Preparing Student Mobility through Telecollaboration

In recent years, going to a foreign country has become all the more significant for Higher Education (HE) students, as concepts such as internationalisation and intercultural competencies have gained a more prominent role in HE. For students to fully benefit from this experience, it is paramount to prepare them for their stay in a foreign country through reflection and analysis (Byram & Dervin, 2008). This paper focuses on a pre-mobility preparation programme: the I-Tell project (Intercultural Telecollaborative Learning). This initiative aims at raising intercultural awareness amongst students and promoting language practice through telecollaborative exchanges between students of Spanish in Ireland and students of English in Spain prior to their sojourn abroad. The data gathered from this initiative yield some interesting findings, especially in relation to linguistic and intercultural development. We will particularly highlight the findings pertaining to student preparation to their period abroad and show what students gained from partaking in this project. [For the complete volume, see ED571330.]