Virtual exchange (VE) has gained prominence as a means to improve students' intercultural competence and foreign language abilities through forums and other supplemental activities. This study examines a supplemental activity referred to as the student-generated survey (SGS) implemented in the IVEProject, a large-scale VE with, at the time of this…

Conversation clubs are excellent resources for practicing a new language. They bring together individuals with diverse perspectives and backgrounds to engage in enriching language activities and discussions that promote intercultural consciousness and intercultural skills. While previous studies have emphasized the importance of conversation…

This paper reports on a mixed methods study which explored whether English medium instruction (EMI) fosters the development of intercultural competence (IC) in students (n = 91) in eight courses taught by seven professors in two Colombian universities. Voluntary participants, through surveys, focus groups, and interviews, perceived that students…

The development of new media technology facilitates interaction between people of different cultures. However, people from different cultures show different cross-cultural communication behaviors that may influence their communication efficiency, perceived communication experiences, and perceived social presence. This study aimed to explore…

Significant research has delved into the methodologies and practices teachers use to foster interculturality in the high school and college foreign language curriculum. Yet, little is known about the intercultural teaching practices teachers use in non-elite communities where inequity, lack of access, and inclusion have prevailed, especially…

This exploratory case study analyzes Colombian university students' experiences as English users during international mobility. Data collected through surveys and interviews were examined based on content analysis and principles of grounded theory. The students' self-perceived English proficiency and communicative performance before and during…

An intercultural perspective on language learning and teaching has become prominent over the past three decades. As a result, diverse theoretical frameworks, methods, and approaches have been developed to understand and explore interculturality in foreign and second language classrooms (e.g., Byram, 1997; Byrnes, 2002, 2008; Dervin, 2009, 2011;…

Developing intercultural communicative competence has become an inevitable need within 21st-century demands, mobilizing global efforts to promote unity through diversity. However, within the Colombian context and supported by an economic interest in bilingualism, most English language teaching programs still advocate educational practices that…

Talking about culture in the field of teaching foreign languages is not a new topic, but talking about interculture and interculturality is a subject that is now gaining a lot of interest in the field of ELT. Especially in the last two decades we have witnessed the growth of publications in this regard. We find all kinds of publications, but we…

Telecollaboration in the language classroom promotes both second-language development and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). However, previous research identified its potential limitations, including instances of failure, misunderstanding, tension, and a reluctance to participate. The current study contributes to emerging literature…

This paper reports a descriptive case study developed in an English language teaching program at a public university in Colombia. The purpose of this study was to disclose what knowledge a group of pre-service teachers had about intercultural communicative competence and how they considered their approach to this competence in the English classes…

This article presents critical intercultural dialogue as a necessary curricular, pedagogical, and decolonial practice to engage and value Indigenous students' cultural semiotic resources in higher education. Drawing from social semiotics, critical interculturality, and decolonial theory, the article analyzes Indigenous students' structural…

In the context of an undergraduate program in modern languages that includes the learning of French, Italian, Portuguese, and German in addition to English, this paper problematizes anglonormativity; that is, the dominant discourses of English as the taken-for-granted language of development. From the particular context of Colombia, where the…

Assessment of students' work in Virtual Exchange (VE) frequently focuses on their participation in the activities and may also include an evaluation of students' learning. In this chapter, we discuss a two-sided approach to assessing students' work in an intercultural VE project. On the one hand, we evaluated students' engagement in the exchange…

The term 'mediation' has become central to intercultural language education, a fact that is evident from the attention given to mediation activities and strategies in the revised descriptors of the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" (North et al. 2017). However, what is meant by 'mediation' is not always clear to…