A “Glocal” Community of Practice to Support International ELT (English Language Teaching) Students in the UK

Abstract

This chapter reports on the project ‘Blending MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) into English Language Teaching (ELT) Education with Telecollaboration (BMELTET)'. BMELTET aims to foster reflection on ELT with a COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) MOOC blend. It promotes the engagement of international students based in the UK and studying on a Master's degree in ELT, with students and staff based in universities in Brazil, China, and Spain and with the participants on the MOOC from all over the world. BMELTET aims to debunk the myth of the ‘native speaker' as the ideal teacher of English language, thus decolonising ELT through dialogic online intercultural exchanges in a safe ‘third space'. Data were collected via two online surveys, the analysis of the ‘live' Zoom exchanges, and focus groups with self-selected groups of students. This chapter reports on the impact that BMELTET had on the international students involved in it.

Action-research and role-reversal-informed creation of a Zoom breakout room guide for e-CIIC mediators

“…Action research was the underpinning research approach (Burns, 2010) and the team addressed the issues that emerged from the first cycle in the second one (see Table 1 below). Participants were also invited to reflect 'in action' while engaging online, 'on action' reflecting on the lessons learnt and 'for action' for their future practice, in alignment with another 'tried and tested' approach to VE at CU (Orsini-Jones et al, 2021). All participants were sent materials and session plans at least three days before each session 4.…”

Out of the Comfort Zone

“…Third Space questions authoritarian and colonial discourses as well as the systems that reproduce them (Bhabha, & Rutherford, 2006). Third Space learning can also be challenging and go against the educational status quo (Orsini-Jones et al, 2022). It brings learners, those who are used to more tutorled educational system in particular, 'out of their comfort zone' , and in so doing it aligns with Threshold Concepts (TC s) literature and theorisation.…”

“…One of the purposes of the BMELTEVEP project was to provide students in English language teacher education with different perspectives on ELT and to debunk the myth of the 'native speaker' as the ideal teacher of English language, thus decolonising ELT through dialogic online exchanges (Orsini-Jones et al, 2022). Metareflection (Flavell, 1979) was encouraged: to develop the students' ability to reflect on online learning and teaching 'in action' , while engaging in the synchronous online collaborative sessions; 'on action' after having carried out the tasks with the partners and on the MOOC; and 'for action' , applying the lessons learnt to their future teaching practice (Orsini-Jones et al, 2021.…”

“…Participants were involved in the Third Space (Bhabha, 2004;Bhabha & Rutherford, 2006) created through the VE project, engaging with each other synchronously online and also asynchronously with a global English Language Teaching community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) of over 200,000 participants on the FutureLearn MOOC Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching (by the University of Southampton and the British Council, 2020). Third Space, as coined by Bhabha (2004), is a place of exchange, clash, contrast, rearticulation, and negotiation rather than a space of resolution (Guimarães & Finardi, 2021;Helm, 2013;Orsini-Jones et al, 2022). Third Space emphasises the ambivalence that questions authoritarian and colonial discourses as well as the systems that reproduce them (Bhabha & Rutherford, 2006;Finardi & Guimarães, 2020).…”

Internationalization of universities and quality education: a focus on teaching, research and outreach activities

“…Other potentially beneficial aspects of virtual exchange include fostering student autonomy (Fuchs, Hauck & Muller-Hartmann, 2012;Hughes, 2010), linguistic fluency and accuracy (Warschauer, 1996;Kinginger & Belz, 2005;O'Rourke, 2007;Ware & O'Dowd, 2008;Guth & Helm, 2010), intercultural communication skills online (Belz & Müller-Hartmann, 2003;O'Dowd & Ritter, 2006;Guth & Helm, 2010;Vinagre, 2014;Sevilla-Pavón & Nicolaou, 2017Sevilla-Pavón, 2018, multimodal digital competence and new online skills (Guth & Helm, 2010;Hauck, 2007;Sevilla-Pavón & Haba-Osca, 2017;Oskoz, Gimeno-Sanz, & Sevilla-Pavón, 2018), membership and active participation in communities of practice (Dooly & Sadler, 2013, Orsini-Jones, Cerveró-Carrascosa, & Finardi, 2022, negotiation of meanings (Cantó, Graaff, & Jauregi, 2014), student motivation (Cantó, Jauregi, & van den Bergh, 2013;Jauregi, Graaff, van den Bergh & Kríž, 2012), language teacher training and peer learning (Brígido-Corachan, 2008;Ware & O'Dowd, 2008;Guth & Helm, 2010;Kohn & Warth, 2011;Lewis, Chanier, & Youngs, 2011;Cunningham, 2013;Dooly & Sadler, 2013;O'Dowd, 2015) critical thinking and analysis skills (Dooly, 2010;Furstenberg & Levet, 2010).…”