Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:31:21.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A transnational model of virtual exchange for global citizenship education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2019

Robert O'Dowd
Robert O'Dowd*
Affiliation:
University of León, Spain
*
Email: robert.odowd@unileon.es.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Virtual exchange is a well-known pedagogical approach in foreign language (FL) education which involves engaging classes in online intercultural collaboration projects with international partners as an integrated part of their educational programmes. This paper begins by reviewing e-tandem and telecollaborative approaches to virtual exchange which are currently being used extensively in FL education and presents two case studies which illustrate the common learning outcomes and limitations of such approaches. I then propose an alternative model of virtual exchange which maintains many of the key characteristics of earlier approaches but which incorporates the principles of global citizenship education and which moves away from bilingual–bicultural approaches. I conclude by outlining the main characteristics of this model and presenting some examples of how this approach could be put into practice.

Type
Plenary Speech
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 477 - 490
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Revised version of a plenary address given at the Sixth International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence – Intercultural Competence and Mobility: Virtual and Physical. University of Arizona, USA, 25–28 January 2018.

References

Agar, M. (1994). Language shock. understanding the culture of conversation. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar
Barrett, M. (2015). Competences for democratic citizenship and intercultural dialogue: The education of globalized citizens in a digitalized world. Keynote address presented to the National Guidelines for Education Conference 2015, ‘Educating for Global Citizenship in a Digital Society’, organised by the National Council for Teacher Education (Norway), Centre for ICT in Education and the European Wergeland Centre, Oslo, 12–13 March, 2015.Google Scholar
Brammerts, H. (1996). Language learning in tandem using the internet. In Warschauer, M. (Ed.), Telecollaboration in foreign language learning (pp. 121–130). University of Hawaai'i: Second language teaching and curriculum centre.Google Scholar
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Byram, M. (2008). From foreign language education to education for intercultural citizenship: Essays and reflections. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byram, M. (2011). Intercultural citizenship from an internationalist perspective. Journal of the NUS Teaching Academy, 1(1), 10–20.Google Scholar
Byram, M., Golubeva, I., Hui, H., & Wagner, M. (2017). From principles to practice in education for intercultural citizenship. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Council of Europe (2016). Competences for democratic culture – Living together as equals in culturally diverse democratic societies. Strasbourg: Author.Google Scholar
Council of Europe (2018). Reference framework of competences for democratic culture. Strasbourg: Author.Google Scholar
De Wit, H. (2016). Internationalisation and the role of online intercultural exchange. In O'Dowd, R. & Lewis, T. (Eds.), Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice (pp. 192–208). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Deardorff, D., & Jones, E., (2012). Intercultural competence: An emerging focus in international higher education. In Deardorff, D., de Wit, H., Heyl, J., & Adams, T. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of international higher education (pp. 283–303). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dooly, M. (2013). Focusing on the social: Research into the distributed knowledge of novice teachers in online exchange. In Meskill, C. (Ed.), Online teaching and learning: Sociocultural dimensions (pp. 137–155). New York: Continuum/Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Dooly, M. (2016). ‘Please remove your avatar from my personal space’: Competences of the telecollaboratively efficient person. In O'Dowd, R. & Lewis, T. (Eds.), Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice (pp. 192–208). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dooly, M. (2017). Telecollaboration. In Chapelle, C. A. & Sauro, S. (Eds.), The handbook of technology in second language teaching and learning (pp. 169–183). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Commission (2013). European higher education in the world. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels: Author.Google Scholar
European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice (2017). Citizenship education at school in Europe – 2017. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.Google Scholar
Furstenberg, G., Levet, S., English, K., & Maillet, K. (2001). Giving a virtual voice to the silent language of culture: The CULTURA project. Language Learning & Technology, 5(1), 55–102. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol5num1/furstenberg/default.htmlGoogle Scholar
Graddol, D. (2006). English Next. Why global English may mean the end of ‘English as a Foreign Language’. British Council. Retrieved from https://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/attachments/books-english-next.pdfGoogle Scholar
Hanna, B., & de Nooy, J. (2009). Learning language and culture via public internet discussion forums. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, F. (2015). A dialogic model for telecollaboration. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 6(2), 28–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, F. (2016). Facilitated dialogue in online intercultural exchange. In O'Dowd, R. and Lewis, T. (Eds.), Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice (pp. 150–172). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Himmelmann, G. (2006). Leitbild Demokratieerziehung. Vorläufer, Begleitstudien und internationale Ansätze zum Demokratie-Lernen. Schwalbach am Taunus: Wochenschau Verlag.Google Scholar
Kern, R. (2014). Technology as pharmakon: The promise and perils of the internet for foreign language education. The Modern Language Journal, 98, 340–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinginger, C. (2009). Language learning and study abroad: A critical reading of research. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kohn, K., & Hoffstaedter, P. (2015). Flipping intercultural communication practice: Opportunities and challenges for the foreign language classroom. Conference paper presented at ANTWERP CALL 2015 Conference: Task design and CALL, 6–8 July 2015, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. (2006). From communicative competence to symbolic competence. Modern Language Journal, 90(2), 249–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramsch, C. (2014). Teaching foreign languages in an era of globalization. Introduction. Modern Language Journal, 98(1), 296–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leask, B. (2015). Internationalising the curriculum. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leone, P., & Telles, J. A. (2016). The teletandem network. In O'Dowd, R. and Lewis, T. (Eds.), Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice (pp. 241–247). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Liddicoat, A., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
O'Dowd, R. (2003). Understanding ‘the other side’: Intercultural learning in a Spanish-English email exchange. Language Learning and Technology, 7(2), 118–144. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/odowd/default.htmlGoogle Scholar
O'Dowd, R. (2006). Telecollaboration and the development of intercultural communicative competence. Berlin: Langenscheidt.Google Scholar
O'Dowd, R. (2016). Learning from the past and looking to the future of online intercultural exchange. In O'Dowd, R. and Lewis, T. (Eds.), Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice (pp. 273–298). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
O'Dowd, R. (2018). From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: State-of-the-art and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 1, 1–23. Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Dowd, R., & Lewis, T. (Eds.). (2016). Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice. London/New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Rourke, B. (2007). Models of telecollaboration 1: eTandem. In O'Dowd, R. (Ed.), Online intercultural exchange (pp. 41–61). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porto, M. (2014). Intercultural citizenship education in an EFL online project in Argentina. Language and Intercultural Communication, 14(2), 245–261. doi: 10.1080/14708477.2014.890625CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, S. (2016). Cosmopolitan learning for a global era. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Risager, K. (2007). Language and culture pedagogy: From a national to a transnational paradigm. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharing Perspectives (2018). https://sharingperspectivesfoundation.com/Google Scholar
Taras, V., Caprar, D. V., Rottig, D., Sarala, R. M., Zakaria, N., Zhao, F., … Huang, V. (2013). A global classroom evaluating the effectiveness of global virtual collaboration as a teaching tool in management education. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 12(3), 414–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UNESCO (2014). Global citizenship education: Preparing learners for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Paris: Author. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002277/227729e.pdfGoogle Scholar
Van der Zwaard, R., & Bannink, A. (2016). Nonoccurrence of negotiation of meaning in task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication. The Modern Language Journal, 100(3), 625–640. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12341CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ware, P., & Kramsch, C. (2005). Toward an intercultural stance: Teaching German and English through telecollaboration. Modern Language Journal, 89, 190–205.Google Scholar
Warschauer, M. (Ed.). (1995). Virtual connections: Online activities & projects for networking language learners. University of Hawai`i at Manoa: Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center.Google Scholar