Fourteenth International Conference on e-Learning & Innovative Pedagogies

Abstract

The concept of interculturality focuses on how the products and practices are related to the perspectives of culture. Fostering the development of interculturality in language learning has become increasingly challenging in times of COVID-19. However, how effective students are in building their intercultural competence depends not solely on the length of an experience abroad but on the quality of the structured and guided learning opportunities even during the pandemic. With these insights in mind, the presenter suggests an inventory of intercultural reflection tasks. These tasks facilitate high-quality remote learning experiences of interculturality whether students can study abroad or not. This session demonstrates intercultural reflection tasks that foster interculturality in remote learning environments. Those tasks were designed thematically by integrating the Interculturality Can-Do Statements, the Communication Standards, and the Cultures Standards. In the session, the ten most suggested intercultural reflection themes, collected from the study-abroad student focus group discussion on their pre-and post-study abroad experiences and goals, are presented. The intercultural reflection task modules contain a total of twenty tasks under these ten themes. Each task module has a pinpointed title under the specific topic of the related reflection theme. Students can monitor their intercultural learning experiences and reach their goals by using reflection tasks and self-assessment tools presented in this session. Further, language instructors can refer to these tasks and integrate them into their everyday lessons to help students raise their awareness of cultural products, practices, and perspectives on their own and other cultures.