Speaker
Description
This presentation reports on a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project linking university students in Japan and the United States through an eight-week virtual exchange. Grounded in translanguaging pedagogy, the program functioned as a community of practice supporting intercultural dialogue, bilingual communication, and professional learning. Findings show increased confidence and intercultural awareness among Japanese students and valuable professional development gains for U.S. TESOL students, offering practical insights into community-based virtual exchange beyond physical mobility.
References
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Multilingual Matters.
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241–266.
García, O., & Kleyn, T. (Eds.). (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. Routledge.
Rubin, J. (2017). The collaborative online international learning network: A case study. In R. O’Dowd & T. Lewis (Eds.), Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice (pp. 263–270). Routledge.
Keywords
COIL, translanguaging, communities of practice, teacher development
Short summary
This presentation reports on a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project linking university students in Japan and the United States through an eight-week virtual exchange. Grounded in translanguaging pedagogy, the program functioned as a community of practice supporting intercultural dialogue, bilingual communication, and professional learning. Findings show increased confidence and intercultural awareness among Japanese students and valuable professional development gains for U.S. TESOL students, offering practical insights into community-based virtual exchange beyond physical mobility.
Abstract
As Japanese universities pursue policy-driven internationalization amid financial constraints and declining participation in study-abroad programs, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) has emerged as a sustainable alternative for developing global and linguistic competencies (Rubin, 2017). This paper reports on a COIL project connecting a fourth-year seminar at a women’s university in Japan with TESOL practicum students at a U.S. university. Grounded in translanguaging pedagogy (García & Kleyn, 2016), the eight-week program was designed as a community of practice in which students collaboratively explored sociocultural topics through synchronous, bilingual online interaction.
Data from post-program surveys and reflective journals, s (N = 14) were analyzed to examine participants’ perceptions of intercultural learning, language use, and professional development. Findings indicate that Japanese students developed increased intercultural self-awareness, greater confidence in articulating complex ideas, and enhanced metalinguistic sensitivity by strategically drawing on both English and Japanese. Translanguaging practices reduced linguistic anxiety and supported deeper cognitive engagement, particularly during comparative discussion of social, political, and educational issues across contexts. These outcomes align with established models of intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2006).
U.S. TESOL students reported professional development gains, including increased teaching confidence, pedagogical adaptability, and heightened awareness of intercultural and EFL-specific classroom dynamics. Overall, the study demonstrates that COIL, when framed as a collaborative learning community and supported by flexible bilingual practices, can foster practical language competencies while supporting emerging teacher expertise. This classroom-level case study highlights the potential of community-oriented virtual exchange as an inclusive and scalable model for internationalization beyond physical mobility.
| Scheduling preference | Anytime on Saturday or Sunday |
|---|---|
| Title | Building Language Competencies Through COIL |