Tandem language learning

Tandem language learning is a method of language learning based on mutual language exchange between tandem partners (ideally each learner is a native speaker in the language the proponent wants to learn). Many language schools in the world, organised as TANDEM International, as well as many universities, are working with this method.

General background

Basically both partners can meet in person (face-to-face Tandem) or learn by e-mail, phone or other media (eTandem, also distance Tandem). Learning is supported by various materials and methods: work sheets, textbooks or simply informal conversation. There are distinct and self-directed uses of the Tandem method which promote independent learning: Tandem partnership (two people, supported by counsellors) and binational Tandem (course for groups, organised by moderators). Choice of method often depends on one’s mastery of the foreign language. The classical style is that half the time is dedicated to one person, the other half to the other person. For example, a Portuguese and a German can talk half an hour in German and afterwards half an hour in Portuguese.

The Tandem method has had academic supervision for a long time. International Tandem Days are regular opportunities for the exchange of views between teachers and researchers. The institutions which use Tandem form the Tandem network. The positive outcomes of Tandem are backed up by numerous accompanying investigations, particularly with regard to free speech and the development of listening comprehension, and also for reading comprehension in eTandem. The quality of writing skill depends on the quality of the corrections. As regards intercultural learning, more exact investigations are necessary. The only condition for participation in self-directed Tandem is lower intermediate level (present perfect, sentences with two objects).

Tandem history

The origin of the "language learning by exchange" approach lies in the various systems of teaching exchange of students abroad, partner learning, "peer teaching", tutoring models and "Zweierschaften" (Steinig). There are several distinct stages:

•For example, at the beginning of the 19th century in England, Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell instituted the "mutual system", i.e. the supplementing of large parts of the teacher’s activity at school by pupils’ mutual help. Peter Petersen (German educationalist, 1884-1952) developed something similar in the "Jenaplan schools", and from 1960 on, tutoring models also increased in the USA.

•The "Tandem " concept for two people learning the same language appeared first in 1971 in connection with the "audio-visual method" of Wambach, and from there it was transferred to the binational courses organised from 1968 at German-French youth meetings. In this connection the main proponents were Bazin, Göbel, Robert Jean, Leupold, Gaston Schott, Raasch, Scherfer, Wambach, Wessling, Zindler and Zamzow and the institutions German-French Youth Work, the Working Group for Applied Linguistics, l’Office International de Liaison et Documentation and the Language Institute of Tübingen.

•Inspired by the numerous German-French ventures, Klaus Liebe-Harkort and Nükhet Cimilli transferred the model to their work with immigrants in the German-Turkish area, in the context of the Anatolian Solidarity Association and the adult education programme of Munich. Courses followed in Bremen (Liebe-Harkort, Schminck-Gustavus among others) Mention should also be made of a course in the Turkish National House, Frankfurt (Faust, Schneider-Gürkan) and the language laboratory for two people “Alfasut” patented by Werner Suter in Zurich.

•Only one article, by Klaus Liebe-Harkort, was published on all these preliminary experiments, in 1979 in Madrid, and this inspired Jürgen Wolff to develop the Tandem learning partner mediation, in the beginning for Spanish and German. In 1982 a course programme was started, in cooperation with Marisa Delgado, Bernhard Leute and Gracia Martín Torres, instituted later by the co-operative 'Centro Cultural Hispano-Alemán TANDEM', the precursor of today's 'Escuela Internacional TANDEM Madrid'. Language partner mediation later became the basis for the Tandem network.

•Simultaneously, at the beginning of the 1980s, activities in the German-French area were increasing: every year 6-8 intensive Tandem courses took place, after a grounding of work on teaching methods. This was partly combined with intensive Tandem courses for special purposes whose development and theoretical background was particularly promoted by the DFJW (e.g., the universities of Mainz, Dijon and Fribourg: technical language for law students; Maison de Promotion Sociale et Linguistique and the Language Institute of Tübingen: the hotel and catering business; AFRAT and SIT: the technical language of agriculture; German-French postal partnership: the technical language of post and telecommunications).

