Abstract
This chapter describes a service-learning (SL) project designed through telecollaboration aiming to improve the linguistic competence in English as a foreign language (EFL) and the intercultural awareness of children at risk of social exclusion studying in a local association in Málaga (Spain). Due to the restrictions posed by COVID-19 in spring of 2020, the project was based on telecollaborative service-learning (TSL) and carried out through several online workshops designed by a pre-service EFL teacher and held by international students doing an exchange program in the city of Málaga. This case study shows that this TSL project provided children at risk of social exclusion with the opportunity of being in contact with international students, other cultures, and using the English language in a real, meaningful context, while initial teacher training also improved by facing real-world situations.
TopIntroduction
Being understood from a wide perspective, Service-Learning (SL) is an educational methodology that combines learning and community service, so that students can engage with real societal needs while learning (Erickson & Anderson, 1997; Umpleby & Rakicevik, 2008). According to Felten and Clayton (2011): “Service-learning is emerging as a central component of efforts to connect both disciplinary learning and general education with this historic and increasingly salient commitment to public purposes” (p. 75). SL is therefore accepted as a vehicle for community engagement and a high-impact pedagogy. Although SL is increasing in European universities, Spain is still far from implementing it as part of teacher training (Álvarez-Castillo et al., 2017). Furthermore, telecollaboration is nowadays seen as a powerful tool for bridging educational gaps, not only the digital gap (Lister, 2022), but also the language gap (Villegas-Paredes et al., 2022). In fact, during the COVID-19 pandemic, more telecollaboration projects were implemented to provide solutions for the impossibility of having face-to-face lessons (Huertas-Abril, 2020; Komatsu, 2023; Parsons et al., 2022).
The telecollaborative online learning project described in this chapter was developed thanks to the synergy of the SL methodology and telecollaboration. The project was carried out with the Association Altamar, which works to enhance the educational conditions of children at risk of social exclusion (i.e., “at risk of poverty, or severely materially and socially deprived or living in a household with a very low work intensity”, European Commission, 2021, para. 1) in the province of Málaga (Spain), and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Málaga Association, an organization for international students studying in Málaga. Considering the limited literature on the connections among SL, social exclusion, language learning and telecollaboration –especially during and after the global health emergency of 2020–, this chapter aims at shedding some light on this topic. Therefore, it presents the results of a case study carried out through the use of workshops designed as part of a telecollaboration project to develop the communicative competence in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) of children at risk of exclusion.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Primary Education: Also known as elementary education, it is typically the first formal educational stage (normally with students from 6 to 11 years old) coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education.
Linguistic Competence: The speaker’s linguistic knowledge of a language. In the case of a foreign language, the knowledge that the speaker has acquired, either consciously or unconsciously, about that language in relation to grammar, vocabulary, and syntax.
Risk of Social Exclusion: The state of people with a low socio-economic status, which limits their opportunities with respect to the rest of society ( Escarbajal-Frutos et al., 2015 ).
Pre-Service Teacher: A person who is in training to become a teacher and is not currently working.
Teacher Training: Training for people who want to become teachers, whether in the form of a degree, a master’s degree, or other types of training courses, and which prepares them for the working stage and the problems they may encounter when teaching.
Discord: An instant messaging and voice chat service that allows users to communicate via voice calls, video calls, text messages, or with files and multimedia content in private conversations or as part of communities called “servers”.
Slack: An instant messaging program in which users can communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messages, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called “workspaces”.
Telecollaborative Service Learning: A form of service learning that uses technology to connect students with service opportunities and promote learning outcomes.
Telecollaboration: The use of technology to create remote projects and create synergies between different people or institutions through digital resources.