Assessing virtual exchange in foreign language courses at tertiary level


Book Description

This volume is an important output of the ASSESSnet, an EU-funded project that aimed at investigating assessment practices in Virtual Exchange (VE) projects in Foreign Language (FL) courses at tertiary level. It starts with the discussion of selected aspects of VE and assessment design, and a summary of ASSESSnet project results. The following chapters present real-life examples of planning and administering assessment in VE projects in diverse educational settings. The descriptions of case studies are often supplemented by concrete examples of task descriptions, assessment rubrics, self-assessment prompts, and examples of student outputs. This volume is produced for practitioners by practitioners and may be of interest to teachers, teacher educators, school authorities and policy makers interested in introducing VE or improving the quality of the existing projects.




Encouraging Transnational Learning Through Virtual Exchange in Global Teacher Education


Book Description

The literature on higher education discusses globalization and internationalization in areas such as competencies, mobility, policies, and knowledge transfer. The COVID-19 pandemic and advancing educational technologies have prompted universities to rethink education, leading to innovative ways for teacher educators and students to connect and learn virtually. Educators and administrators are seeking to advance their teaching through intercultural partnerships and relevant models to improve the quality of education through international connections. The current global situation has also prompted the need to further knowledge of communication technologies. Encouraging Transnational Learning Through Virtual Exchange in Global Teacher Education aims to provide resources and recommendations for global teacher educators, practitioners, researchers, and pre-service and in-service teachers on developing international virtual exchange programs in teacher education. The book aims to showcase effective online pedagogies, provide practical values of online collaborative teaching and learning, and connect theory to practice in critical global citizenship, digital literacies, and teacher development. Led by educators and researchers in teacher education programs involved in virtual exchange partnerships and research, the book shares implications for teacher development with an international component based on shared studies. The book will be a resource for connecting international partners and efforts to internationalize institutions. Covering topics such as virtual exchanges, collaborative online international learning (COIL), telecollaboration, and global education, this book is ideal for international teachers, teacher trainers, students, and researchers interested in collaborative online international learning (COIL).




Second Language Teaching and Learning through Virtual Exchange


Book Description

Virtual exchanges provide language learners with a unique opportunity to develop their target language skills, support inter-cultural exchange, and afford teacher candidates space to hone their teaching craft. The research presented in this volume investigates the role of virtual exchanges as both a teaching tool to support second language acquisition and a space for second language development. Practitioners obtain guidance on the different types of exchanges that currently exist and on the outcome of those exchanges so that they can make informed decisions on whether to include this type of program in their language teaching and learning classrooms. To this end, this edited volume contains chapters that describe individual virtual exchanges along with results of research done on each exchange to show how the exchange supported specific second language teaching and learning goals.




Language, Culture and Literature in Telecollaboration Contexts


Book Description

This book describes and analyses experiences of teaching and learning language, culture and literature based on telecollaboration, an approach that creates interactions between groups of learners from different countries through the integration of a series of virtual and intercultural collaborative tasks to the curricula of undergraduate and graduate courses. The experiences analyzed in this volume come from two telecollaborative projects developed by the São Paulo State University (UNESP), in Brazil, with universities from other countries: the Brazilian Virtual Exchange (BRaVE) Program and the Teletandem Brasil Project. The BRaVE Program aims at fostering an online collaborative learning modality that promotes intercultural contact and the exchange of ideas by connecting Brazilian undergraduate or graduate students with students from different higher education institutions around the world. The Teletandem Brasil Project is based on a mode of telecollaboration (teletandem) that creates a virtual, collaborative and autonomous context for learning foreign languages in which two students help each other to learn their own languages or a language of proficiency. They do so by using the text, voice and webcam image resources, and by adopting the three principles of tandem learning: autonomy, reciprocity, and separate use of both languages. Language, Culture and Literature in Telecollaboration Contexts will be of interest to both educational researchers and teachers as it presents, on the one hand, an innovative tool to promote the democratization of foreign language learning; and, on the other hand, discusses how telecollaborative projects can contribute to the training of language and literature teachers.




Evaluating the impact of virtual exchange on initial teacher education: a European policy experiment


Book Description

Virtual exchange refers to education programmes in which constructive communication and interaction takes place between individuals or groups from different cultural backgrounds with the support of educators or facilitators. Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE, http://www.evaluateproject.eu/) was a European policy experimentation financed by Erasmus+ which studied the impact of a telecollaborative model of virtual exchange on student teachers. Between 2017-2018, the project consortium trained teacher trainers and organised virtual exchanges which involved over 1,000 student teachers at initial teacher education institutions. This entailed students interacting and collaborating with partner classes from other countries as an integral part of one of their courses. The research team then analysed the learning gains from these exchanges using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. They also worked with representatives from European ministries of education to understand how virtual exchange could be upscaled in teacher education across Europe. This publication presents the findings of the EVALUATE experimentation and its implications for the education of future teachers. The study found that engaging student teachers in structured online intercultural collaboration as part of their formal learning can contribute to the development of their digital-pedagogical, intercultural, and foreign language competences. It can also lead to innovation and international learning in the education of future teachers.




