Telecollaborative Exchange Research Articles

Zooming in on Telecollaborative Exchanges (TE) through the Eyes of Global English Teachers

Promoting Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) through telecollaborative exchange (TE) in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) milieu has attracted many scholars. Despite a voluminous literature study on TE in EFL settings, studies on how teachers implement TE and perceive these intercultural exchange meetings are scant. Thus, this case study aimed to fill the empirical void by delving into the implementation of TE in non-Anglophone settings mediated by Zoom and the teachers' perceptions of these intercultural exchanges enactment. To meet these research objectives, four English teachers from Croatia, Indonesia, Belarus, and India were recruited. Empirical data were amassed through observational field notes and interviews. The study showcased how the teachers organized TE and revealed their performed roles to scaffold the students in TE. The findings also portrayed their perception of TE grounded within their motives and pedagogical beliefs. Drawing upon these results, the study offers some implications for teacher professional development.

Telecollaboration in English Language Teacher Education: A Systematic Review

Telecollaboration practices enable geographically dispersed participants to interact with each other through synchronous or asynchronous computer-mediated communication tools. Telecollaboration plays a significant role in learning cultural differences, raising awareness, and training language teachers by improving intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and language skills. With this role in mind, this paper aims to present a systematic review of the telecollaboration studies conducted within the scope of English language teacher training programs between 2018 and 2022 by analyzing twenty up-to-date and peer-reviewed articles according to the steps of the systematic review study. Along with the differences among study aims and designs, it is found that the findings of the reviewed studies can be grouped under three main themes, which are the benefits of telecollaborative exchanges, the drawbacks associated with telecollaboration and suggestions for further telecollaborative projects. Accordingly, some implications are provided for integrating telecollaboration into language teacher education programs.

Initiating Intercultural Communicative Competence through Telecollaboration: A Case of Language-Exchange Classrooms of Arabic and English

This paper investigates to what extent telecollaboration can be integrated as an effective medium for the enhancement of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in the foreign-language classroom. The data was obtained over one semester from a series of asynchronous exchanges in language-exchange class settings using Google drives shared between United States-based students learning Arabic as a foreign language at three American universities, and students at a Saudi university in Saudi Arabia learning English as a foreign language. The one-on-one interactions covered a variety of topics related to cultural knowledge, perspectives, values, practices, behaviors, and products. The data from this collaborative online project also included two reflection surveys that students responded to before and after the study. Byram’s 2021 model (including its objectives) was applied, and the findings reveal that many ICC objectives are clearly reflected in students’ telecollaborative exchanges, indicating that this type of exchange can be used effectively as a tool to develop students’ intercultural competence. The findings also show a noticeable increase in students’ interests in cultural learning and understanding the culture of others.

Participant Perspectives on Intercultural Communication and Telecollaboration

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.

‘We should google that’: the dynamics of knowledge-in-interaction in an online student meeting

ABSTRACT This paper takes a multimodal conversation analytic approach to explore knowledge-in-interaction in a technology-mediated online environment (Skype videoconference) during a meeting between eight university students studying to become language teachers. The analysis considers the ways in which the student-teachers demonstrate their knowledge or understanding of telecollaborative project-based language learning while taking part in a telecollaborative exchange themselves. Given the growing predominance of online teaching and learning, it is increasingly relevant to have a deep understanding of the ongoing learner interaction that takes place in these environments, particularly considering that interaction can be understood as a trajectory of knowledge building. The study examines how the student-teachers make use of the different technological features of a videoconferencing platform to manage the assigned task, which is to complete a collaborative exam. These features include camera, shared links, parallel text chats and editing tools. Findings imply that the student-teachers sequentially organise their knowledge synthesis and co-construction of pedagogical understanding through technologically-supported mutually coordinated interaction. Although the analysis is contextually bound, the task-focused interaction that is highlighted is relevant to higher education teachers in a variety of contexts, apart from teacher education.

Intercultural learning through Chinese-American telecollaboration: results of a song sharing project

This study reports on the results of a semester-long Chinese-American telecollaborative exchange via WeChat, in which students from China and the U.S. shared thematically similar songs in their respective languages and discussed relevant cultural topics that were suggested by the students. Various types of qualitative data collected from the exchange (i.e. WeChat group discussion transcripts, videoconferencing audio recordings, final reflection journals, and end-of-semester interviews) showed that the students participated actively in the program and were able to engage in in-depth conversations on various topics with their partners through WeChat group discussion and one-on-one videoconferencing. Many students attributed their positive experience to the intrinsic ability of music to engage college students. In order to evaluate the students’ intercultural learning, Byram’s intercultural competence assessment model was adopted to guide the data analysis. Results showed that the students demonstrated evidence of developing four types of intercultural competences during the exchange: interest in knowing other people’s way of life and introducing one’s own culture to others, knowledge about one’s own and others’ culture for intercultural communication, ability to change perspective, and knowledge about the intercultural communication process, with particularly overwhelming evidence indicating the prominence of the first two types.

