We find ourselves at a pivotal moment where the role of generative AI and other technological tools is reshaping the way we teach and learn languages. The question that lies before us is not whether these innovations will shape the future, but rather how we, as educators, will harness their potential to create meaningful and effective language instruction.
The title of our conference, No Fate: The Future is Not Set, underscores our belief that the future is not predetermined. We hope that our conference will serve both as a platform for collaboration and a catalyst for change as it is via the collective effort of educators, researchers, and innovators that the trajectory of language teaching and learning will be determined. By fostering collaboration, sharing insights, and pushing the boundaries of what is possible, we can shape the future of language education.
Despite its increasing popularity and widely reported success, the use of virtual exchange has not been very popular in the field of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). The Chinese language program at a U.S. liberal arts college has been experimenting with various types of virtual exchange projects in partnership with Chinese students at a Chinese university in China in the past years. To further promote virtual exchange in the CFL field, this article attempts to provide a pedagogical reflection of one of the telecollaborative exchanges implemented at this college, outlining the description of the exchange, the rationale of the project design, learning outcomes, pedagogical challenges, and practical implications for future Chinese-American virtual exchange projects. The positive learning outcomes of the described exchange indicate that the combination of the e-tandem model and the telecollaboration model poses a promising direction for future virtual exchanges. The reported pedagogical challenges reveal that Chinese language instructors need to take a wide range of factors into consideration in virtual exchange design, including time difference, target language proficiency gap, workload, task type, and more.
