Telecollaboration, where learners of different languages interact online with one another for intercultural exchange and foreign language learning (Helm & Guth, 2016) can be integrated into English classes offered online. This presentation focuses on how Japanese EFL students perceive telecollaboration with students learning Japanese in a university in the U.S., whether there are differences in students’ perception toward telecollaboration in two different English levels’ classes, and whether it helps them cultivate their pragmatic competence, primarily pragmatic competence in initiating and maintaining a conversation, which Japanese EFL students often find difficult. Telecollaboration may help students acquire pragmatic competence in constructing small talk (Barron & Black, 2014) and improve pragmatic comprehension and competence in initiating and maintaining a conversation (Rafieyan, Sharafi-Nejad, Khavari, Eng, & Mohamed, 2014). To seek the possibility, a telecollaboration project of four language exchanges with first-year university students learning English in Japan and students learning Japanese in the U.S. was integrated into two English classes, one for higher intermediate students and the other for lower intermediate students. In this presentation, I will provide the results of content analysis of the students’ journals written after each session of telecollaboration in terms of pragmatic competence and the questionnaire survey collected after the telecollaboration project. The comparative results of the questionnaire survey are provided to explore if there are differences in the students’ perception of telecollaboration in the two classes. The pedagogical implications of integrating telecollaboration into English classes will be discussed based on the results.

Authors:
Yukie Saito, Chuo University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Yukie Saito is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at Chuo University in Japan

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