Critical issues in telecollaborative task design

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Abstract
In this article we examine how instructors make decisions about task design in telecollaboration and the factors that influence these decisions during the actual implementation of the tasks. We begin with a review of the recent literature of online intercultural exchanges to identify and describe a typology of 12 different types of tasks and task sequences. Next, we illustrate through two case studies – both post-secondary telecollaborative exchanges between learners of English and Spanish – how such decisions about task design are reached by partner instructors prior to an exchange, and how that task design is negotiated throughout the exchange with different consequences on the learning outcomes. Finally, based on this two-step analysis, we make recommendations about factors that instructors and researchers should consider when designing and implementing tasks for their telecollaborative exchanges.

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