Researching Telecollaboration in Secondary Schools: Challenges and Opportunities

Telecollaboration has been said to contribute to intercultural communicative competence (Belz & Thorne, 2006; Canto et al. 2013, in press; Guth & Helm, 2010; O’Dowd, 2007; Liauw, 2006; Ware & Kramsch, 2005, Jauregi et al. 2012). However, most research in this area has so far been carried out only in tertiary education (Pol, 2013). The European project TILA (Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition) is one of the first attempts to integrate telecollaborative practices in the secondary education context and to research its impact in younger learners’ intercultural awareness, motivation and communicative competence. The TILA network has been extended to 45 secondary schools across Europe, all of which are actively taking part in these exchanges. Drawing on the experience obtained so far with this project, the present paper will reflect on the challenges involved in conducting telecollaboration research in secondary schools, not least those related to the organisation of pilot experiments, the replication of previous studies with young learners and the use of tried and tested questionnaires with this audience. The paper will also describe the research carried out during TILA’s initial stage, involving more than ten pilots in French, German, Spanish and English. The aim of these studies was to ascertain through repeated surveys the impact of telecollaboration activities on students’ perception of language learning, intercultural awareness and motivation as well as on their communicative competence.