The Development of Intercultural Competence in Telecollaborative Exchanges

Abstract

In this study, we present the findings of a three-month online collaborative project between undergraduate students of English as a Foreign Language in a Spanish university and undergraduate students of Spanish as a Foreign Language in a British university. The students worked together in small groups in a wiki space, where they used the foreign language to interact with their partners in order to improve their intercultural competence through the discussion of cultural topics and active dialogue. Data was gathered from a variety of instruments that included the wiki pages developed by the students, their associated discussion pages, and the students’ answers to two questionnaires (pre-project and post-project). The qualitative analysis shows evidences or traces of all the objectives suggested by Byram (2000) for the assessment of the intercultural experience. The participants’ perceptions regarding the exchange suggest that, although they thought that the exchange had not contributed to change the opinions and ideas they already had about the foreign culture, it had helped them to improve their cultural knowledge and skills.