Strengthening intercultural communication skills through telecollaboration between Colombian and American university students [Fortalecimiento de la competencia comunicativa intercultural mediante telecolaboración entre estudiantes colombianos y estadoun
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62574/rmpi.v7i3.539Keywords:
higher education, language teaching, intercultural communication, educational technologyAbstract
Globalisation requires foreign language learners to develop intercultural communicative competence beyond mere linguistic proficiency. The study therefore aimed to identify the factors that contribute to strengthening intercultural communicative competence through telecollaboration between Colombian and American university students. To this end, a convergent mixed-methods design was applied to a twelve-week telecollaboration programme involving 45 participants, combining the ICAI Questionnaire, learning diaries, recordings of synchronous sessions and focus groups to triangulate the evidence. The results showed statistically significant increases (p < 0.001) across all six dimensions assessed, particularly in intercultural critical awareness and adaptive behaviour, compared with minimal changes in the control group. The thematic analysis revealed that intercultural empathy was the most frequently recurring category, followed by the critical examination of stereotypes.
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