Congresos y Jornadas Didáctica de las lenguas y las literaturas. | Page 410

The study
The Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Goiás (IFG), in
Brazil, and the University of Trier and the University of Worms, in Germany, were the in-
stitutions that participated in this telecollaborative language learning project. As one tele-
tandem medium, we used a synchronous and free web conferencing software known as
Openmeetings. This communication software allows, among other features, for teleconfer-
ence with the following components and functions: microphone and webcam, chat, white-
board, screen sharing, file download and audio and video recording.
The Openmeetings conference room is illustrated by Figure 1.
Figure 1. Openmeetings conference room.
Interactions via Openmeetings occurred from August 28th to September 4th, 2010,
and were audio- and video-recorded by means of a recording device integrated in the soft-
ware and were transcribed verbatim.
Before initiating the teletandem sessions, a series of steps were taken for the selection
of the pairs of students. A list with the names of 11 students from the University of Worms
and a student from the University of Trier, who volunteered to compose partnerships with
the Brazilian learners, was sent to IFG. The IFG also produced a list of Brazilian learners
with 23 volunteers. From that list, the first 12 students who signed up were selected to
form partnerships with the foreign learners. Then, a first contact by email between the
Brazilians and the foreign students was made to establish the partnerships and to allow the
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