What is it about?
This paper discusses how engaging with Virtual Exchange - VE/Collaborative Online International Learning - COIL (a way to engage interculturally with students located in different countries) can challenge students engaged in English language education, as it takes them out of their comfort zone and academic staff utilising this approach can encounter lack of motivation for the exchange. It can also present inclusion challenges, particularly in Global South-Global North exchanges like this one involving Mexico, the UK (where most students were from China) and Spain. While the students’ evaluation of their VEELT (Virtual Exchange for English Language Teaching) experience was positive on the whole, a number of engagement and inclusion challenges were identified and are discussed in this paper.
Featured Image
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Why is it important?
It is important to explore the reasons why students sometimes do not engage with virtual exchange as there is a considerable amount of literature illustrating the positive effect that this approach can have for the purpose of developing global citizenship skills as well as other transferable skills for the world of work (such as communication, digital, resilience). The paper also discuss possible intercultural reasons that might have caused lack of motivation for some of the students concerned.
Perspectives
This paper makes an original contribution to the field of virtual exchange/collaborative online international learning as it focuses on the behavioural, cognitive, and affective engagement dimensions in an exchange utilising English as an International Language. VEELT involved 53 undergraduate and postgraduate students on English education courses in the UK, Mexico and Spain whose mother tongue was not English and who interacted both synchronously and asynchronously on topics relating to their ELT syllabus in their respective higher education (HE) institutions. The three distinctive features of this paper are: its focus on the three above mentioned engagement dimensions; the discussion relating to English as an International Language (EIL) in VEs and the involvement of students who were trained as e-mediators in Zoom Breakout Rooms in facilitating the VE task completion.
Marina Orsini-Jones
Coventry University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Virtual Exchange for English Language Teaching (VEELT), AILA Review, December 2025, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/aila.24042.che.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
