabulary of higher com-plexity as shown in Table 6 above.

Most students exhibited an increase of 2% in the range of complex wordsthat they used in their writing. This might not be entirely due to their participationin the SCP, yet the authentic communication opportunities afforded by this programmust have contributed significantly to this improvement. The fact that the partici-pants debated ideas that did not relate directly to language learning must havestimulated their incidental learning. As they listened to native speakers, in their dis-cussion group, express their views on current issues, UJ students paid attention tothe context where their conversation partners used new vocabulary, retained thekey features in each context, and then imitated them by reproducing the same vo-cabulary items in similar contexts. When they received a positive reaction fromtheir conversation partners, they would retain the word for future use. When itcomes to grammatical structures, data analysis showed a noticeable decrease in thefrequency of errors made by most participants in the posttest versus the pretest. Theresults are summarized in Table 7. Most students made improvement in the gram-matical accuracy of their English. This was manifested in a decrease in the number oferrors in the speech they produced. The total number of grammar errors made in thePre-IBT was 66 compared to 45 errors in the Post-IBT.

Table 7 Number of grammatical errors in the speaking section of the TOEFL-IBTthat the students took before and after their participation in SCP

Student Pre-TOEFL-IBT Post-TOEFL-IBTR 11 5A 10 6D 6 7N 10 8T 16 9H 13 10

In terms of error type, the most common structural errors made by the par-ticipants fall into five categories:

1. Subject-verb agreement: Arab students tend to delete the inflection of apresent tense verb whose subject is third person singular. This wasnoticed in instances like the following that were produced by SCPparticipants in their IBT.

The writer or the speaker try to say...Some delay have been caused.


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2. Pluralization: A common error made by Arab students of English isdropping the regular plural marker off count nouns, as in:

One of the problem was the government.He faced a lot of problem about this creation.

They frequently use the plural marker with mass nouns, as in:

He can do his homeworks.She gave me advices.

3. Articles: Because Arabic has an equivalent for the English definite articleand their uses overlap, many students think that the rules of use areidentical, so they would have a definite article where English would notor delete it where it should be used, as in these examples:

While in federal government which founded that project, this job has been delayedfor fifteen years.Making the Mount Rushmore was very difficult.

The indefinite article is even more problematic for Arabic-speakinglearners of English because the Arabic language does not have a sepa-rate word for indefiniteness; it has a special noun-inflection for it in-stead. These differences result in such errors as:

Rushmore is culture made by John Borglum.If you don’t have a time but you have a money, you can’t manage this money.

4. Prepositions: One of the most prevalent and chronic errors made byArab learners of English relates to the wrong choice of preposition. Dueto translation from Arabic, SCP participants made errors like these:

They get mad from the announcement.I would like to choose law to defend about people.

5. Conjunctions: Errors relating to conjunctions that Arab students makewhen communicating in English are usually not serious. One of the mostcommon type of conjunction errors relates to the use of the Englishcoordinating conjunction and. Due to translation from Arabic, learnersoveruse it in English, not realizing that the Arabic equivalent has multiplemeanings and only one of them corresponds to English coordination. Several


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instances like these were found in the communication of UJ participants inSoliya’s Connect Program:

The creation of Mount Rushmore was done by John Borglum and by George Wash-ington and Tomas and Abraham Lincoln.

Despite these errors, UJ participants in SCP improved their accuracy ofgrammatical structures as evidenced in the reduction in the number of errors.Persistence of the five types of structural errors mentioned above is the resultof native language interference which will take possibly months and years toovercome. Therefore, it would not be clearly wrong to conclude that SCP did infact contribute to UJ students’ improvement in grammar. In fact, one may claimthat SCP contributed to the overall language development of the participants. Itgave them the opportunity to observe others speaking English and then imitatethem in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical structures.

