Developing language skills through collaborative storytelling on iTEO

Mobile-assisted language learning and iPads in particular, offer opportunities for enhanced language learning. Many MALL studies including studying iPads have focused on collaboration but few on language learning as such. For collaboration to lead to learning, particular conditions need to be met, among these those relating to the task. A goal-oriented task such as collaborative storytelling, can language learning. Opportunities where children use exploratory talk similarly have been shown to stimulate learning. The present qualitative longitudinal study examines, first, the process of collaboration and learning of primary school children in Luxembourg who collaboratively produce oral texts on the iPad app iTEO, and second, the role and function of the tool within this process. Developed in trilingual Luxembourg to further language learning, iTEO allows users to record and edit oral texts. The automatic playback materialises the language and allows for reflection. The study’s multi-method approach includes observations, video-recordings, interviews and the collection of audio and visual material. Findings show that the children’s talk includes features of exploratory and instructional talk and that iTEO is used in a variety of functions. The findings contribute to our understanding of the ways in which children develop language skills in autonomous, collaborative and computer-assisted activities.