Teaching in virtual environments to enhance intercultural understanding between Germans and Peruvians

Abstract

This teaching brief describes a novel form of acquiring intercultural competencies and foreign language skills in the classroom through the use of virtual environments. Two universities in two different cultural settings (Germany and Peru) coordinated the lecture times of their classes on cross-cultural competencies in such a way that after a few theoretical introduction sessions, classes were jointly taught through the use of videoconferences. Empirical evidence showed that the main achievements of the videoconferences were a better understanding of the other culture (including stereotypes) and awareness of differences in communication patterns, differences between low context and high context, and different value orientations in regards to monochromic and polychronic use of time. In contrast, the main challenges were technological and administrative in nature.