Incidental pragmatics learning in telecollaborative exchanges

This paper aims to explore the outcomes of incidental pragmatics learning in the context of a telecollaboration programme, with a focus on the speech acts of criticising and suggesting. The programme involved Italian learners of English and American learners of Italian. It was organised around weekly Zoom video calls over an academic semester. Every second virtual encounter was devoted to providing and discussing feedback on written texts produced by the partner in the target language. The discussion was held in the feedback provider’s L2. For this study, we focused on three intermediate-to-advanced learners of English whose data were analysed longitudinally. English native speakers’ data, collected during a previous round of the telecollaboration programme, were analysed as a reference baseline. Signs of development in the linguistic behaviour of the three learners were observed with regard to the pragmatic strategies they used to comment on their partners’ errors, but not in the distribution of internal modifiers and supportive moves.

Conceptualizing an inquiry-based lingua-cultural learning through telecollaborative exchanges.

In recent years, telecollaboration has been gaining popularity among scholars, teachers, and students engaged in foreign language education because it facilitates the use of Internet-mediated communication tools to connect language and culture learners in geographically distant locations. Telecollaboration, as currently viewed in academic and classroom settings, places greater emphasis on the development of learners' intercultural communicative competence. The problem with this approach is that this process may not consider the possibility that learners engaged in online intercultural exchanges could have limited or no knowledge about certain aspects of their own lingua-culture. We argue that, for learners to effectively share lingua-cultural knowledge with their online peers abroad, there must be a framework that supports the construction of learners' own intra-cultural knowledge to provide a solid foundation for intercultural learning and communication. In this paper, we develop an inquiry-based model of telecollaboration incorporating both inquiry and online exchange based on the inquiry cycle, which includes engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. This paper builds a case for the application of inquiry-based telecollaboration in a real classroom environment, which could not only help learners obtain and eventually share more authentic, deeper knowledge about their lingua-culture, but also promote informed intercultural exchange.

Conceptualizing an inquiry-based lingua-cultural learning through telecollaborative exchanges

In recent years, telecollaboration has been gaining popularity among scholars, teachers, and students engaged in foreign language education because it facilitates the use of Internet-mediated communication tools to connect language and culture learners in geographically distant locations. Telecollaboration, as currently viewed in academic and classroom settings, places greater emphasis on the development of learners’ intercultural communicative competence. The problem with this approach is that this process may not consider the possibility that learners engaged in online intercultural exchanges could have limited or no knowledge about certain aspects of their own lingua-culture. We argue that, for learners to effectively share lingua-cultural knowledge with their online peers abroad, there must be a framework that supports the construction of learners’ own intra-cultural knowledge to provide a solid foundation for intercultural learning and communication. In this paper, we develop an inquiry-based model of telecollaboration incorporating both inquiry and online exchange based on the inquiry cycle, which includes engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. This paper builds a case for the application of inquiry-based telecollaboration in a real classroom environment, which could not only help learners obtain and eventually share more authentic, deeper knowledge about their lingua-culture, but also promote informed intercultural exchange.

Conceptualizing an inquiry-based lingua-cultural learning through telecollaborative exchanges.

In recent years, telecollaboration has been gaining popularity among scholars, teachers, and students engaged in foreign language education because it facilitates the use of Internet-mediated communication tools to connect language and culture learners in geographically distant locations. Telecollaboration, as currently viewed in academic and classroom settings, places greater emphasis on the development of learners' intercultural communicative competence. The problem with this approach is that this process may not consider the possibility that learners engaged in online intercultural exchanges could have limited or no knowledge about certain aspects of their own lingua-culture. We argue that, for learners to effectively share lingua-cultural knowledge with their online peers abroad, there must be a framework that supports the construction of learners' own intra-cultural knowledge to provide a solid foundation for intercultural learning and communication. In this paper, we develop an inquiry-based model of telecollaboration incorporating both inquiry and online exchange based on the inquiry cycle, which includes engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. This paper builds a case for the application of inquiry-based telecollaboration in a real classroom environment, which could not only help learners obtain and eventually share more authentic, deeper knowledge about their lingua-culture, but also promote informed intercultural exchange.