• As a result of vigorous publication, travel and training activity from 1983 on, the idea spread quickly, primarily by the foundation of small "alternative language schools". The material for the partner mediation was translated into almost all the important European languages. The network structure facilitated courses abroad, youth exchange, peripatetic cultural events, correspondence between classes and similar cross-border and international activities. Opportunities for application

Tandem is an approach for every age group, from children to senior citizens. It can be used in kindergartens, elementary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools and tertiary institutions, youth organisations, universities and advanced technical colleges, in teacher education, adult education, in companies, in trade union education and work with migrants.

It can take place in the country of one course group, in the country of the other group, together in a third place, or on the Internet. Tandem has sofar been established in at least 24 languages: Albanian, Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, German, English, French, Galician, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Turkish.

It unites many aims under one roof: •general language Tandem, •Tandem focussed on cultural exchange, •Tandem for professional purposes, •antiracist intercultural Tandem, •multilingual ‘Babylonia Tandem’, •cross-border Mugaz Gain and •eTandem on the Internet

and offers self-directed learning with flexibility of content: conversation, narrative, reading, professional activities (phone calls, interpretation, translation...), leisure activities, intercultural differences. Tandem has developed, in the meantime, from a language-learning method to an educational movement. Tandem procedures are used, researched and developed in kindergartens and state schools - with school trips, youth exchange, binational organisations like the DFJW and DPJW – and also in adult education, Goethe-Institutes and similar further education institutions, at universities within the scope of Erasmus programmes and in teacher training and advanced training, in companies as professional Tandem and with immigrants as intercultural Tandem.

The trademark TANDEM

For the development of scientific cooperation and educational and advanced training, the foundation 'TANDEM Fundazioa' was founded in 1994, with its head office in Donostia/San Sebastian in the Basque country. It acquired rights to the trademark 'TANDEM', and issues licences for it. Public institutions do not need any licence. It offers: bibliography in cooperation with the Institute for Foreign Languages Research Marburg; copy service with access to 70% of the published and 'grey' materials; registration for the coordination of research about Tandem; supervision of undergraduate work, dissertations, MA theses, master’s and doctoral theses; the magazine 'Tandem News' in exchange for others’ publications; internships in Tandem projects; short presentations, introductions and update courses, modules for special subjects; a scientific congress 'International Tandem Days'; access to all the material of the network for partner mediation and courses; introductory courses with tips about organisation, financing and marketing, also procedures for self-directed learning.

Tandem Fundazioa is a foundation for advanced teacher training and material development, founded by endowment of the trademark rights of the pedagogue and language teacher Jürgen Wolff. Until 2003 it was administered by the Tandem schools and was responsible for the expansion of the Tandem network. Since then it has been responsible for the issue of licences for the use of the Tandem method and trademark and concentrates on the improvement of the quality of Tandem mediation.

Effects

At first, professional discussion primarily centred round the question of Tandem’s effectiveness in comparison with traditional language teaching. This initiated an investigation carried out in the 'pioneering days’ of Tandem in 1983 in the Madrid Goethe-Institute, in which Tandem pairs, a Tandem course and teacher-steered phases were connected with each other and the linguistic progress was compared to a control group. Both groups were prepared for the 'Zertifikat DaF'. It appeared that the Tandem participants got better results in listening comprehension and speech skills, while in reading and writing they were less successful, although their performance in the certificate as a whole was just as good as the control group. Another advantage that was noted was the mutual mistake correction, as the linguistic intake was higher than in big classes.

Not only is Tandem concerned with language comprehension and learning, but equally with cultural understanding and knowledge. Accordingly a critical analysis of its competence must also examine this second ‘leg’. In fact, it turns out that Tandem aids a change of perspective, with comparison of one’s own and foreign points of view. This is also very helpful during the translator's training.

Moreover, native speakers report an increase of awareness about their own language in the course of the Tandem. Therefore, it is suitable as a ‘preparation in confidence’ for teacher training. With regard to the requirements and quality of the advice, it is essential to give the following basic tools during a practical introduction to Tandem:

• metacommunication formulas in the foreign language, for the learner's role, and • the most important explanation techniques in the first language, for the learning assistant's role.

