Collaborative reading and foreign language learning with literature

Abstract

Teletandem is a virtual exchange context designed by Telles and Vassallo (2006), in which two learners of different foreign languages meet in video conferencing platforms so that one helps the other in their learning process. These meetings are divided in two parts, each of them focused on the use of one of the languages, so that both have the opportunity to practice their target language. Since 2019, a thematic teletandem has been carried out so that participants do tasks related to the discussion of literary texts, which was named Literatandem. In this practice report, an interaction will be presented, in which two partners discussed a Literatandem activity to demonstrate how sharing interpretations of a literary text can expand the understanding of a text in a foreign language. As a result, it was noted that the tasks incited participants to exchange prior knowledge and negotiate meaning, which expanded the way they perceived language and allowed them to have new interpretations of the texts.