Promoting critical thinking in online intercultural communication

Abstract

This paper investigates the educational experience arising from the use of an online discussion forum in an undergraduate blended learning language programme; to do this, it focuses on the type of cognitive processes that learners experience during a computer-mediated collaborative task and explores the potential causal relationship between the instructional strategies and the students’ cognitive activity. Findings indicate that the ‘teaching presence’ had a significant indirect influence on the outcome of the online intercultural interactions.