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In this article, the authors reflect on the ways research on Virtual Exchange (VE) has had an impact on language education practices and, conversely, areas in which research has been underexplored, misapplied or perhaps even over applied by VE practitioners in formal education settings. Starting from a brief historical overview of VE, the text first outlines the features widely accepted as key aspects of this pedagogical approach before considering to what extent research results can be identified in VE implementation. Principal topics covered are the main aims regarding language development when VE is applied, assessment of language development through VE and VE and intercultural competence. While the article is not intended as a comprehensive review, it provides insight into the main foci of VE research and how these findings are reaching the language classroom (primary, secondary and university).

The main objective of this study is to explore how students who participate in virtual intercultural exchanges use evaluative language to build rapport and encourage collaboration. Data were gathered from 211 email messages sent by 40 Spanish and American university students and were tagged following Martin and White's Appraisal model. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the lexico-grammatical tokens revealed that the participants used mostly Affect tokens in their interaction. This suggests that the students preferred expressing their own feelings and emotions rather than judging their partners' behaviour or evaluating phenomena as a strategy to construct a positive and appealing personal identity.

This study aims to explore the development of teachers' competences when trained in virtual collaboration. In order to do so, we analyse the data gathered from a group of nine in-service teachers who were trained in a forum and a wiki to become future telecollaborative teachers (TTs). During the course, participants worked in small groups and they had to carry out a series of tasks that included reviewing articles on virtual collaboration and implementing a hypothetical exchange. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on the content from the forum, wiki pages and answers to an end-of-course questionnaire. Findings suggest that there is a relationship between successful collaboration and the development of the knowledge base and competences required by the TT. Therefore, ensuring that sufficient quality interaction takes place among group members is essential in order to encourage the emergence of sound and friendly relationships that will facilitate active participation and negotiation of meaning.

Recent studies illustrate the potential that intercultural telecollaborative exchanges entail for language development through the use of corrective feedback from collaborating partners (Kessler, 2009; Lee, 2008; Sauro, 2009; Ware & O'Dowd, 2008). We build on this growing body of research by presenting the findings of a three-month-long research project that explored the impact of peer feedback on the development of learner accuracy. Our aim was to study participants' attention to form and the relative effectiveness of error correction strategies. In order to do so, we organised an e-mail exchange between seventeen post-secondary learners of Spanish and German. Data consist of exchanges between the five dyads who completed the full three-month project. As suggested by Vinagre and Lera (2008), analysis of these data indicate that despite frequent use of error correction, the use of remediation led to a higher percentage of errors recycled and was more conducive to error recycling in later language production. (Contains 6 tables, 3 figures, and 6 notes.)

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has been the subject of a wide range of studies over the last twenty years. Previous research suggests that CSCL exchanges can facilitate group-based learning and knowledge construction among learners who are in different geographical locations [Littleton, K. & Whitelock, D. (2004). "Guiding the creation of knowledge and understanding in a virtual learning environment." "Cyberpsychology & Behaviour," 7(2), 173]. A less known fact, however, is that successful CSCL exchanges depend on the social interaction that takes place among participants. This social interaction is crucial, since it affects both cognitive and socio-emotional processes that take place during learning [Kreijns, K., Kirschner, P., Jochems, W. & Van Buuren, H. (2004). "Determining sociability, social space, and social presence in (a) synchronous collaborative groups." "Cyberpsychology & Behaviour," 7 (2), 156]. Nevertheless, its presence in these exchanges should not be taken for granted, since there are certain barriers which may impede interaction; for example, students may not know each other previously (high social distance) and requests and offers which appear recurrently in collaborative learning messages can threaten the participants' negative face (Brown and Levinson 1978, 1987). In order to explore how participants overcome these barriers, we have analysed the linguistic features of politeness strategies used in the introductory e-mails exchanged between eleven students and their partners, who are students of English and Spanish, respectively. Our findings show that partners in collaborative e-mail exchanges do not use negative politeness strategies as often as we might expect in encounters where the social distance between participants is high, but they rely heavily on positive politeness strategies, especially those relating to "claiming common ground", "assuming or asserting reciprocity" and "conveying cooperation". The presence of these strategies would indicate that fostering closeness, solidarity and cohesion becomes the priority to be achieved between the partners, instead of the expected negative politeness mechanisms whose aim is to demonstrate high social distance and, therefore, formality and impersonality.

This article describes an email project carried out jointly by the Institute of Modern Languages and the Department of Applied Languages at Antonio de Nebrija University in Madrid and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) in the US during the first semester of the academic year 2004-2005. Students worked with a partner exchanging personal, linguistic and sociocultural information and corrections about each other's language (English and Spanish), as well as taking part in a discussion forum. The project generated a wealth of data which raised some interesting points and the information gathered from one particularly successful partnership is presented. However, further research needs to be carried out on how best to assess the improvement of the students' language proficiency through the use of email tandem learning.