ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of a pilot study that examined a one-to one synchronous intergenerational videoconferencing project that paired foreign language learners of English at a French university with senior citizens in the United States. It focuses on one specific type: videoconferencing. The chapter analyses selected examples from the video recordings to understand the role of the webcam on the developing relationship between the learner-senior pairs. Contrary to Robert D. Strom and Strom's findings that older adults tend to share less than younger adults in familial face-to-face intergenerational relationships, the analysis has demonstrated that the learner-senior pairs shared personal information with each other. The chapter describes the importance of the pre-project personal survey in intergenerational videoconferencing exchanges. The visual affordances of the webcam in videoconferencing exchanges allow participants to establish virtual co-presence: by seeing the interlocutor's physical surroundings, each participant establishes a virtual presence in the other's physical space.
