Virtual exchange

rdf:langString Virtual exchange

rdf:langString Virtual exchange (also referred to as telecollaboration or online intercultural exchange among other names) is an instructional approach or practice for language learning. It broadly refers to the "notion of 'connecting' language learners in pedagogically structured interaction and collaboration" through computer-mediated communication for the purpose of improving their language skills, intercultural communicative competence, and digital literacies. Although it proliferated with the advance of the internet and web 2.0 technologies in the 1990s, its roots can be traced to learning networks pioneered by Célestin Freinet in 1920s and, according to Dooly, even earlier in Jardine's work with collaborative writing at the University of Glasglow at the end of the 17th to the early 18th century. Virtual exchange is recognized as a field of computer-assisted language learning as it relates to the use of technology in language learning. Outside the field of language education, this type of pedagogic practice is being used to internationalize the curriculum and offer students the possibility to engage with peers in other parts of the world in collaborative online projects. Virtual exchange is based on sociocultural views of learning inspired by Vygotskian theories of learning as a social activity.