Dublin Core
Title
Using A Moodle Platform In An Online Exchange To Enhance Intercultural Sensitivity: A Practical Experience In Higher Education
Abstract
As the Council of Europe suggests foreign language teaching needs to comprise not only linguistic performance but also intercultural consciousness and intercultural skills. Despite being grammatically and lexically competent, many university students have limited experience in handling cultural difference due to a lack of exposure to intercultural interaction (Belz, 2006). As O’Dowd (2007) states, online communication tools not only offer more opportunities than before to interact with peers from distant societies but they also provide an authentic and effective way of preparing learners for intercultural enrichment through partnership. The aim of this talk is to present a summary of the experience and the findings of a semester long online exchange between specialist learners of English at the University of Vic (Barcelona, Spain) and at the University of Opole (Poland) during the 2011-2012 academic year. The immediate objective pursed by both institutions was to establish a closer relationship between third year students both physically and virtually so as to foster a better understanding of their counterparts’ culture. The project rested on the principles of reciprocity and learner autonomy, so the communication was asynchronous and fundamentally developed outside the classroom. In order to test the impact of the online communication on the students’ intercultural sensitivity a small scale study was conducted. During the session, the structure, outcomes, challenges and future of the experience will be discussed and some preliminary results of the research project will be presented.
Keywords
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
PeerReviewed
Date
2012-05
Extent
770