Negotiating Sociocultural and Institutional Contexts: The Case of Spanish–American Telecollaboration

Abstract

This paper reports on a telecollaborative exchange between university language learners in Spain and the USA and analyses the effects of the different institutional and sociocultural contexts on its development. While the socioinstitutional dimension of German–American exchanges has already benefited from extensive study in the literature, this paper focuses on the particular issues and problems which arise in the Spanish–American context and illustrates the strategies available to teachers in these countries to overcome these constraints. The outcomes of the research carried out here illustrate the need for telecollaborative models of exchange to be adaptable to different contexts of use. Furthermore, the research also underlines the necessity for online exchanges to offer learners the opportunity to explore with their partners the stereotypes and prejudices which each group may hold about the target culture.