Asynchronous Intercultural Video Exchange Project for Young EFL Learners: An Exploratory Study

by Sarah Reader (Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany)

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This exploratory study is the first stage of a research project on asynchronous virtual exchange which will continue until June 2023 for my dissertation. The exchange project is an asynchronous video exchange involving two groups of 12-year-old sixth grade students: EFL learners in Germany and a partner class of English L1 speakers in the United States. Learners are exchanging videos on Flipgrid (Microsoft, 2022). The aim of the exchange for the learners is to use the English language to encounter pupils in another country, learn about their everyday lives and surroundings, and reflect on similarities and differences in their lives.  Foreign language classes for young learners can provide one setting for initiating the process of developing intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Learning goals associated with intercultural encounters, intercultural awareness and ICC appear in the primary and secondary foreign language curricula of all 16 of the German federal states. Virtual exchange has the potential to motivate learners to use a foreign language to communicate their own meanings, and provide opportunities to develop ICC. Furthermore, the task of video production with the aim of communicating information about one's own life and surroundings has the potential to motivate learners, since they choose what to communicate, as opposed to demonstrating their "ability to produce pre-specified language forms" (Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-von Ditfurth, 2011, p. 22).  Research goals for this phase of the exchange project include investigating learners' intercultural attitudes and motivations for participating in the exchange, analyzing the exchange's effects on language production qualitatively and quantitively, and describing learners' video production strategies with the goal of improving task support for learners during the next phase of the exchange.  A mixed methods approach is being used for analysis. Learners are being surveyed on attitudes and motivation, language output will be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively and teachers and learners will be interviewed. It has been observed during this phase of the exchange that motivation to produce videos is high, and the first survey results indicate that learners' motivations for participating in the exchange include both language goals and curiosity about people and life in other countries.

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References:

Microsoft. (2022). Flipgrid. info.flipgrid.com 

Müller-Hartmann, A. & Schocker-von Ditfurth, M. (2011). Task-Supported Language Learning. Ferdinand Schöningh.