Fabian Krengel, PhD candidate, began his virtual exchange journey at the University of Göttingen in the centre of Germany. He’s undertaking his design-based VE at Regensburg university in Bavaria focusing on using VE to train pre-service English Language teachers on how to perceive English as a global language to encourage deep discussion on global topics.
“We want to enable future teachers to consider English a global language and we want them to teach it in a mindful way to account for the global role English plays as a power language. These teachers need to know how to have conversations on how to participate in global discourses with global topics at the heart,” explains Fabian.
Tell us more about the design and content of your PhD
“These are design-based research studies and I’ve undertaken about seven month-long VEs, not all of which are part of the study, just to be clear. Prior to this I had developed an idea which is comparable to Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE) when I read Robert O’Dowd’s Transnational model of VE and the idea of global education and task-based language teaching.
“Based on all these elements and existing models of VE, I developed an intervention which we could use to train future English teachers.
“And I subsequently implemented that. Across multiple cycles, we gathered data, we interviewed students and teachers – and I want to stress – we only worked with people who did not have English as a native language – therefore only non-native speakers of English. I worked with students from Brazil, Israel, Chile and Turkey for example.”
Why the focus on Critical Virtual Exchange? And how do you define that?
“I have a background as an English and geography teacher and wrote my masters’ thesis on transboundary water management in eastern Europe. This meant I was already working with researchers in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Germany. Due to this collaboration, we soon realised that we needed to find common ground if we were to discuss cross-boundary issues at that time. And we needed to have common goals, despite political tensions and differences of opinion.
“It was this passion around geographical thinking and seeing the world as interconnected that I found mirrored in Robert O’Dowd’s piece on transnational VE. It fit really well with the idea of using English and its status as lingua franca or global language to facilitate that. So the idea of using English as a language to empower students and teachers and encourage them to talk about differences.”
Can you talk a bit about the role of coloniality within the idea of working with non-native speakers in the research?
“Yes 100%, we do acknowledge colonialism as a reason for the global reach of the English language. But it’s also true that it is a way of communicating with people no matter where they are.
Accounting for differences in language levels has also been really important. We still have these forms of hierarchy – I see that – working with my students in Germany, and Sweden and Turkey. Rarely are all the students on the same language level. That is the nature of the beast. But still, they all realised they were speaking in a commonly shared second or third language. In this way, we created this third space.”
How do you manage the different levels in the virtual exchange, or do you?
“We generally try a hands off approach and give students the opportunity to work with a local partner if they are more comfortable with that. Also, using both synchronous video and asynchronous activities, we encourage them to use all other possible ways of communicating these days. And there are many. Normally students are very patient and kind with each other.”
What is the structure for these activities?
“We follow the 3-step approach which is now widely established for VEs of icebreakers, comparison and analysis and collaboration. The students participate in local and team exchanges, virtually and in actual physical classrooms, both of which are at the heart of the virtual exchange. We do this together with a small number of joint sessions when everyone is present online. These plenaries normally take place during the introductory stages and the concluding stages of our international collaboration.
“With the students, we use a backwards planning approach where we tell them they are all going to be English teachers. They are asked to design English language teaching materials and learning tasks that deal with global issues. Controversial issues are gladly accepted around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).
“This approach makes them reflect on what they care about, what is relevant locally to them, and they ask themselves what is the situation like at their partner’s place, region or country. Before all that, we do icebreakers so they can build trust first. They can’t discuss controversial topics without trust.”
What are some of the tricky topics?
“When working with students from Turkey and Sweden we had the idea of discussing free press and journalism. We had some students in Turkey telling us how difficult it is for them to make that a topic in class, even if it is a good starting point. And that was because in Turkey there could be repercussions for them if you are critical of the government for example.
“Right now, we cannot ignore what is happening in the Middle East and the Israel/Palestine situation. We’ve been working with students from the region since 2021 and we realised we have to address this, and encourage listening and learning in order to recognise what we don’t know. We must all be willing to learn.
“I like the idea of ‘brave spaces’ – an idea by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens – of finding a way of still talking about things even if we don’t know everything or have a difference of opinion. Instead of agreeing to disagree they call it ‘controversy with civility’, and it means acknowledging we have different viewpoints but understanding where our knowledge comes from. It’s about asking which history do I have and which group do I belong to? What is the influence of my education?
“In the safe spaces approach, we tend to say to not take things personally. I prefer to think about the intention and impact of my utterances. Sometimes students have good intentions, but say things that may hurt others. So, taking a step back and reflecting on that has proven to be very important.
Using the idea of brave spaces in VE
“With regard to the Israel/Palestine situation, we have encountered a lot of resistance at the start, a wariness and it’s daunting to the students to dive into that.
“Students say they don’t feel informed enough. So we provide reading material ahead of the virtual exchange. You knw the TED talk ‘The danger of a single story’, Chimamanda Adichie cites a particular Palestinian poet, Mourid Barghouti, so we investigated why she quoted him and chose him and tried to investigate what his story was.
In this way, we take the angle of using art as a way of distancing yourself from the issue and creating a common space. It can give you permission to speak.”
What else would you like to add to this discussion?
“Two things – first, providing opportunities of leaving the comfort zone but allowing students to return to safe reflection spaces like a local classroom and including opportunities for anonymous sharing of difficult things is really crucial.
And second, I think that VE can be this wonderful thing that can connect people despite geographical distances especially for those who can’t travel or live in dire circumstances.”