Virtual Exchange as a Third Space to Decolonise ELT (VETSDELT) project: report on its first action-research cycle

Abstract

This paper aims to report on the VETSDELT (Virtual Exchange as a Third Space to Decolonise English Language Teaching) project. Its focus was to stimulate a reflection on English, ELT, and the ‘native-speakerism’ ideology through a Virtual Exchange (VE) as a safe Third Space. The paper illustrates how students and tutors engaged in English language teacher education in universities in Brazil, Spain, the UK, and Sri Lanka reflected on ELT in a series of synchronous dialogic sessions on Zoom. The paper reports on the initial findings stemming from cycle one of VETSDELT, which ran between November and December 2022 and involved 44 participants. The initial data analysis showed that VE could facilitate intercultural and international knowledge exchange in a safe Third (online) Space.

Virtual Exchange as a Transformational Third Space for English Language Teacher Education

“…It can provide learning experiences "otherwise" (Guimarães & Finardi, 2023), affording Global South-North encounters underpinned by a decolonial approach (Macedo, 2019). In the field of language education there is evidence (Wimpenny & Orsini-Jones, 2020;Hildeblando Júnior, 2023) that VE exchanges that utilize English as the medium of communication and involve L2 speakers of English, can provide the opportunity to engage with a critique of the "native speaker" model (Holliday, 2006) as the ideal English language teacher and stimulate a discussion on how the ELT curriculum could be decolonized (Rubdy, 2015) and the English traditional ELT "canons" challenged. There is moreover evidence that the VE Third Space can support participants with feeling included and valued (Orsini-Jones et al, 2022).…”