Hypermedia for language learning: The FREE model at Coventry University

Coventry University is pioneering the integration of hypermedia into the curriculum for the teaching of Italian language and society with the creation of a package based on Nerino Rossi's novel La neve nel bicchiere. The novel was already in use as a basic course text, and developing a hypermedia package was felt to be the ideal way of creating a more stimulating means of access to it. The procedure used in creating the package is described, as are its contents, the ways in which the students use it and the tasks they are given to perform, the feedback from the students, and its impact on their performance. The testing of the prototype has helped in creating a new cognitive model: the FREE (Fluid Role‐Exchange Environment) which functions as a fluid and interactive ‘pool’ where the three main actors, or act ants, ie. the learner, the lecturer and the computer, exchange roles. Within the FREE, students were involved in the construction and evaluation of the courseware, as well as testing the various versions of the prototype. The development and use of hypermedia inside and outside the classroom has made it possible to change both the students’ and the lecturer's attitude towards the material being learnt. However, the courseware does not seem to equip students sufficiently for essay writing, and this problem needs further investigation

Virtual Exchange as a Transformational Third Space for English Language Teacher Education:Discussing Project ViVEXELT

This article discusses “Vietnam Virtual EXchange for English Language Teaching” (ViVEXELT), a project funded by the British Council - Vietnam (Digital Learning Innovation Fund Pilot – Response to COVID 19). It makes a substantial contribution to the theorization of Virtual Exchange as a fertile and inclusive knowledge-sharing Third Space. ViVEXELT proposes a distinctive Internationalization of the Curriculum (IoC) model, where students and staff involved in formal ELT courses in Higher Education collaborate with ELT practitioners from other ELT educational sectors to co-construct Sustainable Development Goals-inspired ELT materials. The ViVEXELT course attracted over 200 participants from 44 cross-educational sector institutions between June 2021 and March 2022. The rich qualitative data collected illustrate that ViVEXELT supported its participants with developing online interactional and intercultural competence, while also providing them with opportunity to reflect on the learning gains from the pandemic for their future ELT practice, such as the effective use of breakout rooms

The Trouble with Cyberpragmatics:Embedding an Online Intercultural Learning Project into the Curriculum

This paper reports on MexCo (Mexico-Coventry), an ongoing online intercultural learning project underpinned by action research. Its aim is to embed internationalisation into the curriculum of the institutions involved in order to promote citizenship competences, online intercultural communicative competence in particular, among both students and staff. The integration of telecollaboration into the curriculum has highlighted problematic aspects of the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), such as cyberpragmatics (Yus, 2011). Cyberpragmatics is intended here as the skill of understanding others' intended meanings in computer-mediated communication. It is suggested that cyberpragmatics in online intercultural learning exchanges is a ‘Threshold Concept' (TC) (Meyer &amp; Land, 2005, p. 375), i.e. a key concept that is troublesome to understand as it is challenging to the identity of the learner, but which could open new learning horizons to the students who do manage to grasp it.</jats:p