Knowledge and Skill Development Through Intercultural Virtual Exchange

Virtual exchange (VE) has been increasingly applied to foreign language education in the last two decades. The pandemic has compelled scholars and practitioners to adopt various forms of VE alongside language teaching and learning. The current study is based on one VE project between university students in Britain and China over a duration of eight weeks in the academic year of 2021-22. It draws on literature in VE relating mostly to English and other European languages, and mainly on the theoretical framework of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Both quantitative and qualitative data are analysed to investigate how VE impacts the development in knowledge and skills including ICC and how issues can be addressed in the context of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. As we ease out of the challenges caused by the pandemic and other global relations, VE should not just be the contingency replacement of a physical exchange into China, but also become a necessary preparation for a new norm of blended mobility.