Pedagogical mentoring in virtual exchange: Developing students’ videoconferencing skills

Abstract

In the context of foreign language education (FLE), virtual exchanges (VE) involving videoconferencing are becoming an increasingly widespread practice. It is to be expected that students face challenges as they may not have developed the skills necessary to successfully carry out these types of online intercultural interactions naturally. In order for them to get the most out of the collaborative learning experience, teachers must engage in the process of teaching students how to do so. With this in mind, this case study analyses the impact that VE teachers’ mentoring had on the development of students’ videoconferencing skills by conducting a qualitative content analysis of pre- and post-intervention videoconference recordings, as well as students’ reflections in their personal portfolios. Despite the limitations identified, the results of this study point to the importance of providing adequate videoconferencing mentoring to improve the VE learning experience and its learning outcomes.

Keywords

• foreign language education
• intercultural communication
• pedagogical mentoring
• videoconferencing
• virtual exchange