Challenges in a Chinese-Malaysian Telecollaboration Project to Develop Chinese EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence

Abstract

Numerous attempts have been made to elucidate the benefits of telecollaborative projects to develop students’ intercultural competence. Literature in the area also reveals that the success of telecollaborative exchange projects cannot be guaranteed all the time. Therefore, it is significant to analyze the failed cases for more effective telecollaboration in future studies. Using a qualitative research method, this paper presents the results of a Chinese-Malaysian WeChat telecollaboration project, focusing on the challenges encountered by Chinese EFL participants in the process of developing their intercultural competence. Five challenging factors were identified through content analysis of Chinese participants’ reflective journals and interviews, involving the sociocultural level, individual level and classroom level of challenges within O’Dowd and Ritter’s (2006) inventory of reasons for failed communication in telecollaborative projects. The paper expects to provide suggestions for precaution measures for future telecollaboration studies in Chinese EFL teaching field and contribute to intercultural communication research in the Chinese context.