Towards the promotion of intercultural competences: telecollaborative conversations between Kuwaiti and Colombian English as a foreign language university students

Telecollaboration in the language classroom promotes both second-language development and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). However, previous research identified its potential limitations, including instances of failure, misunderstanding, tension, and a reluctance to participate. The current study contributes to emerging literature concerning the role of prior pedagogical mentoring in supporting learner interaction during telecollaborative exchanges by examining the online interactions of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. A total of 38 undergraduate students from Kuwait and Colombia participated in pedagogical mentoring before engaging in an eight-week series of online activities. The students’ online discussions are analysed herein using a content analysis framework triangulated with their responses to a post-questionnaire. The findings reveal the students engage in various socio-affective and cognitive interactional behaviours that correspond to Byram’s (1997) ICC framework. The micro-level analysis of the students’ interaction and post-questionnaire demonstrates that most of these interactional behaviours correlate with descriptors pertaining to aspects of attitudes (curiosity and openness) and knowledge. Instances of the skills of discovery and interaction are also observed when the students engage with religious and socially related topics. The study concludes that prior pedagogical mentoring is beneficial for equipping learners with essential skills, including the collaborative skills that are an indispensable prerequisite for effective participation in telecollaborative exchanges.

Evaluating the impact of telecollaborative exchange in university education

This presentation reported on the EVALUATE (Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education) project. This was a European Policy Experiment (EPE) project funded by Erasmus+ Key Action 3 which examined the impact of Virtual Exchange on students and teachers of Initial Teacher Education. The project ran from January 2017 until September 2019. Virtual Exchange is an educational approach which involves the engagement of groups of learners in extended periods of online intercultural i...

Facework and Prosocial Teasing in a Synchronous Video Communication Exchange

This study centres on the analysis of prosocial teasing during a videoconference (telecollaboration) exchange between mixed-gender adolescent secondary school students from Spain and Germany. We contend that the provocative elements present in prosocial teasing activate a play frame, in Gregory Bateson’s terms, in which seemingly hostile face acts can be interpreted as playful behaviour. We argue that successful teasing can ultimately enhance the face of the teaser and that of the person being teased and thus build up rapport between them. Our analysis of the facework in the interaction during this telecollaboration exchange is based on Erwin Goffman’s notions of face, demeanour and deference and stands in opposition to the dominant (im)politeness paradigm put forward by Jonathan Culpeper, which has its roots in Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson’s seminal work. Keywords: facework; teasing; telecollaboration; language learning

Developing an effective Chinese-American telecollaborative learning program: an action research study

Despite the rapid development of telecollaboration in foreign language education, telecollaborative exchanges involving Chinese as the target language have not received sufficient attention. Adopting an action research approach, this study focuses on examining the student perceptions as well as the challenges of a carefully designed Chinese-American telecollaborative learning program involving Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) students at a small liberal arts college in the US and Chinese-speaking English majors at a large university in China. This study drew on a variety of data for analysis, including naturally occurring interaction data (i.e., Skype conversations, WeChat group discussion transcripts), students' weekly reflection journals, informal interviews with the students throughout the semester, end-of-program interviews, student responses to an end-of-semester questionnaire, and the teacher-researcher reflective journal. The results showed that this program was, in general, well received among the CFL students at the US college. The intermediate-level CFL students evaluated this program more positively than the elementary-level students. However, this program also faced many challenges, such as scheduling and technological issues with Skype conversations, target language proficiency gap, perceived irrelevance to Chinese proficiency development, heavy workload, lack of depth in WeChat group discussion, and the demanding role of the teacher-researcher.

L1 Use in Language Tests – Investigating Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Language Assessment

Abstract Objective: Assessment is a crucial part of language teaching, with great effect on learners’ motivation, willingness to study and learning success. Since language assessment is rooted in local policies and cultures of learning, it seems pertinent to look at how opinions on assessment can differ depending on the country of teacher training. The purpose of the paper is to compare Polish and Turkish teacher trainees’ on L1 use and translation in testing. Methodology: The methodology applied in the paper is a qualitative action research study, where the groups of teacher trainees from Poland and Turkey participating in a telecollaborative project were prompted for reflection on different aspects of cultural appropriacy of language assessment. The data were collected via private diaries and public discussion forums. The corpus of student reflections was subject to qualitative analysis for key concepts, recurrent themes, similarities and differences across the two countries involved in analysis. Findings: The effect of the local setting in which language instruction is to take place on assessment beliefs and strategies is stronger than that of teacher training. The language testing procedures of the Communicative Approach vary in the two countries under consideration (Poland and Turkey) due to a differing role and status of English in the country, cultural orientations of the society, preferred learning styles and habits, country openness to the Western culture and values as well as societal expectations towards the language teacher. Despite much standardization in language teacher education, significant variation in the shape of language teaching methodology can be attributed to the effect of cultural differences. Value Added: Telecollaboration in teacher training is promoted as an instructional technique enabling expansion of teacher trainees’ intercultural competence, intercultural communication skills, awareness of the effect of cultural differences on preferred ways of learning and teaching. The cultural appropriacy of language assessment can be achieved through filtering testing methods and techniques to adapt them to the cultural, political and social reality of target users. Recommendations: The telecollaborative exchange as described in the present paper proves to be an effective vehicle to achieve the purpose of increasing internalization of teacher education and creating better skilled professionals. Since language teaching has become a largely multicultural and multilingual experience, it is necessary to increase teacher trainees’ awareness of cultural appropriacy of its different aspects, including assessment, throughout the teacher training programme.

