Abstract:

International collaboration and intercultural exchange are increasingly important to higher education institutions and their students. Providing an international learning environment has become vital for institutions as they seek to develop the international and intercultural skills of their students and compete in the global higher education market; on the other hand, students require international experience to enhance their CVs and bolster their life skills (Deardorff & Jones, 2012; Killick, 2018; Knight, 2015; Lumby & Foskett, 2016). While the pandemic has both limited the capacity of institutions to offer such an environment and restricted students’ participation in international exchange programmes, it has also forced the wider use of digital technologies to fill the gap.

In this context, and with the aim of compensating for the lack of physical mobility and interpersonal cross-cultural communication during 2019 and 2020, we implemented a student-student collaborative initiative, following a Teletandem approach (Telles, 2015; Vassallo & Telles, 2006), between students of Portuguese at Nottingham University, UK, and students of English at Aveiro University, Portugal. Following the principles of tandem learning: autonomy, reciprocity, and separate use of both languages (Brammerts, 2003, Telles & Vassallo, 2006), our project aimed to allow students to develop their language proficiency through interaction with native users of their target language and collaboration on a joint project, as well as their intercultural competence through the exchange of cultural information, the negotiation of cultural meaning, and reflection on their own, as well as the other’s, culture. We also hoped that this activity would be engaging and fun for students at a time of low motivation and a deficit of social interaction.

The project lasted from mid-March to mid-May, 2021, and during this period, each group of students was encouraged to engage in a minimum of 8 on-line tandem encounters, during which they selected and explored a cultural topic of mutual interest. As recommended by the Teletandem approach, the time students spent together was shared equally between the use of the two target languages. The initiative involved 49 students and feedback was gathered during and after the conclusion of the activity. The feedback was positive among those who participated, and many students appreciated above all the opportunity to communicate with ‘real’ students, native speakers of their target language, which they had not had before. On the other hand, difficulties in organising and scheduling on-line sessions proved an obstacle for some groups. Although it was not possible to measure students´ skills development, nor was this our intention, it was possible to recognise this as a valuable international initiative with an impact on students’ motivation, contributing, in the case of Nottingham, to students’ retention in foreign language modules, despite the adverse impact of the pandemic on their mobility. It emerged as an inclusive strategy for reinforcing international collaboration, building interpersonal relationships, and complementing or preparing for in-person intercultural interaction.

Keywords:

Foreign language learning, intercultural exchange, teletandem, international collaboration, interpersonal relationships.