O n f e r e n c e

Researching pilot experiences 
 
For the pilots both learner and teacher questionnaires were developed and distributed 
digitally. The questionnaires contained mostly closed items. A 5 point Likert scale was 
used with low values indicating negative experiences and high values positive ones.Prior 
to the telecollaboration sessions learners were asked to complete a background survey 
which included items 
concerning the students’ affinity with languages, technol
ogy use at 
school and students’ preferences and attitudes about technology.
A second questionnaire was distributed to learners for evaluating a range of aspects 
related to the telecollaboration practices: technical quality, suitability of the environment 
used, tasks, communicative performance and motivation. As for teachers, they were 
asked to assess the telecollaboration experiences focusing on what went (not) well and 
why, their perceptions about the pedagogical value of telecollaboration, their tasks and 
roles during the project and their motivation. 
Additional questionnaires were also distributed to teachers in an attempt to measure 
their intercultural development. For reasons of space we will focus on the results of 
learner questionnaires. 
Learner questionnaires 
77 students from 8 different institutions filled in the 
background questionnaires
(see 
Fig. 1 for the distribution). 
Figure 1. Distribution of responses by country 
Many of the pupils participating in the telecollaboration sessions report to learn two, 
mostly three and sometimes four languages at school. All of them learn English and a 
majority learns Spanish (82%). 92% of the pupils says to like to learn languages. When 
asked which elements of language learning they like the most the results show that they 
all like 
Speaking
(M=3.98, SD=0.93), followed by 
Learning about other people
(M=3.85, 
SD=1.02) and 
Pronunciation
(M=3.85, SD=0.96). The least favourite is 
Grammar
(M=2.99, SD=1.11). 
Questions about the students’ technological use show 
that all pupils have a computer at 
home and 76 from the 77 have internet connection. Additionally, 90.9% possesses a 
Smartphone, while 74% owns a tablet, IPad and/or IPod. As to the social media 
applications pupils use to communicate with friends and family, Whatsapp is the most 
popular one, followed by Facebook and Skype. Some Spanish pupils reported to use 
Tuenti, a social networking application similar to Facebook. The overall high frequencies 
of social media applications used indicate that pupils at secondary school are very 
familiar with a variety of digital communication tools. 
Learners were also asked about the digital tools used at school. Moodle is the 
environment most frequently used at schools, particularly in Spain.