This talk first provides a brief overview of the relatively short development from the first virtual exchanges in language education to its recent expansion into language teaching around the world. We will then consider key areas of concern for language teacher education and possible steps for further development.
Education has long held a Janus-like identity in the public eye. On the one hand, education is often seen as a type of savior of society's ills: through proper teaching future citizens can gain the needed competences for fair, highly effective societies. On the other hand, education often becomes the scapegoat for societal malaise (e.g. political division, racial and social violence): teachers are not prepared and/or not doing enough to prevent social problems. While education should not be placed at one extreme or the other, it does seem self-evident that teachers in today's society of 'transnationalism' must consider carefully the implications of their teaching efforts, both locally and globally. Fortunately, the widespread access to and use of electronically mediated communication tools offers teachers key opportunities to introduce their students to languages, cultures and perhaps most importantly, a learning process that includes interaction with geographically distributed partners - a scenario that is increasingly more common in social and professional arenas learners will encounter in the future. Along these lines, Virtual Exchange is increasingly promoted by teachers, administrators, and by governmental and non-governmental organizations as a comprehensive means to interdisciplinary language teaching and learning.
This talk will first provide an overview the evolution of Virtual Exchange in language education by looking at influential definitions of VE since 1995, before considering the basis of VE as a teaching approach. Principal strands of VE research and practice are considered before looking at areas that could use more focus. The talk then briefly considers potential future directions of VE.
