Pedagogical benefits of Chinese-American virtual exchange: A study of student perceptions

Abstract Despite the rapid development of virtual exchange in foreign language education, its use in the field of Chinese language education is still rather nascent. Adopting a mixed-methods research approach, this study focuses on examining the pedagogical benefits of a Chinese-American virtual exchange as mediated by students’ self-reported data. Two Chinese language classes (i.e. one at the elementary level and one at the intermediate level) at a small liberal arts college in the United States and a group of Chinese-speaking English majors at a Chinese university in Shanghai participated in the exchange. Analyses of four sources of qualitative data (i.e. WeChat group cultural discussion transcripts, Skype conversations, reflection journals, and end-of-program interviews) gave rise to four benefits of the exchange: promotion of cultural learning, improvement of Chinese language skills, enhancement of learning motivation, and establishment of a language learning community. Quantitative analyses of the end-of-semester questionnaire items show that the benefit regarding cultural learning, on average, received the highest rating, followed by community building and motivation enhancement, with improvement of Chinese skills being rated the lowest. Moreover, intermediate-level students evaluated all four benefits with higher ratings than elementary-level students. In particular, the two groups’ quantitative evaluations in terms of Chinese skills and motivation differed significantly. However, both groups enthusiastically endorsed the benefits of cultural learning and community building. The pedagogical implications of these results are also discussed.