Matching linguistic and pedagogical objectives in a telecollaboration project: a case study

Abstract

This article attempts to analyse to what extent a distance collaboration project between two groups of university students sharing the same lingua franca (English), but with different course educational objectives can benefit its participants. We build on the knowledge gleaned from previous studies of second language telecollaboration which point to the advantages of such projects with regard to linguistic skills development, enhanced intercultural awareness, motivation and improved teaching skills as well as to constraints such as classroom, socio-institutional and interaction issues. Our article examines to what degree the different aims set up for two groups of English language teacher trainees and the design and implementation of the project influenced the perceptions of each group (Spanish B1 level students focusing on language development and Polish C1 level students concentrating on developing their pedagogical skills with technology) collaborating together to complete tasks using their L2 as a lingua franca. The results indicate that telecollaboration projects for groups with different course objectives offer a number of advantages, but may not benefit all participants to the same extent.