Multilingualism in digital spaces: utilising telecollaboration to raise multilingual awareness in language teacher education

Abstract

Multilingualism is becoming increasingly visible in digital spaces; however, current studies usually evaluate this potential from a qualitative perspective. However, quantitative studies could also contribute to broadening our perspective on multilingualism in digital spaces through telecollaborative projects. Based on Douglas Fir Group’s (2016) theoretical framework on the multifaceted nature of language learning and teaching, 103 teacher candidates participated in an eight-week controlled intervention. Teacher candidates’ progress was measured by multivariate (MANOVA) and several regressions and thematic analyses. Findings revealed that telecollaboration contributed significantly to participants’ plurilingual and pluricultural competence as well as crosslinguistic awareness. Students with higher crosslinguistic awareness and motivation also had higher plurilingual and pluricultural competence and their development during this process was also manifested through their reflections as 1) emerging multilingual awareness, 2) identity investment, and 3) technology and the multilingual turn. Considering the significant gains during the project, we provided several implications for including telecollaboration in the language teacher education curriculum.

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