Teacher Candidate Reflection and Development Through Virtual Exchange

Abstract

This study examines the effects of a virtual exchange on twelve teacher candidates of a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program. The teacher candidates participated in a 4-week virtual exchange with English as a Foreign Language learners from a university in Mexico. Throughout the exchange, the teacher candidates participated in conversational exchanges and subsequently analyzed and reflected on the errors produced by the English as a Foreign Language students and also the corrective feedback strategies they used during the sessions. The goal of the analysis and reflection activities was to help the teacher candidates develop their ability to identify such errors and apply appropriate corrective feedback strategies. The results indicated the teacher candidates’ ability to identify errors increased throughout the exchange, suggesting changes to their development and perception of corrective feedback. These results add to the growing body of research about the value of using virtual exchanges in teacher preparation programs, a tool that may be particularly relevant during the current coronavirus global crisis.

Keywords

• virtual exchange
• learner autonomy
• teacher preparation
• corrective feedback
• adult learners
• language learning