Date Approved

8-28-2012

Date Posted

4-23-2013

Degree Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department or School

World Languages

Committee Member

Elisabeth Morgan, Ph.D., Chair

Committee Member

Joe Bishop, Ph.D.

Committee Member

James Perren, Ed.D.

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness and relevance of some free telecollaboration 2.0 tools and the IT-HELPS activities to the participants’ enhancement of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in reference to Byram’s (1997) ICC definition and its five principles. In-depth qualitative data were collected from six semistructured interviews with students and teachers of the eight-week online intercultural exchange between a Second Language Acquisition class at Eastern Michigan University in the United States and an English as a Second Language class at Tan Tao University in Vietnam. Despite the failed communication in some collaborative tasks due to some deficiencies in motivating, facilitating, and managing the exchange activities, the study results showed the informants’ positive changes of ICC and the Vietnamese students’ significant improvement of English language skills. New avenues and suggestions were also discussed for further research into the benefits of using free telecollaboration 2.0 tools and activities for intercultural learning via online exchanges.

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