Promoting intercultural competence of ESP learners through virtual exchanges: a thematic analysis approach

In recent years, there has been an increasing practice of Virtual Exchanges (VEs) to help EFL learners, especially ESP graduates develop their intercultural abilities and language skills. This research study aims to gain insight into how e-collaborative learning can serve as a fertile environment that supports their intercultural development. To this end, we used an online non-participant observation to record students' talk-in-interactions that were later analysed following a deductive theme-based approach using Byram (1997) model of intercultural competence, and Kramsch (1993) “sphere of interculturality” was adopted to describe the how of intercultural development. The sample population consisted of 19 ESP students from the Department of English Language at Abou Bakr Belkaid University, Algeria paired with students from East Carolina, Colombia and India. Results revealed that e-collaborative learning in VE is beneficial and could help ESP students enhance their intercultural abilities by co-constructing a third culture space. Overall, the researchers encourage ESP students to go through VE experiences to meet modern society’s needs.