Participant Perspectives on Intercultural Communication and Telecollaboration

Abstract

Thanks to advancements in technology and the sudden onset of limited physical mobility, computer-mediated communicative (CMC) projects have become easier and more prevalent in the last few years, particularly in the foreign language classroom. Many of these projects have intercultural communication and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as a key goal, and many studies have investigated the links between CMC and ICC. As yet, however, very little has been done to understand the experience of the participants themselves. This study attempts to utilise reflexive thematic analysis on participants’ open-ended responses to questions about their experiences following a ten-week semi-synchronous telecollaboration project called CONNECT. Responses were gathered from forty-three participants from fourteen institutions across different countries. They were read, coded, and themes were developed to produce the ‘story’ of the data. In this instance, four common themes across the responses were identified: The importance of English proficiency, self-discovery through sharing, good attitudes/skills/behaviours, and variability of cultural identities. Considering the participants’ perspectives on ICC in general and in relation to telecollaborative exchanges in particular is important when designing tasks such as these, and may help influence curriculum and classroom content planning.