Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Curricula

Author(s):  
Linda van der Kroon ◽  
Kristi Jauregi ◽  
Jan D. ten Thije

The development of intercultural communicative competence is increasingly important in this globalised and highly digitalised world. This implies the adequate understanding of otherness, which entails a myriad of complex cognitive competences, skills and behaviour. The TILA project aims to study how the use of digital communication means in foreign language education can contribute to the development of intercultural understanding when communicating with peers across borders. Understanding is the result of a collaborative construction of shared knowledge, which can be supported through the use of meta-communicative devices (MCDs) (). This case study investigates how pupils used communication strategies during video communication sessions to achieve intercultural understanding. Results reveal that task-based telecollaboration sessions offer learners the opportunity to achieve mutual understanding by utilizing a variety of meta-communicative devices that help the learners to compare their cultures in relation to time, space and habits, verify meaning and clarify utterances.

Author(s):  
Linda van der Kroon ◽  
Kristi Jauregi ◽  
Jan D. ten Thije

The development of intercultural communicative competence is increasingly important in this globalised and highly digitalised world. This implies the adequate understanding of otherness, which entails a myriad of complex cognitive competences, skills and behaviour. The TILA project aims to study how the use of digital communication means in foreign language education can contribute to the development of intercultural understanding when communicating with peers across borders. Understanding is the result of a collaborative construction of shared knowledge, which can be supported through the use of meta-communicative devices (MCDs) (). This case study investigates how pupils used communication strategies during video communication sessions to achieve intercultural understanding. Results reveal that task-based telecollaboration sessions offer learners the opportunity to achieve mutual understanding by utilizing a variety of meta-communicative devices that help the learners to compare their cultures in relation to time, space and habits, verify meaning and clarify utterances.


RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822110666
Author(s):  
Hyun-Ju Kim ◽  
Stewart Gray ◽  
Christopher Lange

As student creativity is increasingly emphasized in English as a Foreign Language education, it is necessary to consider instructional techniques to encourage it. This study examines the effectiveness of two instructional techniques on creative writing performance of English as a Foreign Language students in a South Korean university. These techniques are variations of brainstorming known as mind mapping and SCAMPER. Survey data from the participants ( n = 39) were analysed to determine which technique resulted in higher levels of perceived creative output (essays). Additionally, a creativity rubric was developed and used to assign analytic scores to the essays to examine the relative benefits of the two techniques for high and low creative ability students. Results show that SCAMPER produced statistically significantly higher levels of perceived creative output. The essays written using SCAMPER generally received higher creativity scores than those written using mind mapping, though this difference was not statistically significant. Finally, results suggest that both techniques may help to narrow the performance gap between high and low creative ability students.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Fatma ZAGHAR

In the present time’s globalized atmosphere, the need for intercultural communicative competence in the workplace runs high. Accordingly, in the area of foreign language education, English teachers need more than ever to incorporate intercultural awareness and cross-cultural understanding in their syllabi. This article reports on a case study that involves the use of many research instruments including questionnaires, classroom observation, and assessment of assignments and exam sheets. This paper tends to suggest a cultural teaching based on standards for intercultural learning elicited from related literature in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) setting, addressed to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Master students approaching the end of their course of study and getting ready to enter the world of job-market. It proposes ways of instilling multicultural awareness into these language learners through the implementation of intercultural activities, helping them better understanding diversity and developing positive attitudes in the workplace. The research goals comprise increasing students’ intercultural global awareness, promoting their tolerance, and helping them remedy negative attitudes towards the target culture and other alien cultures. Findings of the study show that the proposed intercultural approach stimulates students’ thinking, helps them better comprehend how to immerse in diverse perspectives on complicated international issues, and how to become global citizens able to deal effectively with multiculturalism in the work environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
A.K. Zhunussova ◽  
◽  
A. Althonayan ◽  
A.A. Golovchun ◽  
◽  
...  

In the article, the modelling is considered as one of the effective methods in the formation of intercultural and communicative competence of students. The FLT system, like any other system, functions and develops in the light of its predetermined goals and planned results, and this regulates the delineation of several subsystems within the parameters of the entire system - in this case, a foreign language education system. The necessity to move away from a narrow book understanding of “foreign languages” towards the general system of foreign language education as a multifaceted area of research has become apparent in the modern era.


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