Mediating factors in telecollaborative exchanges among secondary-school global partners

Abstract

This study explores aspects of the teaching context, task design, and implementation that mediated learning in a telecollaboration exchange. Participants were 24 secondary school learners of English as a foreign language in Mar del Plata, Argentina, involved in an eight-week-long telecollaboration project with middle-school learners of Spanish as a foreign language in Pittsburgh, United States. The project consisted of eleven tasks assigned in four structured stages: preparatory, getting-to-know-each-other, peer-feedback collaboration, and reflection on learning. Data from participants' weekly reflections, text messages via learning apps, activity trackers, and two anonymous questionnaires indicated that, despite its challenges, the telecollaboration project was perceived as a valuable language and intercultural learning experience. An inductive content analysis of students' reflections revealed the dynamic evolution of eight themes indicating students' perceptions of learning opportunities and challenges throughout the project. The results suggested four factors related to the instructional design that positively mediated students’ perceptions of learning and their intercultural learning experience. They also provided valuable insights regarding the expectations, needs, and wants of adolescents during intercultural telecollaboration projects and what teachers can do to enhance their learning through task design.