'Glocal Education' through Virtual Exchange? Training Pre-Service EFL Teachers to Connect Their Local Classrooms to the World and Back

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  • Author(s): Krengel, Fabian
  • Language:
    English
  • Source:
    Global Education Review. 2021 8(2-3):138-153.
  • Publication Date:
    2021
  • Document Type:
    Journal Articles
    Reports - Evaluative
  • Additional Information
    • Availability:
      Mercy College New York. 555 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522. Tel: 914-674-7350; Fax: 914-674-7351; Web site: http://ger.mercy.edu
    • Peer Reviewed:
      Y
    • Source:
      16
    • Education Level:
      Higher Education
      Postsecondary Education
    • Subject Terms:
      Preservice Teachers; Language Teachers; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; English (Second Language); International Educational Exchange; International Cooperation; Universities; Foreign Countries; Local Issues; Global Approach; Cooperative Learning; Educational Policy; Change Agents; Social Change; Videoconferencing; Cultural Awareness; Teacher Education Programs; Instructional Design; Program Descriptions
    • Subject Terms:
      Germany; Turkey; Sweden
    • ISSN:
      2325-663X
    • Abstract:
      A key goal of global education in language teaching is to "have students 'think globally and act locally'"(Cates, 2013, p. 278) -- an idea in line with the concept of glocality. Virtual exchange -- i.e. connecting learners with different lingua-cultural backgrounds over extended periods of time via digital communication technologies (The EVALUATE Group, 2019) -- is a promising approach towards this aim. O'Dowd suggests designing such exchanges following a "transnational model" (2019) in which learners collaborate on shared tasks based on local and global real-world problems using a lingua franca. These ideas are compatible with European policy discourses on global education (Schreiber & Siege, 2016), aiming at supporting learners in becoming agents of change in an increasingly globalized world. Within the context of a trilateral project between universities in Germany, Turkey, and Sweden, this paper explores how global education can be integrated into foreign language teaching with the help of virtual exchanges through a synthesis of two models of virtual exchange (O'Dowd & Ware, 2009; O'Dowd, 2019) and the complex competence task approach (Hallet, 2012) to task-based language teaching. A transnational virtual exchange between these universities exemplifies how such a telecollaborative project can be implemented. During the exchange, pre-service EFL teachers compare and analyze cultural practices and educational frameworks to design tasks dealing with global issues that can be implemented in their respective local classrooms through virtual exchange.
    • Abstract:
      As Provided
    • Publication Date:
      2021
    • Accession Number:
      EJ1318698