The Impact Of Telecollaboratıon On Learners’ Intercultural Communıcatıve Competence And Ideal L2 Self

Abstract

This study intended to reveal the effect of telecollaborative task engagement and interaction on learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and ideal L2 self. In the study, a quasi-experimental study design was employed to investigate the effect of telecollaboration; hence, the study involved one control group and one experimental group. In the experimental group, 15 Turkish EFL learners were engaged in an intercultural exchange with nine speakers of English as a native language or second language. They performed a number of tasks to improve their ICC using (a)synchronous Internet tools for communication. However, in the control group, seven Turkish EFL learners came together in a real classroom setting and performed identical tasks to those performed by the experimental group. The study took eight weeks in total. The data collection and analysis procedures involved the use of quantitative and qualitative methods. All the data collected were analyzed using quantitative (SPSS 17.0) and qualitative data analysis (MAXQDA 10) software. The findings indicated that telecollaboration did indeed affect the participants’ intercultural communicative competence and its components positively and helped the Turkish participants to adopt a clearer ideal L2 self as users of English. Depending on the positive effects of the telecollaboration on the participants’ intercultural competence and ideal L2 self, the study provides a number of insights into the effectiveness of telecollaboration for learners at the tertiary level of education; it presents a clear understanding for individual teachers, curriculum planners and institutions about the necessity for the integration of telecollaboration projects into the language curriculum.