How Does Cloud-based Video Conferencing App Support Language Learning and Internationalization of Education? Gary Welingson Budianto (1,a), Irfan Rifai (1,b)
1,2) English Literature Department Student, Faculty of Humanities Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
a) gary.budianto[at]binus.ac.id
Abstract
The COVID 19 pandemic has changed the shapes and the faces of global education. With the need to maintain interaction, video conferencing apps have never played a more significant role to connect teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders at both national, binational, and global levels. For students pursuing an international learning experience, learning through conferencing app may offer an entirely new culture of learning and experience. This study explores the experience of an Indonesian student pursuing international education in a Japanese university to improve English and Japanese language proficiencies. It explores whether a cloud-based video conferencing application was able to support foreign language learning in a multilingual environment and the challenges that occurred during the first author^s study abroad experience. Adopting a translanguaging perspective, this study examines the interactions between teachers and students that included the orientation to and the use of multilingual practices in the English-Japanese dialogues for the purpose of language learning. Since autoethnography was used as a method for data collection, the sources of data came from personal journals, artifacts of assignments, and transcripts of interactions. It presents the author^s analytical and reflective notes on the experience in three major themes: (1) the challenges that occurred in the online translanguaging environment, (2) the translanguaging pedagogical application in the classes and (3) the interlocutors^ strategies in creating effective communication despite the challenges. With the recent movement on the internationalization of Indonesian higher education, this study contributes to the value of international experience in foreign language acquisition and offers insight for those who consider pursuing higher education experience, particularly in an Asian country like Japan.
Keywords: Autoethnography- Video conference- Translanguaging- Language learning- Internationalization