Preservice Teachers’ Discursive Constructions of Cultural Practices in a Multicultural Telecollaboration

The study reports on a telecollaboration exchange between two teacher education classes in the United States and Turkey. In synchronous and asynchronous conversations, preservice teachers (PTs) engaged in social justice issues and made discourse choices that captured culture(s) and communities as diverse or essentialized. These choices were affected by PTs’ positionings and impacted how PTs connected to individuals only and/or to broader society. PTs asked questions that created space for critical discussions and facilitated awareness of diversity, yet sometimes led to overgeneralizations. The study has implications for designing telecollaborations that promote language and practices to unpack the issues of social justice.

Exploring the intersection of language and culture via telecollaboration: Utilizing videoconferencing for intercultural competence development

ABSTRACTThis study qualitatively investigated students from a Mexican university and a U.S. university and how their intercultural competence (IC), the ability to appropriately and effectively communicate with others from countries and cultures other than one’s own, was affected by a five-week telecollaborative exchange. To examine the ways in which students in both second languages (L2s), Spanish and English, developed IC, the researchers deductively analyzed over six hours of Zoom video sessions of two participants (n = 2) according to a 15-category IC framework. Results revealed that the Communication Skills category was coded almost 72% more than the next-highest category of Cultural Self-Awareness/Understanding. These results suggested that SCMC-based telecollaboration is an effective vehicle for collaboration and in turn IC development. In addition, this study shows the value of integrating telecollaboration into L2 learning and teaching, as it gives learners an opportunity to explore the intersection of language and culture.

Analysis of Telecollaborative Exchanges among Secondary Education Students: Communication Strategies and Negotiation of Meaning

This study presents the analysis of a corpus of 12 telecollaborative interac-tions, recorded on video, between British and Spanish secondary education students during a telecollaborative project funded by the European Commission. The main aim is to analyse negotiation of meaning in these telecollaboration exchanges which are perceived in the liter-ature as a sign of meaningful interaction. It is essential to study instances of telecollaboration in order to identify the possible affordances in the acquisition of communicative and inter-cultural competences. Smith’s (2005) Model of Computer-Mediated Negotiated Interaction based on Varonis and Gass (1985) is employed to analyse the video interactions between Spanish and English students to find how learners deal with linguistic mistakes or any other type of communication problem during synchronous peer interaction. The results show that students employ a wide variety of strategies to negotiate meaning, while avoiding overt correction unless it is absolutely necessary to avoid communication breaking down. Skil-ful use of corrective techniques and resolving communication problems was also observed. These strategies led to fluid interactions and efficient task completion. Students were seen to readily take the initiative when tackling negotiation of meaning and correction and were pro-vided scaffolding, a task that is normally carried out by teachers in more traditional settings.

An Analysis of Cultural Content in Elementary School Textbooks and Student Needs for the Telecollaborative Exchange Project

An Analysis of Cultural Content in Elementary School Textbooks and Student Needs for the Telecollaborative Exchange Project

Twenty years of telecollaborative practice: implications for teaching Chinese as a foreign language

ABSTRACTIn an attempt to promote telecollaborative exchanges in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, this paper conducts a comprehensive review of telecollaborative practice from the past twenty years and focuses on five important themes emerging from the literature on telecollaboration, i.e. models, tasks, challenges, technologies, and new trends. Special attention is given to how each theme's findings can be applied to telecollaborative projects for Chinese language learners. Based on the model of competencies for telecollaborative teachers developed by O'Dowd (2013), the implications of twenty years of telecollaborative practice for teaching Chinese as a foreign language are discussed in four areas, i.e. organizational, pedagogical, digital competences, and attitudes and beliefs.