Language and culture in an online context: what can learner diaries tell us about intercultural competence?

Abstract

Telecollaboration is an approach to intercultural learning that uses Internet technology as a tool to facilitate intercultural communication between classes of learners in different countries. The question of what language learners can gain from telecollaboration is fundamental in putting the case forward for its place in a language course. This paper looks at what learner diaries can tell us about learners’ gains, in terms of intercultural competence, from participation in telecollaboration projects. It also explores the potential of quantitative corpus-processing tools as a supporting tool for qualitative analysis of narrative diaries. Le nuove tecnologie offrono molte occasioni per l‘integrazione dell'apprendimento interculturale nei corsi di lingua attraverso scambi virtuali. Ma che cosa percepiscono gli apprendenti da questi scambi? Questo articolo esamina i diari personali di studenti partecipi in uno scambio online per osservare lo sviluppo di competenze interculturali.