Building an intercultural identity in a cross-cultural transition: a short term stay case study

We believe that learning a foreign language should not simply be reduced to a matter of acquiring basic skills but calls for a broader literacy that it is essential to preparing future generations who will have to live in a complex society characterized by increased “internationalization” and “interculturalization”. This is where technology can play such a crucial role. Computer-based collaboration tools, enabling students to work together in groups, greatly increase the contexts of meta-reflection on what it means to became “literate” or an “educated citizen.”. With this purpose in mind, we have established an online connection between advanced Italian language students of Smith College in Northampton, Usa and the University of Venice’s Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching course students in Italy. Students were asked to produce a final project by choosing a special socio-cultural subject (e.g. immigration/racism, gender studies, educational systems etc.), and they worked in groups of four (two Italians and two Americans). Each group analyzed a specific topic and built its project into a website by interacting and by sharing information from two different cultural perspectives – Italian students examined the subject in United States, while American students examined it in Italy. We created a Virtual Learning Environment using and adapting open resource tools (forums, bulletin board, email, etc.) We focused our work mainly on how students adapted to this specific learning process and on the evaluation criteria in terms of relational dynamics within the group and the electronic environment. The goal was to create an intercultural ground where the interaction of different worldviews can evaluate and minimize differences in socio-cultural behaviors, ideologies, and ways of communicating concepts. More importantly, we gave a chance to Italian students, trained to be teachers, to experiment this virtual environment and to reflect on new ways to improve teaching and learning in this electronic study community