What is Ab initio German Studies

Difficult global circumstances pose a challenge for face-to-face exchange in higher education level language pedagogy, creating the need for innovative digital alternatives which can be integrated into internationalisation strategies. This chapter presents such an endeavour merging translation and telecollaboration which fosters an interplay of intercultural and functional communicative competence. Combining approaches from translation studies and foreign language pedagogy, it is proposed that telecollaboration creates a plurilingual and pluricultural space within which participants from varying linguacultural backgrounds may collaborate on a common product – a translation. The translation process itself requires intercultural exchange in which participants engage in an immediate manner through online interaction. Preliminary results from a study focussing on a telecollaborative translation course implemented with Durham University German students and prospective English teachers from Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany are presented.