Telecollaboration and intercultural communicative competence in SFL teaching-learning: a Project in Higher Education

Abstract

This article evaluates the results of a telecollaborative project in higher education by analysing the perceptions about intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of participants, learners of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) and trainee teachers from two different universities. A virtual exchange was carried out through video communication using five collaborative tasks during the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021. An action research methodology was followed in this descriptive and inferential correlational study. Evidence was collected through questionnaires to find out and assess whether participants perceived improvements in their ICC after the intervention. Correlation statistics appropriate to the level of measurement of the variables were carried out to determine the degree of relationship and the level of significance between participants’ opinions before and after the telecollaborative experience. The results suggest that after the telecollaboration SFL learners showed favorable opinions about their intercultural competence when interacting with native speakers of the target language and that trainee teachers perceived improvements in their cultural knowledge, intercultural skills and attitudes.