Virtual exchange and the integration of global and ecological citizenship in foreign language education

Resumen

This thesis was written and is framed in a context of educational change and global challenge marked by historic events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and the environmental crisis among others. As asserted in the 2022 UN’s annual ‘Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Report’: “Today, we stand on the precipice of a critical moment. Either we fail to deliver on our commitments to support the world’s most vulnerable or together we turbo-charge our efforts to rescue the SDGs and deliver meaningful progress for people and the planet by 2030” (UN, 2022, p. 4). For this reason, the pedagogical activities proposed here take on special relevance due to their suitability for the development of intercultural (Byram, 2008), global (OECD, 2018), and ecological (Dobson, 2000, 2003, 2007) citizenship competences that favour sustainable and peaceful coexistence. As stated by the OECD (2018): “Developing a global and intercultural outlook is a process -a lifelong process- that education can shape” (p.5). It is following this idea of using education as a shaping power for preparing students to seize the opportunities and face the challenges that the present context poses that this doctoral thesis is born. The spread of access to technology and the internet has made it possible to implement innovative educational approaches such as Virtual Exchange (VE) for such an endeavour . VE is an umbrella term used to refer to the engagement of groups of learners in online language and intercultural interaction and collaboration with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations as an integrated part of course work, and under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators (O’Dowd, 2018). Given that the number of students who spend a period of their university studies abroad is very low, such educational experience is key to the democratisation of access to intercultural learning as it offers students the possibility to interact and learn in an intercultural environment through the mediation of technology, without the need to travel abroad (De Wit, 2016). Consequently, in recent decades, the implementation and recognition of VE has grown progressively and exponentially. Numerous studies and research projects have been carried out by educators that have explored and acknowledged the value of involving students in VE. These have been implemented from multiple approaches with well-documented success in developing numerous skill sets such as Foreign Language (FL) proficiency, Intercultural Competence (IC), cultural awareness or global citizenship which are key to live and thrive in the present context (Furstenberg et al., 2001; O'Dowd, 2003; Belz, 2004; Brammerts, 2006; Müller-Hartmann, 2007; Guth and Helm, 2010; Chun, 2015; Lindner, 2016; O’Dowd, 2019). However, the potential of VE for the development of ecological citizenship, has not yet been exploited as it could, despite the urgency of training students to meet the eminent challenges posed by the environmental crisis. In response to this gap, this research has explored the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values students develop as a result of being exposed to an authentic experience of intercultural interaction and collaboration that enables them to better understand the local and global dimensions of environmental challenges as well as the possibilities for sustainable development. At the same time, this study aims to introduce this theme into the debate on VE with a view to promoting a global and ecological culture in university FL education. The aims of this research were: (1) to determine how the objectives of global and ecological citizenship can be integrated into the field of FL education through VE (proposal of a VE model), (2) to identify the observed learning outcomes, (3) to compare and contrast the possibilities of bilingual and lingua franca approaches, and (4) to explore how teachers can support students in their learning all within the framework of the VE model developed. To this end, an Action Research (AR) methodology was adopted. This methodology consisted of the design and implementation of two iterative cycles in which the VE model was tested and refined following the phases of planning, action taking, evaluation and refinement or reconceptualisation. Each VE intervention was designed on the basis of a literature review and the systematic collection of qualitative self-reporting and interactional data. Learning was measured through triangulation of these various sources of qualitative information over a two-year period in which two iterative cycles were implemented with 3 cohorts of students. In the first iteration, a telecollaborative bilingual-bicultural approach was adopted (see Dooly, 2017 and O’Dowd, 2016 for overviews) in which two groups of learners from Spain and Ireland studying each other's languaculture (Agar, 1994) communicated and collaborated using both languages. During the second iteration, a lingua franca approach was adopted (Kohn & Hoffstaedter, 2017) and students from Spain participated in a VE with a German partner class using English for communication and collaboration around issues of global relevance that go beyond explicit bicultural comparison (O'Dowd, 2019). The adoption of both approaches offers the opportunity to compare and contrast the possibilities of each telecollaborative learning configuration in order to reach reliable conclusions about their effectiveness for the implementation of the VE model developed. It also contributes to the need for further replication studies that aim to confirm the learning outcomes of specific VE approaches due to the heterogeneous nature of this pedagogical approach (O’Dowd, 2021b). Examples of such studies can be found in European Erasmus+ projects such as EVALUATE (EVALUATE group, 2019) or EVOLVE (EVOLVE Project Team, 2020) which examine the impact of the class-to-class VE model on large cohorts of students or the recent study by O'Dowd (2021b) in which the differences between these two approaches are analysed. The multiple iterations combined with the systematic collection and triangulation of varied data sources, allowed for the identification of the answers to the research questions and contributed in turn to the conceptualisation and evolution of the VE model designed in this study. Key reference works such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001, 2018b, 2020) for the development of language skills in English, the Global Competences Framework (OECD, 2018) and Dobson's (2000, 2003, 2007) notions of the virtues of the ecological citizen were used for the interpretation and analysis of the data collected. The main outcome of this study is an evidence-based understanding of the possibilities of VEs to develop FL, global and ecological competences through both bilingual and lingua franca approaches. The VEs implemented and the final model developed were efforts to create opportunities to guide learners in building their intercultural, global and ecological profile to successfully cope with the present context made possible by the opportunities that technological mediation offers educators today. Furthermore, the study also identifies key aspects to be considered by teachers when designing and implementing VEs for the development of these competences. In addition, the study provides a VE model comprising specific tasks and materials ready to be used and/or adapted by other FL teachers who wish to introduce the global and ecological perspective into their classrooms.