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The Effects of a Virtual Exchange on Students' Interest in Learning About Culture
Author(s) -
Schenker Theresa
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/flan.12041
Subject(s) - german , class (philosophy) , foreign language , cultural exchange , psychology , target culture , language acquisition , mathematics education , english as a foreign language , pedagogy , sociology , linguistics , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , anthropology
A 12‐week electronic exchange was conducted between a third‐year German college class in the United States and an advanced English high school class in Germany. The exchange consisted of e‐mails between tandem partners, blogs, videoconferences between both classes, and class essays. The study examined the effects of participation in the semester‐long cross‐cultural, cross‐lingual exchange on students' interest in learning about the target culture. The results showed that students' interest in learning about culture was high before and after the exchange. Likewise, students believed that learning about culture is an important part of foreign language learning. The virtual exchange outlined here is an example of a standards‐based approach to integrating language and culture instruction.