ABSTRACT

This book illustrates new virtual intercultural practices for language learning from primary to tertiary education and highlights the transversality of these practices throughout the language curriculum. The current English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) perspective sets the framework as a possible vector of cultural exchanges in a variety of contexts, and from which the different authors coming from Europe and all over the world present their studies.

The book deploys diverse educational exchanges within a wide range of technological tools and with varied approaches to the intercultural dimension in language learning. Through these virtual exchanges, different languages and educational cultures come together to create emerging communities of practice co-constructed for the limited time-space of the collaborative projects. This volume opens a dialogue with researchers from different backgrounds and theoretical and methodological perspectives as technology can no longer be apprehended without its purposeful human and semiotic meanings and, conversely, human and semiotic meanings can no longer be apprehended without Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Going beyond strict polarised views on the technology or humanistic approaches, this book presents a more nuanced, interrelated stance and will appeal to researchers, scholars, post graduate students, and teachers in applied linguistics, language learning and teaching, education, information studies, cultural studies, and intercultural communication.

chapter Chapter 2|23 pages

Going beyond these virtual walls

A retrospective of learning culture through language in intercultural telecollaboration

chapter Chapter 4|25 pages

Self-regulation and intercultural competence

Task analysis in a self-directed telecollaboration

chapter Chapter 5|23 pages

Immersive virtual reality

Exploring possibilities for virtual exchange

chapter Chapter 6|18 pages

Virtual exchanges among primary-education pupils

Insights into a new arena

chapter |20 pages

Conclusion

Looking back, moving forward