Speakers
Description
This presentation reports on a small virtual exchange between university students in Okinawa, Japan, and Göttingen, Germany. The student task was intentionally kept modest in scope: students used English through asynchronous tasks to introduce their everyday university life, respond to students overseas, and reflect on similarities and differences in their experiences. The presentation also considers the teacher side of the project. While much research on virtual exchanges focuses on learners, less attention has been paid to how teachers manage the additional planning, coordination, uncertainty, and workload such projects involve. Through individual reflection and comparison of our experiences as collaborating language teachers, we examine what motivated us to take part, what helped us sustain the project, and how the collaboration affected our motivation and professional well-being. The presentation concludes with practical takeaways for language teachers interested in developing small virtual exchange projects within institutional, scheduling, and workload constraints.