4.4.5. Intercultural attitudes

As mentioned earlier, Soliya conducts, as a standard procedure, a pre- and a post-SCPsurvey upon the start and completion of the Connect Program. The items of concernto this research are only those that deal with personal improvement in terms of skill,knowledge, understanding, empathy, and empowerment. Below are the results of acomparison between UJ students’ responses in the pre- and post-surveys for the pur-pose of assessing the degree of change in their intercultural attitudes.

In terms of skills, the UJ students saw themselves at the start of SCP al-most 60% capable of expressing their ideas in a way that people from differentbackgrounds could understand, but at the end of this program they indicatedthat they believed to be 72% capable of doing so. Furthermore, they had ratedtheir ability to critically analyze global issues at 43% in the pre-survey but at 63%in the post-survey. It is clear then that UJ participants thought that their inter-cultural communication skills and analytical abilities had improved as a result oftheir participation in this program.

It is well-recognized at UJ that the vast majority of students, as evident intheir topics of conversation, are not concerned with political matters. In fact, it isoften claimed that they have no knowledge of current issues either. The pre-sur-vey corroborated this with the students rating their own knowledge of the rela-tionship between Western and predominantly Muslim societies at 38%. It alsoshowed that they rated their knowledge of the issues surrounding the US and Eu-ropean involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at 28%. On the completion ofthe Connect Program, this rating changed dramatically: 68% and 57%, respectively.


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This implies that SCP did not only improve their communication skills and criticalabilities but also their awareness of their knowledge of current issues. The partic-ipants became more aware of the knowledge they had of regional and interna-tional issues and concerns that are never discussed in their curriculum.

The students felt that they had become more empathetic with the otherbecause of their participation in SCP. In the pre-survey they rated their level ofunderstanding of the views of Americans, Europeans, and Middle Easterners onthe relationship between Western and predominantly Muslim societies at 45%,47%, and 48%. At the completion of SCP, they rated their understanding of theviews of the three groups at 74%, 74%, and 84%, respectively. In other words, theytended to empathize more with the other and to be better able to understandand share the feelings of other people who might have points of view opposite totheir own. In fact, they went as far as rating their feeling of having a lot in commonwith their counterparts in Europe at 70% in the post-survey although they hadrated that feeling at 30% in the pre-survey. Furthermore, they empathized withMiddle Easterners but at a higher level: 50% and 80% in the pre- and post-surveys,respectively. Their empathy with Americans, however, was at a lower level but itdefinitely improved as well, moving from a rating of 56% in the pre-survey to 65%in the post-survey. All of this points unequivocally to heightened levels of empathywith people who are painted in the media as adversaries.

SCP did not only contribute to improved communication and analyticalskills and knowledge of and empathy with the other, but it was also instrumentalin empowering UJ participants to promote awareness about issues that pertainto the relationship between Western and predominantly Muslim societies. Inthe pre-survey they rated their speech and action in the direction of this pro-motion at the level of 41% but in the post-survey at the level of 84%. More em-powerment is reflected in their rating of how much they challenged media mis-representation of the relationship between Western and predominantly Muslimsocieties. They rated this at the levels of 38% and 84% in the pre- and post-sur-veys, respectively. In other words, UJ students did not only perceive themselvesas having become more skilled communicators and more knowledgeable andmore empathetic individuals but they also perceived themselves as having be-come more proactive and more capable of effecting change in their societies.

Soliya’s videoconferencing evidently effected a change in the frame of ref-erence used by UJ students. It appears to have changed their habits of mind andtheir points of view. The participants proved to be conscious of the transformationthat took place in their attitudes towards the other. As they critically reflected onthe assumptions that they held about other people and cultures during SCP ses-sions, they must have come to the realization that they needed to alter theirpoints of view and thus modify their frames of reference.


