Examining International Telecollaboration in Language Teacher Education

Abstract

This chapter presents findings of case study action research examining the impact of technology-mediated collaboration between teacher-learners in two graduate-level Applied Linguistics Master's programs in Canada and Israel. To date, little research has been conducted on international telecollaborative exchanges in language teacher education programs. This chapter will discuss teacher-learners' perceived benefits and challenges of this international telecollaborative exchange, its impact on beliefs towards the use of technology-mediated tools, and the relevance of these types of collaborations in language teacher education. The authors will highlight individual teacher-learner voices in this study that illustrate how teacher assumptions about authority, experience, and teacher identity evolve on individual pathways and are situated in complex, historically embedded paradigms of teaching and learning experience. The chapter will conclude with insights gained regarding strategies for implementing effective international telecollaborative exchanges in language teacher education programs.

Teaching languages in multicultural surroundings: New tendencies

“…Trainees take courses in such areas as curriculum planning, reflective teaching, types of assessment, classroom management, and others. An increasingly popular format is international collaborative projects in which teacher trainees in different countries work on joint projects and present them to their fellow-students and professors at teleconferences (Lawrence and Spector-Cohen 2018). Such collaboration has important social implications as it contributes to the establishment and solidification of transnational ties.…”

On the Importance of Telecollaboration for the Development of Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence

“…Researchers acknowledge the possibility to develop ICC virtually with nearly the same array of competence components, as mentioned by Deardorff, though through carefully pre-planned activities. Nevertheless, telecollaboration has received some critical remarks regarding either exaggerated or oversimplified intercultural learning outcomes (O'Dowd, 2013), obliviousness to the medium of the internet as a possible source of frustrations (Kramsch & Thorne, 2002), naïve expectations about students' competences to develop in a natural way (Lawrence & Spector-Cohen, 2018) or organisational ignorance to consider a VE as an integrated part of study programmes and syllabi at university level (O'Dowd, 2014). Despite some possible negative aspects, a thoughtful design, careful preparation, active facilitation, teacher and student regular communication, and constant reflection on the process dynamics can lead to a desirable goal in a Virtual Exchange.…”

Teaching English in multilingual Israel: Who teaches whom and how. A review of recent research 2014–2020

“…In an effort to bring English teaching closer to real-life situations, instructors in Israel find partners abroad to conduct collaborative virtual projects. Several such projects were run as part of teachertraining programs bringing together pre-service teachers with their peers in Canada, Germany, and the USA (see Waldman & Harel, 2015;Waldman, Harel, & Schwab, 2016;Lawrence & Spector-Cohen, 2018;O'Dowd, Sauro, & Spector-Cohen, 2020). Such international telecollaborative exchanges offer language teachers the opportunity to experientially work with ICT tools within an international community of practice to explore the benefits and hurdles of technology-mediated, intercultural language teaching and learning and their potential impacts on curriculum development and teaching practice (Lawrence & Spector-Cohen, 2018, p. 2).…”