Developing communicative competence in global virtual teams: A multiliteracies approach to telecollaboration for students of business and economics
Vol.5,No.1(2015)
Telecollaboration is a learning scenario in which groups of foreign language learners communicate with geographically distant partner classes via the internet. Besides its principle focus on developing linguistic and intercultural competence, telecollaboration provides opportunities for rehearsing multiple literacy practices. These include media and academic literacy as well as the collaborative and critical thinking skills that are needed for academic and professional contexts alike. Drawing on studies of online intercultural exchange from the fields of Foreign Language Education and Business and Economics, this paper discusses the similarities and differences in approach to online exchange between the two disciplines and then shows how this informed the design of a multiliteracies model for telecollaboration projects that is tailored to the specific needs of students of Business and Economics.
telecollaboratio; global virtual teams; multiliteracies
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