The acquisition of pragmatic and intercultural communicative competence for global citizenship through telecollaboration

This study presents the results obtained from three different telecollaboration projects, that aimed to develop Spanish-speaking students’ use of apologies in English (pragmatic competence) and their intercultural communicative competence (ICC). In particular, this paper aims to demonstrate how pragmatic competence and ICC are inextricably interrelated, and how these two competences help students become intercultural/global citizens through telecollaboration. Data was collected from both synchronous and asynchronous tasks carried out by Spanish learners of English who engaged in telecollaborative projects with L1 or highly proficient English speakers. The quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed that there is an empirical relationship between the learners’ use of apologies and the development of their ICC. Also, following Byram’s (2008) principles of education for intercultural citizenship, the results demonstrate that telecollaboration can foster language learners’ intercultural/global citizenship.