1. Designed and developed by Carmen Álvarez-Mayo
 Piloted in 2013/14 in conjunction with the English
Department at Universidad de Oviedo in Asturias, Spain.

2. Index
 Introduction
 Topics & tasks
 Resources
 Aims
 Independent learners
 Continual professional development skills
 The pilot
 Guidelines
 Online student portfolios samples
 Feedback

3. Introduction
 TANGO: two websites = tasks + student portfolios
 July 2011: how it started
 Autumn 2013: the first three tasks were designed and
consultation with our VLE team was initiated
 Autumn and winter academic year 2013/14: the rest of
tasks are written; the websites designed, populated
and tested

4. Topics and tasks
 The course syllabus
 Communicative approach
 Critical Pedagogy (Freire, Giroux)

5. Resources included in the website
 Real
 Cultural
 Diverse
• Geography
• History
• Traditions
• Music
• Literature
• Film

6. Main aims
 Practise TL with a native speaker & develop oral
interaction skills
 Enhance the learning experience
 Foster cultural awareness
 Develop intercultural communicative competence
(ICC) (Byram, 1997)
 Practise critical cultural awareness: the ability ‘to
question, to analyse, to evaluate and, potentially, to take
action’ (Byram, 2008)

7. Further aims
 Practise and develop all 4 language skills
 Learn new vocabulary and idiomatic expressions
 Reflect on their learning ► through ‘new’ eyes (Proust)
 Become independent learners

8. Experimental Learning (Kolb)

9. 360° skills:
 Working with others & independently
 Time-management and planning
 Reading
 Document use, creation and publishing
 Oral communication & interaction
 Intercultural competence & communication

10. 360° skills:
 Critical thinking
 Critical and creative writing
 Digital technology and creativity
 Using English and foreign languages
 Continuous learning
 Diversity awareness and respect

11. The pilot
 February-May 2014
 Selecting and pairing students:
• 12 in York (with 2 tutors) – A2
• 12 in Oviedo (with 6 tutors) – B1

12. The pilot (cont.)
 Instructions by email & published online: Week 0
 First contact:
• introduce themselves to their partners
• organise and agree work schedule
• choose their preferred communication method:
Google Hangouts, Skype and/ or Tango app

13. Guidelines
 Safe environment: respectful and professional manner
 Promoting understanding and respect

14. Samples of online student portfolios
• English portfolios
• Spanish portfolios

15. Feedback
 Feedback from colleagues in Oviedo & York
 Feedback from Oviedo students
 Feedback from York students

16. hemed► topic based
utonomous
avigation
lobal► worldwide
pus► online student portfolios
https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/tango/
► student led

17. carmen.alvarez-mayo@york.ac.uk
Language & Linguistic Science, Languages for All