Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature straniere e Culture moderne

Mostra organizzata nel mese di ottobre 2022 a cura della professoressa Li Bin (Department of Linguistics and Translation) sul lavoro di scambio virtuale tra gli studenti e le studentesse di Hong Kong e di Torino sul tema dei 'Linguistic landscapes' (paesaggi linguistici). 

Studentesse partecipanti (nell'ambito del corso di Lingua Inglese, II - L11): Letizia Bisio, Maria Chiara Caratù, Rebecca Chiapello,  Justine Mei Contreras Landig, Gaia Scaglia, Erika Volpato

Poster conference presso la Hong Kong City University (pdf)

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic since 2019 have deterred physical overseas learning experience such as overseas learning trip and exchange programmes because of travel restrictions posed by different countries (Mok et al., 2021). To address students’ need of international exposure, virtual exchange (VE), or known as Online Intercultural Learning (OIL), as a learning component of course or co-curricular activities have drawn much attention. It serves as a time-saving and economical alternative to exchange programme to achieve personal, professional and cultural development that are compatible with conventional overseas study (Turner et al., 2016). It can even produce higher participation and engagement rates than the physical programmes (Soria & Troisi, 2014). The intercultural interaction using information communication technology (ICT) solutions provide both formal and informal experience to students (Beelen & Jones, 2015). Among all online platforms, social media has been common for intercultural communication (Bouvier, 2016), where the new generation perceives social media including WhatsApp an “efficient” and “enjoyable” form of communication (So, 2016). 

In 2021, a pilot four-week co-curricular VE project titled “Internationalization-at-home” (IaH) in collaboration with Humber College in Toronto, Canada and University of Turin in Turin, Italy was organized to evaluate the feasibility of WhatsApp-mediated VE initiative. Satisfactory attendance and retention rate and wide acceptance indicated a successful VE project. Even if overseas travel restrictions has lifted in post-pandemic era, VE projects remain popular in global universities as a practical way to foster the global engagement of students.

Objectives 

To sustain and extend the impact of IaH and to contribute to the university’s strategic vision of internationalization, the new round of IaH (IaH 2.0) targets local students with less opportunities for overseas exchange and provides them with a VE opportunity. It aims at connecting university students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to discuss and share their views and experiences on a wide range of Sustainable Development Goals for Global Citizenship Education. It emerged in the 1940s with the foundation of the United Nations (UN) and the Declaration on Human Rights. However, it was with the UN’s 2012 Global Education Initiative that the development of Global citizenship (GC) and it has become the key objective of education. The “Citizenship Education: topics and learning objectives” (2015) written by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines global citizenship as “a sense of belonging to a broader community and common humanity. It emphasizes political, economic, social and cultural interdependency and interconnectedness between the local, the national and the global” (p. 13). According to Global citizenship education (GCE) targets the development of three domains with global orientation: the cognitive domain which refers to global knowledge, the affective domain which refers to global attitudes, and the psycho-motor which refers to global skills.

According to the previously mentioned UN report, these three domains refer to the competences needed for the development of citizens who are willing to participate in and contribute to the development of their own societies and the world as a whole. GCE aims to empower learners to be active locally and globally, to solve global issues and become contributors to “a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world” (2015, p. 15). To develop global knowledge, skills and attitudes, the report provided a comprehensive list of global issues and topics that teachers can teach in different subjects and that can fit in our project. These topics include citizenship, immigration, human rights, right to education, gender equality, women’s rights, climate change, environment, sustainable development, water quality, welfare, minorities, religion, intercultural dialogues, language, gender-based violence, racism, discrimination, war, peace, family, health, consumerism, ethical responsibility, water scarcity etc.

GCE can be taught as a stand-alone subject, a school-wide issue or as a cross-curricular issue where core competences (knowledge, attitudes and skills) are taught in more than one subject simultaneously and for all levels. Global Citizenship education can be taught /developed in virtual exchanges (Reysen & Katzarska-Miller, 2013; Giralt et al., 2022; Lenkaitis & Loranc, 2022; Haley, 2020). 

The project

We are recruiting 25 students from the department of Foreign Languages, Literature and Modern Cultures, with good English communicative skills, who are willing to participate in a virtual exchange, starting from February 2023. The project focuses on the virtual interaction between students from four different countries and universities (the University of Turin, the Polytechnic University and City University in Hong Kong and the University of Sfax in Tunisia, who are willing to enhance their English and intercultural skills while discussing major global citizenship topics. Over six weeks, students willing to learn and enhance their foreign language and intercultural skills will virtually interact with overseas partners using English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) technologies through synchronous and asynchronous interaction modes (mainly WhatsApp).  

Participating students who successfully fulfil the project tasks will receive 3 CFU.

For further information, please contact one of the following:

Antonella Maria Giacosa antonellamaria.giacosa@unito.it

Nesrine Triki nesrine.triki@unito.it

Stefania Cicillini stefania.cicillini@unito.it

Project starts: 13 February 2023

Project ends: 26 March 2023