Using telecollaboration to develop English learners’ intercultural competence in the Chinese context

Abstract

One of the most recent concerns of foreign language education is intercultural competence, which has been recognized as one of its major objectives due to the increasingly globalized context. Intercultural competence was even incorporated in the National Standards of Teaching Quality for Undergraduate English Majors issued by the Ministry of Education of China in 2015. Telecollaboration is argued to be an effective tool to develop students’ intercultural competence, especially in the post-epidemic era, in which face-to-face intercultural communication seems increasingly difficult to realize. Based on Chinese scholars’ assessment framework, the research aims to explore effective ways to improve English learners’ intercultural competence by carrying out an empirical study of intercultural engagement among 30 junior English major students at Hebei Finance University in China. They were paired up with 27 students who majored in graphic design at Ibrahim Sultan Polytechnic in Malaysia and communicated through WeChat on given culture topics for six weeks. Quantitative data was collected through pre-and post-project self-evaluative questionnaires, and analyzed by SPSS paired samples T-test analysis. Qualitative data was collected through reflective journals and post-project interviews and analyzed by content analysis. The results show the telecollaboration project between Chinese and Malaysian students benefited the development of Chinese English majors’ intercultural competence.