Telecollaboration USA-Chile: A comprehensive review of a 6 years project toward globalization of foreign language classes

Connecting schools around the globe via collaborative projects is a crucial function of virtual language learning since it pushes students and teachers to move beyond the physical boundaries of the classrooms and their comfort zones. The Telecollaboration between Edward Waters University (EWU) and Universidad de Los Lagos began as a pilot project in late 2017 and has since expanded to include intercultural dialogues, reflections, small group conversations, synchronous sessions, videos, and student portfolios collected on a Telecollaboration website. Each semester for the last four years, the two sister institutions have sponsored video conferences in which students questioned their classmates verbally or in writing in Spanish and English on specified themes to improve their L2 communicative competence, nurture intercultural skills and understanding, and develop other essential employability skills. The purpose of this presentation is briefly outline the evolution of a series of immersion-style language virtual initiative conducted in the target languages (Spanish and English) by university-level students at Edward Waters University in the United States and Universidad de Los Lagos in Chile from the 2017 pilot study to the current stage, compare and discuss trends and topics that have emerged during the years to identify common patterns, challenges, and successes through participants' responses, and offer tools and ideas to educators interested in creating a similar program.

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