Simulation for Participatory Education


Book Description

This textbook explores the use of simulation within the context of education and internationalization. Simulation is broken down into its phases and these elements are discussed by experts, most of whom have long tradition in the application of simulation. Simulation is treated with references to the specific needs of practitioners, educators and researchers in initiating and developing simulation in different fields of study, with specific reference to teacher education. This volume focuses on presenting simulation as a means to facilitating students’ openness to complexity and development of intercultural skills through virtual exchange. Thus, it provides educators and researchers with a conceptual and practical resource that tackles the critical role of cognitive and metacognitive complexity in the education of future global professionals through intercultural pedagogy. By tracing the roots of simulation and outlining a framework to support professional learning through experiential-based research, this textbook will prove invaluable for teacher trainers, practitioners and researchers interested in simulation.




Interculturality and the English Language Classroom


Book Description

This book examines the concept of interculturality in English Language Teaching (ELT), using examples from diverse international and educational settings to demonstrate different approaches. Increased contact between multilingual speakers from different cultural backgrounds means that linguistic and intercultural competence must be taught hand in hand, and the approaches featured here will: encourage learners to develop intercultural sensitivity and a critical intercultural attitude; mitigate the limitations of textbooks and extend the learning to global issues, intercultural citizenship, and media literacy; show the potential of telecollaboration and popular culture as pedagogical resources; and demonstrate the value of interculturality in English as lingua franca situations and English for Academic Purposes. The chapters feature empirical studies from around the world, and include questions for reflection and recommended reading so that readers can engage more closely with key concepts, compare and adapt the practices most relevant to them. This book contributes to the literature on (inter)cultural pedagogy, English as a lingua franca, language pedagogy, and teacher professional development, and will be an invaluable tool for English language teachers, teacher trainers and educators seeking to enrich their practice. It will also be of interest to students and scholars of Applied Linguistics, especially language education.




Internationalising Higher Education and the Role of Virtual Exchange


Book Description

This volume introduces Virtual Exchange (VE) as an innovative form of online intercultural learning and investigates the myriad of ways VE is being carried out across universities, ultimately arguing for its integration into university internationalisation policies and course curricula. Against the backdrop of increased digitalisation initiatives throughout universities given the effects of the pandemic, chapters focus not only on providing new research findings, but also on providing a comprehensive introduction and argumentation for the use of VE in university education and also in demonstrating how it can be put into use by both university decision-makers and educators. Reviewing the limitations of the activity, this timely work also fundamentally posits how VE and blended mobility more broadly could be developed in future higher education initiatives. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, scholars, and students involved with Open & Distance Education and eLearning, approaches to internationalisation in education, and the study of higher education more broadly. Those interested in innovative methods for teaching and learning, as well as educational research, will also benefit from this volume.




Online Intercultural Exchange


Book Description

This volume provides a state of the art overview of Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) in university education and demonstrates how educators can use OIE to address current challenges in university contexts such as internationalisation, virtual mobility and intercultural foreign language education. Since the 1990s, educators have been using virtual interaction to bring their classes into contact with geographically distant partner classes to create opportunities for authentic communication, meaningful collaboration and first-hand experience of working and learning with partners from other cultural backgrounds. Online exchange projects of this nature can contribute to the development of learner autonomy, linguistic accuracy, intercultural awareness, intercultural skills and electronic literacies. Online Intercultural Exchange has now reached a stage where it is moving beyond individual classroom initiatives and is assuming a role as a major tool for internationalization, intercultural development and virtual mobility in universities around the globe. This volume reports qualitative and quantitative findings on the impact of OIE on universities in Europe and elsewhere and offers comprehensive guidance on using OIE at both pedagogical and technological levels. It provides theoretically-informed accounts of Online Intercultural Exchanges which will relevant to researchers in Computer Assisted Language Learning, Computer-Mediated Communication, or Virtual Education. Finally, contributors offer a collection of practitioner-authored and practically-oriented case studies for the benefit of teachers of foreign languages or in other subject areas who wish to engage in developing the digital literacy and intercultural competences of their learners.




Virtual exchange and 21st century teacher education: short papers from the 2019 EVALUATE conference


Book Description

The Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) project was a European policy experiment funded by Erasmus+ between 2017 and 2019. The EVALUATE consortium trained teacher trainers and organised virtual exchanges which involved over 1,000 student teachers at over 34 initial teacher education institutions in Europe and beyond. Following the successful capstone conference of the EVALUATE project in September 2019, a number of colleagues answered our call for submissions to the proceedings. The articles you find here provide a window into the multifaceted contributions not only to the conference, but to the field of telecollaboration and virtual exchange at large. We hope you enjoy finding out about the many different ways in which our colleagues engage with this innovative pedagogical approach that combines the deep impact of intercultural dialogue and exchange with the broad reach of digital technology.