ABSTRACT
The ability to integrate new technologies in the foreign language classroom has become an essential part of learning in the 21st century. One of the basic activities that facilitates this process is undoubtedly telecollaboration. This refers to the application of online communication tools to bring together classes of language learners in geographically distant locations with the aim of developing their foreign language skills and intercultural competence through collaborative tasks and project work. In these projects, “internationally-dispersed learners in parallel language classes use Internet communication tools such as email or synchronous chat in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate, and intercultural exchange with expert speakers of the respective language under study” (Belz, 2004). Research in telecollaboration has shown its potential to stimulate participants’ intercultural competence (Liaw, 2006; Vogt, 2006; Vinagre, 2010), and authors such as Schulz Lalande, Dykstra, Zimmer and James (2005) have suggested that it is through intercultural competence that individuals manage to function effectively and successfully within their culture and within other cultures. However, despite its relevance, the European Comission’s Report on Education and Training (2010) has intercultural awareness as one of the less assessed key competences for life-long learning.
