Article In:
Language Teaching for Young Learners: Online-First Articles

Asynchronous virtual exchange and young English learners’ intercultural communicative competence

An exploratory study

| Chemnitz University of TechnologyChemnitzGermany
Virtual Exchange, by definition, connects groups of students in different countries for online intercultural communication (Lewis & O’Dowd, 2016). This exploratory study presents and analyses an asynchronous video exchange between sixth grade students in two countries with the goal of exploring which of Byram’s objectives for intercultural communicative competence (2021) can be addressed with young learners. The asynchronous video exchange project presented in this article was carried out between young English learners in Germany and English L1 speakers in the United States. Transcripts and observation notes from project meetings in Germany and transcripts of two videoconferences held with the two groups at the beginning and end of the exchange were analyzed qualitatively using Byram’s objectives for intercultural communicative competence (2021) as deductive codes in order to reveal which objectives were addressed during the exchange project. Eighteen of Byram’s 30 objectives were addressed to some degree in the current project. Those objectives will be discussed and considerations for future exchanges will be presented in view of these initial results.
Keywords: asynchronous virtual exchange, intercultural communicative competence, young learners, telecollaborative exchange
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Virtual exchange
    • 2.1Forms of virtual exchange
    • 2.2Tasks in virtual exchange projects
  • 3.Intercultural communicative competence
  • 4.VE projects for promoting ICC in young learners
  • 5.Research question
  • 6.Methodology of the study
    • 6.1The asynchronous virtual exchange project
    • 6.2The participating schools
    • 6.3Structure of the VE
  • 7.Research design
  • 8.Initial results
    • 8.1Intercultural communicative competence
      • 8.1.1Attitudes
      • 8.1.2Knowledge
      • 8.1.3Skills of interpreting and relating
      • 8.1.4Skills of discovery and interaction
      • 8.1.5Critical cultural awareness
  • 9.Discussion
  • 10.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
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