Exploring reciprocity in Teletandem. A quantitative and qualitative lexical analysis of student diaries

The aim of this study is to examine the interplay between what students write in their reflective diaries and the concept of 'reciprocity' within the context of teletandem (Telles 2006). Reciprocity is a fundamental tenet of teletandem and a pivotal element of diverse peer learning frameworks as it implies the social dynamics and the exchange processes inherent in collaborative language learning (Koch 2017, Cappellini et al. 2020). The study initially conducts a quantitative analysis of learner diaries, discerning prevalent topics based on the frequency and distribution of nouns. Subsequently, a qualitative investigation seeks to pinpoint vocabulary and linguistic patterns that "directly address exchange activities" (Koch 2017, p. 128) in order to highlight if and how the principle of reciprocity emerges in teletandem learner diaries. Data has been selected from 662 diaries written both in English (L2) and in Portuguese (L1), two subcorpora which are stored in MulTeC (Multimodal Teletandem Corpus) (Aranha, Lopes 2019). The quantitative analysis show that the most frequently used and evenly distributed terms are the same in both subcorpora, i.e., 'interaction' and 'partner' (in the diaries written in English) and 'interação' and 'parceiro' (in the diaries written in Portuguese). These terms are semantically related to the notion of reciprocity. From a qualitative standpoint, the analyses revealed that the most relevant features of reciprocity perceived by teletandem participants are those related to the (i) organization of the teletandem practice, (ii) attendance of the partner´s needs and preferences, (iii) co-construction of a relationship, and (iv) collective decisions made by partners. These findings align with Cappellini et al.'s proposal and advocate for the effectiveness of employing a mixed-method approach involving both quantitative and qualitative analyses. This research methodology facilitates handling a manageable volume of data while preserving the significant aspects of learner diaries.