Knowledge and Skill Development Through Intercultural Virtual Exchange: Gains and Issues in Chinese as a Foreign Language

Knowledge and Skill Development Through Intercultural Virtual Exchange: Gains and Issues in Chinese as a Foreign Language

Zhizhuo Guo, Peisong Wang, Zhiyan Guo
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 19
DOI: 10.4018/IJCALLT.314946
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Abstract

Virtual exchange (VE) has been increasingly applied to foreign language education in the last two decades. The pandemic has compelled scholars and practitioners to adopt various forms of VE alongside language teaching and learning. The current study is based on one VE project between university students in Britain and China over a duration of eight weeks in the academic year of 2021-22. It draws on literature in VE relating mostly to English and other European languages, and mainly on the theoretical framework of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Both quantitative and qualitative data are analysed to investigate how VE impacts the development in knowledge and skills including ICC and how issues can be addressed in the context of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. As we ease out of the challenges caused by the pandemic and other global relations, VE should not just be the contingency replacement of a physical exchange into China, but also become a necessary preparation for a new norm of blended mobility.
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Literature Review

Most of extant telecollaborative projects focused on how VE affects language development and intercultural learning in the Western world (e.g., Belz, 2003; Chun 2011; Davis, Cho, & Hagenson, 2005; Kern, 2006; Schenker, 2012). When the partnerships involve countries from Asia, such as Mainland China and Taiwan, the majority of them take more heed of EFL (English as a foreign language) students (e.g., Angelova & Zhao 2016; Chen & Yang, 2016; Liaw & Master, 2010). As one of the most examined areas, development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been cited mostly in line with the model in Byram (1997, 2020). It uses the dimensions of knowledge, skill, attitude, and critical awareness as the assessment criteria, and the first three are of greater relevance to this current study.

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