Developing intercultural communicative competence by the means of telecollaboration

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an eight-week quasi-experimental study of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners at the tertiary level in Turkey. The purpose of the study was to reveal the extent to which EFL learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) was enhanced as a result of communication with native and non-native speakers of English with the means of a/synchronous communication tools as compared with the instruction given in a real classroom setting. The data were gathered using a variety of distinct means that entailed questionnaires administered before and after the treatment, weekly reflection papers to explore the participants’ thoughts about experience, and semi-structured interviews held after the treatment. All the data were analysed with the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 and Maximum Analysis of Qualitative Data (MAXQDA 10) software. The findings evidenced that telecollaboration had a positive impact on the participants’ intercultural communicative competence. The study explicates the benefit of telecollaboration for developing learners’ ICC over classroom instruction and underpins the necessity of integration of telecollaboration into language learning programs for educators, planners and institutions.