Virtual Exchange for English Language Teaching (VEELT): Engagement and inclusion challenges

This paper reports on a study exploring students’ engagement with the project Virtual Exchange for English Language Teaching (VEELT). With the aim to provide insights into how we can better engage students, ensuring that future virtual exchanges are more inclusive, this paper focuses on the behavioural, cognitive, and affective engagement dimensions in an exchange utilising English as an International Language (EIL). VEELT involved 53 undergraduate and postgraduate students on English education courses in the UK, Mexico and Spain whose mother tongue was not English and who interacted both synchronously and asynchronously on topics relating to their ELT syllabus in their respective higher education (HE) institutions. The three distinctive features of this paper are: its focus on the three above mentioned engagement dimensions; the discussion relating to English as an International Language (EIL) in VEs and the involvement of students who were trained as e-mediators in Zoom breakout rooms in facilitating the VE task completion. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected to analyse the impact of the VE on the students’ ELT learning journey and their levels of engagement with the VE. While the students’ evaluation of their VEELT experience was positive on the whole, a number of engagement and inclusion challenges were identified. Findings indicate that affective engagement is central to successful participation in VEs, and that strategies such as multilingual introductions, peer mediation, and co-created content can foster more inclusive and equitable learning experiences.