To promote exchanges between Tandem partners,  Alpha and Beta use the 'richiami' method, which are encounters where the participants compare their learning experiences and techniques with each other and get further suggestions from the advisers. As for the necessity of other supporting material, there are contradictory results: on the one hand support is wanted, but on the other hand, there is comparatively low use of other materials. Apparently a notebook with tips is sufficient at the beginning, then the pairs find their own material. In this regard there are national differences, according to the learning traditions of the country.

For mediation with large numbers of participants "cocktail mediation", with which many people form partnerships after an introduction to Tandem, proved as effective as mediation with questionnaires and images. This method, which saves a lot of effort and is often the only possible way at universities, does not impair the learning quality. It can be recommended as a good way of finding learning partners, with the condition that for the remaining students the possibility of questionnaire mediation is made known before starting. The results of the people without all forms of support are weaker in the linguistic area, which coincides with the experience of mediation. The reaching of cultural goals seems to be strongly dependent on other factors and they were achieved by people who were not given any mediation at all.

When asked about the probable outcome when they had found partners themselves, one third to half the participants believe that the Tandem would have developed along the same lines. Some differentiate between "search" and "realization', i.e. they do not see the mediation / presentation meeting as a guarantee of success, but as facilitating finding partners.

In another investigation, Tandem partners in Bolzano and Merano who had been learning for more than one year together and can be seen accordingly as experts, were questioned about their experiences. In this manner we can infer criteria for ‘good’ Tandems. The result was (in order of frequency, multiple answers possible): human understanding/sympathy, common interests, time availability, punctuality/reliability, consistency, common aims. The support at the beginning was seen by all as important as a launch or "kick start".

The Tandem Network also collaborated with the 'International (e-mail) Tandem Network' which had been founded as RiBO 1992 by Helmut Brammerts of the Ruhr University of Bochum. More and more public institutions like universities, adult education programmes, Goethe-Institutes and even primary schools, started to gain experience with the procedure. In 1991, the co-operative 'Alpha and Beta' in Bolzano and Merano began to apply the Tandem principle to the whole region of Alto Adige/South Tirol. Later came the founding of the Tandem Foundation and the language school association Tandem International. In 2009 the quality certification for the mediation was introduced.

Tandem institutions

• "International (e-mail) Tandem Network": a university e-mail project which was promoted financially by the EU. Name coined by Helmut Brammerts in the seminar for linguistic research of the Ruhr university of Bochum from 1994 It was expanded afterwards to all kinds of Internet contacts. • "Tandem Agency": Agency for the free mediation of e-mail partnerships which was furnished with EU subsidies for the 'International (e-mail) Tandem Network' in the seminar for linguistic research of the Ruhr university of Bochum. • "Tandem Community": meeting place on the Internet furnished by the webmaster of 'Tandem International', Juan Ancosmez, for everybody interested in Tandem-linguistic exchange partners. • “Tandem Fundazioa”: Foundation dedicated to material development and teacher training, holder of the trademarks ‘Tandem’ and ‘Tandemcity’, and certifying authority for the ‘Tandem intermediation quality seal’. • "Tandem International”: Association of language schools founded in 2002 under licence from Tandem Fundazioa which finances a common website, a common webmaster and a common co-ordinator to sell the courses of its members and to expand the association. • "Tandem Network': Name used since 1984 for the alliance of associations and language schools who provide mutual exchange partners and linguistic course participants. There were 'members' (=language schools) and 'associates / members of the scientific council' (=public institutions). • "Tandem Server Bochum": Managed by Helmut Brammerts and Karin Kleppin, created by the renaming of 'International (e-mail) Tandem Network' server.

Several series of tandem handbooks have been published in many languages as a result of the European Union funded projects:

• LINGUA project "International E-Mail Tandem Network" (1994-1996)
• Open and Distance Learning project "Telematics for Autonomous and Intercultural Tandem Learning" (1996-1999).
• LINGUA-D project "Tandem Language Learning Partnerships for Schools" (1998-2000)

External links

• An extensive bibliography on the tandem method
• For language learners
• Data base for tandem counselors
• School association Tandem International