This plenary talk was given at the National Forum for English Studies 2019 at the Faculty of Education and Society, Mälmö University, Sweden 10-12 April 2019.

1. EstablishingtheImpactofVirtualExchange
inForeignLanguageEducation
Robert O'Dowd
University of León, Spain
@robodowd
robert.odowd@unileon.es
English inTransformation: SWESSE
2019
10 April 2019

2. “I

3. Erasmus+ in the Nordic countries

4. In Europe the average is 5%...

5. Sarah Richardson:
“…the espoused benefits from [physical]
mobility do not derive from the act of
crossing borders but instead from two other
factors.
First, the encounters that students have.
And second, the influence of their
psychological make-up on how they respond
to these encounters”
(Cosmopolitan Learning for a Global Era, 2016,
p.54).
Simply getting students to study abroad is not necessarily the
solution to our problems anyway…

6. And what about the large majority of our students that
will never engage in physical mobility programmes?
European Commission Report (2013) “European Higher
Education in the world”:
“…internationalisation should ensure that the large
majority of learners who are not mobile… are nonetheless
able to acquire the international skills required in a
globalised world (2013:6)”
“Internationalisation at Home” (Beelen & Jones, 2015)
+
“Internationalisation of the curriculum” (Leask, 2015)

7. One under-explored element of internationalisation at home is
Telecollaboration orVirtual Exchange…
The engagement of groups of students in online intercultural interaction and
collaboration…
…with students from other cultural contexts or geographical locations….
…as an integrated part of course work….
…and under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators.

8. What does class-to-classVirtual Exchange look like in
foreign language learning contexts?

9. How many of you have already engaged your students in
Virtual Exchange projects with other classes?

10. The activity has gone under many names…

11. O’Dowd, R. (2018). From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: state-of-the-
art and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Journal ofVirtual
Exchange, 1, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1
Moving towards a common terminology….

12. Lamy and Goodfellow:
My plan:
• Look at the learning outcomes of the main approaches toVirtual
Exchange in foreign language education
• Identify some of the weaknesses and criticisms ofVirtual Exchange
• Make some suggestions as to howVirtual Exchange can develop in
the future

13. What do reviews ofVirtual Exchange research and practice
tell us?
• Lewis,T. & O'Dowd, R. (2016). “Online Intercultural Exchange and
Foreign Language Learning: a Systematic Review.” In: Online
Intercultural Exchange: Policy, Pedagogy, Practice, pp. 21–66.
• O’Dowd, R. (2016) EmergingTrends and New Directions in
Telecollaborative Learning. Calico Journal, 13 (3), 291-310.
• The large majority ofVirtual Exchanges in Foreign Language education
are bilingual exchanges (e.g. American learners of Spanish + Spanish
learners of English)
• MostVE research studies are based learning outcomes of one cohort
of students over one semester
• Challenge: Look for learning outcomes emerging repeatedly from
different cohorts who are carrying out the same model ofVirtual
Exchange

15. An example of an American-Spanish e-tandem email
Hey Pablo!
It was great to receive your letter. I was so happy to see that you responded to my questions.
Thank you.Your responses were very informative and definitely showed me that family life in
Spain was not all I'd expected it to be. (I was surprised, for example, that your family is not
religious. I assumed that most families in Spain are, and I'm sure you have many assumptions
about life in America as well).
Your English is very good.There are only a few suggestions that I have to correct it. Some of
your sentences are too long, and would make more sense if you separated them into two or
three sentences instead. For example, "My parents are not divorced in Spain there are very
few cases of divorced" could be rewritten as "My parents are not divorced. In Spain there are
very few cases of divorce."Your letter was great and made sense despite these things. Good
work.
Las fiestas en mi ciudad son muy locas y emocionantes. Voy a las discotecas con mis amigas
los jueves, los viernes, o los sabados. Vamos a los bars tambien. Nosotros volvemos a nos
salons de dormitorio a las cuatro de la manana. Queremos bailar a las discotecas. Necesita
tener veintiuno anos por beber el alcohol pero la mayoria de estudiantes en las universidades
tenen los "fake IDs" y ellos beben el alcohol. …
No sabo mucho de Espana. Sabo que hay un museo de Guggenheim en Bilbao y sabo que hay
muchos castillos bonitos. Que sabes de los Estados Unidos? Como es la fiesta en Espana?

16. Examples of virtual interactions: Blogs, videos, videconferencing,
multimodal presentations…

17. https://www.conversifi.com/
https://talkabroad.com/
https://www.linguameeting.com/

18. Main learning outcomes across bicultural exchanges
1) Contextualised vocabulary and grammar learning
2) Increased confidence in using the L2 with peers
3) Nuanced ‘insider’ perspective on cultural behaviour

19. What do you notice about
these students’ reactions
when asked about cultural
difference?

20. Critique no. 1: DoesVirtual Exchange allow learners to avoid
difference and engage in “the illusion of commonality”?
Kramsch andWare (2005, p200)

21. Kramsch (2014): “…whereas communicative language teaching
used to mean personal engagement with interlocutors from
different cultures in negotiation of difference, through global
information technologies…it has become a means of making
contact and staying in touch by surfing diversity not engaging
with difference” (p.302).
Hanna and de Nooy (2009):
What are the underlying tenets of telecollaborative practice?

