Intercultural learning in electronic learning environments

The central research question addressed in this contribution asks how online exchanges between language students via the internet can contribute to the general educational aim of intercultural communication: a field of research that in the context of language education has been referred to as 'network-based language teaching' (Warschauer 2000)and 'telecollaboration' (Belz 2003). Based on the rationale that the contribution of computer-mediated communication to intercultural learning is still rather ambiguous, this article provides a brief outline of research literature in this area and relates the findings to an asynchronous email-exhange between Australian and German university students, studying German and English respectively.11 page(s