Virtual Exchange is defined as "the process of communicating and collaboratively learning with peers from different locations through the use of technology" and is often used interchangeably with terms such as Telecollaboration and eTandem (Dooly & Vinagre, 2022). According to Gutiérrez and O'Dowd (2021), however, in the e-tandem model, students learn "to communicate in both languages during their interactions and to act as informal linguistic tutors to their partners," while in the telecollaborative model of virtual exchange, emphasis is placed on intercultural learning during language exchanges. This study explores Korean university students' VE experience with American university students. The Korean students were from a science and engineering university and participated in the VE program as part of their English as a foreign language course, with a specific goal to develop listening skills. The American counterparts were attending a large state university and learning Korean as a foreign language. Both groups of students engaged in a minimum of 40-minute virtual discussions per meeting, with 20 minutes conducted in each one's target language. They were required to meet six times throughout the semester and discuss cultural subjects such as food, tourist sites, dating culture, and college life. To measure their performance in the VE, pretest and posttest were administered, and to explore their opinions, a questionnaire survey was given at the end of the semester. The test results show that the Korean students improved their English listening skills more than those in the same course without the VE component. The survey results show that the majority of the students were satisfied with their VE experience, and most importantly, most of them reported feeling less anxiety when speaking to fluent English-speaking foreigners. Regarding challenges and difficulties in their VE experiences, they noted problems arranging meetings due to time zone differences and insufficient English ability. The program continues to be improved as survey results are applied. Those interested in implementing VE for their own students at a tertiary institution may find the session highly informative and educational.

References:
[1] Dooly, M., & Vinagre, M. (2022). Research into practice: Virtual exchange in language teaching and learning. Language Teaching, 55(3), 392-406. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444821000069
[2] Gutiérrez, B. F., & O’Dowd, R. (2021). Virtual exchange: connecting language learners in online intercultural collaborative learning. In T. Beaven & F. Rosell-Aguilar (Eds.), Innovative language pedagogy report (pp. 17-22). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2021.50.1230

Keywords: Virtual exchange, language exchange, eTandem.