Making Connections: A Practical Guide to Online Intercultural Exchanges

Online collaboration can be a powerful means of encouraging language learners to make connections between their local community and people from other cultural backgrounds. In doing so, learners develop their language skills while exploring different attitudes, values and beliefs. The authors of this book draw on 20 years of participation in numerous online intercultural exchanges to offer teachers a down-to-earth guide to finding partners, choosing a platform and designing online exchanges. They share their experience of working with learners to ensure that deep intercultural learning occurs alongside language development. This book offers strategies for mediating conflict with partners and participants, and guidance on the assessment of linguistic and intercultural competences. It is a practical resource for language teachers, informed by the latest research on language teaching and intercultural telecollaborations and situated in the reality of classrooms around the world.

John Corbett is Professor of English and Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning at BNU-HKBU United International College, China. He is the author of An Intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching (2^nd edition Multilingual Matters, 2022).  

Hugo Dart is an English Language Teacher and Teacher Trainer at Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Bruno Lima is an English Language Teacher and International Mobility Officer at the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.