One of the best teaching experiences I have is with the use of virtual exchange (VE) in my courses. I find VE not only to be a terrific and humbling learning experience for my students (future language teachers themselves) but also for me because unexpected conflicts and misunderstandings (sometimes amusing; sometimes upsetting) arise and challenge my own assumptions about good teaching, collaboration, and my own intercultural competence.

I have also been extremely fortunate to be part of a three-way virtual exchange partnership, for the past five years while in Sweden and now this year in the US, with my colleagues and friends Robert O’Dowd (in Spain) and Elana Spector-Cohen (in Israel), which has led to a great deal of professional growth and introspection. And research.

We have just published an article that draws upon our experiences teaching in this English-as-a-lingua-franca three-country partnership , in which we examine the influence of the teacher in VE: The Role of Pedagogical Mentoring in Virtual Exchange is now available via Open Access in TESOL Quarterly.