Dos and Don’ts of an Effective Telecollaboration Project

Abstract

This paper is based on the reflections from a telecollaboration project between English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Turkey and native or non-native speakers of English in the USA. The main purpose of the project was to help the participants to develop their intercultural communicative competence (ICC) via online (a)synchronous communication tools. Therefore, the participants were engaged in tasks, by which they could share their thoughts about cultural issues and expand their (inter)cultural knowledge. The findings showed that telecollaboration projects are potentially key to developing language users’ ICC, helping them acquire and improve essential skills and attitudes. However, the study also showed that all the positive effects of the telecollaboration projects cannot be given to the project itself. The efficiency of such projects relies on certain dos and don’ts with which whoever will perform such projects in the future requires to be careful. This paper intends to provide precise guidance about designing telecollaboration projects together with an understanding of its constraints.

Keywords

• Telecollaboration
• language teaching
• communication
• efficiency

Etkili Bir Uzaktan İşbirliği Projesi İçin Tavsiyeler

Öz

Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrenciler ve Amerika’da İngilizceyi anadili veya ikinci dil olarak konuşanlar arasındaki uzaktan işbirliği projesinden elde edilen deneyimlere dayalıdır. Söz konusu çalışmanın temel amacı, katılımcıların kültürlerarası iletişim becerisini eşzamanlı olan ve olmayan iletişim araçlarını kullanarak geliştirmekti. Bu amaçla, katılımcılar kültürel ve kültürlerarası bilgilerini paylaşabilecekleri ve geliştirebileceklerine yardımcı ödevler yapmıştır. Araştırma bulguları, uzaktan işbirliği projelerinin dil kullanıcılarının gerekli beceri ve tutumları edinmelerine yardımcı olarak kültürlerarası iletişim becerilerini geliştirmeleri için önemli olduğunu göstermiştir. Bununla birlikte, çalışma gösterdi ki uzaktan işbirliği projelerinin olumlu etkileri yalnızca projenin kendisine bağlı değildir. Bu projelerin etkinliği ileride bu tarz projeler yürütecek olanların dikkatli olması gereken belirli tavsiyelere bağlıdır. Bu çalışma, uzaktan işbirliği projelerinin kısıtlı yönlerine dair bir anlayış sağlamakla birlikte bu tarz projeler oluşturmak için rehberlik sağlamayı hedefler.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Uzaktan iş birliği
• dil öğretimi
• iletişim
• etkinlik

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