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5. Conclusion

This study could have benefited from a research design with control and experi-mental groups to draw conclusions with more certainty. Still, this study has pro-vided clear evidence that videoconferencing can be used for transformative lan-guage learning. As EFL learners are deprived of authentic contexts for languageuse, videoconferencing affords opportunities for real-life communication be-tween foreign language learners and native speakers of English as well as amongstEFL learners themselves. Soliya’s Connect Program offered Jordanian EFL learnersa setting where they could interact with English natives and with non-nativespeakers who came from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This in-teraction between Jordanians, non-English speaking Europeans, and other MiddleEastern speakers of English is indeed motivating, as it reinforces a sense of com-radeship in their odyssey of English learning. When EFL learners observe othersstruggling with English, they will not be inhibited by their own limitations. Theyare likely to think that they were not alone in having difficulties with one aspector the other of the language. Videoconferencing, therefore, creates opportunitiesfor observing the linguistic behavior of native and non-native speakers and forreproducing some of that behavior. When EFL learners take part in behavior mod-eling and obtain the communication outcome they desire, they will develop self-efficacy and start to improve their self-confidence, which will give them the per-severance to continue to venture out to speak.

Language learning is indeed an active contextualized process, and vide-oconferencing, as exemplified by Soliya’s Connect Program, offers a context to EFLlearners that engages them in discussions about public issues of concern. Throughsuch discussions, Jordanian EFL learners constructed knowledge about topical is-sues on the basis of personal experience. They organized and adapted theknowledge that they gained from their videoconferencing group members, assim-ilated the new experiences that they acquired into their existing worldview andbecame aware that they did not have a monopoly on the truth and that the ste-reotypes that they had for the other were false. As those stereotypes proved notbe true of their group members, they could probably be not true of the rest ofpeople from that culture. This newly discovered realization must have caused thelearners to reframe and reorganize their own mental framework; it must havetransformed them in fundamental ways. With this came the awareness that theirintercultural communication skills and analytical abilities had improved and thatthey had become more able to understand and to share the feelings of other peo-ple who might have points of view opposite to their own.

Helm, Guth and Farrah (2012) provided evidence from Padova and Heb-ron University participants in the SCP that it, in fact, creates a third space where


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“traditional dynamics of power and established practices can be challenged andoverturned as culture is negotiated and new forms of interaction and dialogueare found” (p. 107). Third space is viewed as an expanse where there is whatGadamer, Weinsheimer and Marshall (2014) refer to as a “fusion of horizons”(p. 415), in which understanding is a dialogue process between the familiar andthe unfamiliar, that is, where sensitivities towards cultural differences becomeless intense. As Finkbeiner (2006, p. 29) explains, “The concept of third spacesymbolizes the effort to step away from a binary understanding of who we areas cultural beings. It is not I and you, or the self and the other, but somethingbeyond these binary approaches to self”. Third space can be intrapersonal whenone develops an attitude that would allow them to fuse two or more aspects oftheir own identity into one, or interpersonal when two or more people co-con-struct a dynamic environment that would allow them to engage in dialogue andnegotiate and renegotiate their cultural identities.

The greatest advantage for language learning that videoconferencing, asimplemented in Soliya’s Connect Program, offers is that learning takes place un-intentionally. The authentic activities and the cultural third space that SCP fostersmake EFL learners focus more on the ideas and less on the means of communi-cating them. Seeing conversation partners in videoconferencing sessions and ob-serving their non-verbal behavior take the foreign language learners’ mind off thegrammar of sentences they utter and focus it on the ideas that they desire tocommunicate. This shift in focus and the relegation of language learning to a sec-ondary position in the priorities of the learner are indeed instrumental in makinglanguage learning unintentional. It frees them from their linguistic inhibitions andthrusts them like novice swimmers into the waters of interaction where their pri-mary concern is survival. Since human behavior is directed toward goal attain-ment and because it comes to satisfy a hierarchy of basic needs, the languagelearner in videoconferencing sessions is primarily concerned with group belong-ingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. Their primary attention is thusdirected at the satisfaction of these needs by advancing ideas that would gainthem friendship and affinity, give them recognition, and enable them to attainself-actualization. In this pursuit, language learners ignore their linguistic inhibi-tions and focus on observing how others express their ideas so that they can imi-tate them. It is through this shift in focus that videoconferencing becomes such auseful resource for unintentional transformative language learning.


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