Abstract

In this contribution I will argue that Virtual Exchange (VE) provides the ideal setting for promoting critical agency and a sustainable approach to developing language, intercultural and digital skills (Hauck, 2019; Helm, 2014). VE is a practice, informed and supported by research, that consists of sustained, technology-enabled, people-to-people education programmes or activities in which constructive communication and interaction takes place between individuals or groups who are geographically separated and/or from different cultural backgrounds, with the support of educators or facilitators. VE combines the deep impact of intercultural dialogue and exchange with the broad reach of digital technology (EVOLVE, 2019). The challenge lies in addressing not only issues of language and culture in such a way as to avoid linguistic and cultural hegemonies, but also in addressing issues of digital literacy so as to overcome digital inequality and marginalisation (Satar & Hauck, in press). This can be achieved, I propose, through VE tasks designed to develop a critical lens through which language learners examine linguistic and non-linguistic features of digital media, their biases, and assumptions, in order to verify information and access the truth (Darvin, 2017). To illustrate the suggested approach I will be drawing on examples from exchanges carried out in the context of the EU ERASMUS Plus-funded Evidence Validated Online Learning through Virtual Exchange (EVOLVE) project: https://evolve-erasmus.eu.

Presenters

Mirjam Hauck
Associate Head of School for Internationalisation and EDI, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, The Open University, United Kingdom

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Designing Social Transformations

KEYWORDS

VIRTUAL EXCHANGE, INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE, LINGUISTIC and CULTURAL HEGEMONIES, DIGITAL INEQUALITY

Digital Media

This presenter hasn’t added media.
Request media and follow this presentation.