Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teaching

Digital language learning provides an immersive context for language learners to engage in intercultural communication (Liaw, 2019; Dooly & Vinagre, 2021). This study investigates the impact of a digital tool, the ENACT web app (Communities, Languages, and Activities), on intercultural language...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Belma Haznedar, Elifcan Öztekin, Sumru Akcan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Literacy Trek 2024-12-01
Series:Literacy Trek
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/literacytrek/issue/89658/1554560
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832592144885350400
author Belma Haznedar
Elifcan Öztekin
Sumru Akcan
author_facet Belma Haznedar
Elifcan Öztekin
Sumru Akcan
author_sort Belma Haznedar
collection DOAJ
description Digital language learning provides an immersive context for language learners to engage in intercultural communication (Liaw, 2019; Dooly & Vinagre, 2021). This study investigates the impact of a digital tool, the ENACT web app (Communities, Languages, and Activities), on intercultural language learning from the pre-service English language teachers’ perspective. The ENACT web app, which embraces the intercultural, digital, and communication skills of language learners, aims to develop the intercultural awareness and understanding of language learners through two-way knowledge-generating task-based activities. Ten pre-service English language teachers, who participated in the project as workshop facilitators, were initially engaged with the web app as users by completing a 2-week online training. After the training, they facilitated intercultural pairs in producing cultural activities in a task-based digital learning pedagogy in 3-5 hour sessions. They also completed final reflection papers at the end of the entire project engagement as a culminating product. To this end, this study presents mixed-method research with quantitative survey data and qualitative reflections of the pre-service teachers: (1) descriptive scores from pre and post-training responses to digital skills assessment and cultural awareness questionnaires, (2) reflective answers to open-ended questions about their gains in the e-portfolio in the middle and end of the online training, and (3) final reflection papers on intercultural understanding after the facilitation of the workshops. The survey findings showed that the pre-service teachers increased their cultural and digital knowledge through digital materials on the web platform. The thematic analysis of the reflections also indicated that they found the use of the task-based language teaching methodology effective in offering an interactive learning experience and enhancing learner involvement. The study suggests that integrating cultural tasks into the curriculum for language learning offers real-life learning experiences and contributes to both the language and content knowledge of the students.
format Article
id doaj-art-5727093319ab4f9b94bd87f05878d763
institution Kabale University
issn 2602-3768
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Literacy Trek
record_format Article
series Literacy Trek
spelling doaj-art-5727093319ab4f9b94bd87f05878d7632025-01-21T14:59:47ZengLiteracy TrekLiteracy Trek2602-37682024-12-01103283308https://doi.org/10.47216/literacytrek.1554560Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teachingBelma Haznedar0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7025-0158Elifcan Öztekin1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8865-5401Sumru Akcan2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7395-4727Boğaziçi UniversityBoğaziçi UniversityBoğaziçi UniversityDigital language learning provides an immersive context for language learners to engage in intercultural communication (Liaw, 2019; Dooly & Vinagre, 2021). This study investigates the impact of a digital tool, the ENACT web app (Communities, Languages, and Activities), on intercultural language learning from the pre-service English language teachers’ perspective. The ENACT web app, which embraces the intercultural, digital, and communication skills of language learners, aims to develop the intercultural awareness and understanding of language learners through two-way knowledge-generating task-based activities. Ten pre-service English language teachers, who participated in the project as workshop facilitators, were initially engaged with the web app as users by completing a 2-week online training. After the training, they facilitated intercultural pairs in producing cultural activities in a task-based digital learning pedagogy in 3-5 hour sessions. They also completed final reflection papers at the end of the entire project engagement as a culminating product. To this end, this study presents mixed-method research with quantitative survey data and qualitative reflections of the pre-service teachers: (1) descriptive scores from pre and post-training responses to digital skills assessment and cultural awareness questionnaires, (2) reflective answers to open-ended questions about their gains in the e-portfolio in the middle and end of the online training, and (3) final reflection papers on intercultural understanding after the facilitation of the workshops. The survey findings showed that the pre-service teachers increased their cultural and digital knowledge through digital materials on the web platform. The thematic analysis of the reflections also indicated that they found the use of the task-based language teaching methodology effective in offering an interactive learning experience and enhancing learner involvement. The study suggests that integrating cultural tasks into the curriculum for language learning offers real-life learning experiences and contributes to both the language and content knowledge of the students.https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/literacytrek/issue/89658/1554560technology-mediated task-based language teachingintercultural communicationdigital language learningteacher education
spellingShingle Belma Haznedar
Elifcan Öztekin
Sumru Akcan
Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teaching
Literacy Trek
technology-mediated task-based language teaching
intercultural communication
digital language learning
teacher education
title Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teaching
title_full Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teaching
title_fullStr Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teaching
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teaching
title_short Enhancing intercultural communication via the ENACT Web App in language teaching
title_sort enhancing intercultural communication via the enact web app in language teaching
topic technology-mediated task-based language teaching
intercultural communication
digital language learning
teacher education
url https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/literacytrek/issue/89658/1554560
work_keys_str_mv AT belmahaznedar enhancinginterculturalcommunicationviatheenactwebappinlanguageteaching
AT elifcanoztekin enhancinginterculturalcommunicationviatheenactwebappinlanguageteaching
AT sumruakcan enhancinginterculturalcommunicationviatheenactwebappinlanguageteaching