22. • A German student writes this opening message to her new partner in Ireland:
• Hello, how are you? I study English and history and I want to become a teacher. This term
we do some cultural studies concerning Ireland and I very interested in it because I actually
do not know much about it.
• Now I would like to ask you some questions.
Do you live in Northern or in Southern Ireland? How many people live in your town? Are you
a Catholic or a Protestant? I have heard that regular churchgoing declines more and more in
your country-is it true?
• What are you doing in your free time? Do you often go to pubs? What do you think about
Germans? Irish people have the reputation of being very indirect and polite in their speaking
style. I have read that there was an enormous economic change in Ireland.
• How have you or your parents experienced the social and economic change in the past 20
years?
• That's all for now. I am looking forward to hearing from you!
What do you think of this first message from a student?
Student-StudentVirtual Exchanges can have other problems too…

23. …and what do you make of this conclusion from a student in
Germany to her international partner in Israel?
• …. I can understand that the rockets [that were fired at your campus]
are very scary and I'm very glad that we in Germany don´t have war
like you. And I think Israel isn't alone in charge for this conflict. But can
you understand the people in Gaza? Is it ok to keep these people there
like in prison?And why it isn't possible or why it´s so complicated to
find a solution for all the people in your region? And why the people
especially the young don't do something for the international
understanding between these cultures? So it´s time so sit together,
talk and finish this war.And both parties must grant facilities.

24. Critique no. 2: Bringing students into contact with
international partners inVirtual Exchange is not enough

25. Liddicoat and Scarino (2013):

26. How can teachers mentor their students’ participation in Virtual
Exchange?
(O’Dowd, Sauro & Spector-Cohen, in print)

27. Critique no. 3: But are bilingual-bicultural models ofVirtual
Exchange preparing students for their future online practices?

28. What are the limitations of bilingual-bicultural models of
Virtual Exchange?
• How useful are they for teachers of English in countries such as
Sweden where the native language is not widely taught in
international contexts?
• They often limit students to the roles of ‘observers’ and
‘collectors of information’- they observe, compare and analyse
but “…there is no suggestion that criticality should lead to
action in the learners’ world or communities” (Byram,
Golubeva, Hui &Wagner, 2017).

30. propose/imagine possible alternatives and changes;
• (Political)
take action to instigate change in their
own society

31. Porto (2014): “It [intercultural citizenship] integrates the pillar of intercultural
communicative competence from foreign language education with the emphasis
on civic action in the community from citizenship Education” (p.5).

32. Example of aTransnational Approach toVirtual Exchange
:
EVALUATE: Student-teachers working in international teams to create lessons and
projects together online
2017-2018: 25Virtual Exchanges involving transnational teams of 1000+ student
teachers using common task sequences and modes of communication
www.evaluateproject.eu

35. Learning outcomes from aTransnationalVirtual Exchange
with Swedish-Spanish-Israeli classes of student-teachers
Example task:

36. • The teacher in Sweden reports:
• “One evening, a member of one of the other
classes closed out an interaction with one of
my students on whatsapp with a kiss emoji.
Suddenly my student was stressed because
she was faced with a difficult dilemma. Did
she have to kiss her back? My student says
she only sends kisses to close friends, but
this was a group member and this whatsapp
chat was more professional. However, if she
didn't send a kiss back, what other emoji
could she send?”
Linguistic issues influencing communication outcomes:
A student from Sweden reflects after the exchange:
“...the Spanish students gave a different suggestion [in the forum] and posted it under
the name "the Spanish group"....However, I think that using that name is problematic
from a couple of different reasons. 1. It sort of hints that they are a group inside of our
entire group. 2. It's not really a discussion, they always agree with each other and they
are 4 persons which is a majority.”

38. “I have not learned new language but I have learned to express my ideas more
accurately so there is not any miscommunication. I have also learned to be careful
with the way I present my viewpoints and communicate with people from other
cultures, because there can be cases when what I say may be misunderstood. So it is
necessary to select appropriate language.“
“The main problem in our team was communication.There were some
misunderstandings that lead us to not trust one another. We solved it by reading
again carefully all the messages and asking and answering politely.At the end, we
manage to finish our task properly and even enjoy it.”
“Language” Learning outcomes from the Spain-Sweden-Israel exchanges:

39. To conclude…some take aways…

40. Join us in (beautiful) León, Spain
For a (free) conference on
Virtual Exchange andTeacher Education
4-6 September 2019
https://sites.google.com/unileon.es/evaluate2019

41. Thank you for listening!
• Contact:
• robert.odowd@unileon.es
–Publications: http://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd
–References and this presentation are available on
https://www.slideshare.net/dfmro/
- EVALUATE Project Homepage: http://www.evaluateproject.eu/