Breaking language and cultural barriers: A case study in telecollaboration at an EFL class in higher education

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a telecollaboration program with students of an English Pedagogy Program at a private university in Chile. The aim is to analyze this experience through the opinions of the Chilean participants between the years 2016-2017. To do so, a post-course survey was applied to a group of 54 students. The analysis of the qualitative data shows that students reported two main benefits: a raise in intercultural awareness and an increase in their linguistic abilities in the target language. The virtual exchanges via ICTs provided students with authentic language input and authentic situations and this, in turn, increased their motivation to participate in conversations in L2. Despite certain limitations discussed in the paper, the telecollaboration experience was highly valued by students.KEYWORDS: Telecollaboration; virtual exchange; intercultural competence; higher education; EFL.Doi: 10.21703/rexe.20212042knipp23