VIRTUAL DUAL IMMERSION PROGRAM (TELETANDEM AND COIL)

Virtual Dual Immersion Program

(Teletandem and COIL)
 

Published By Lilia Córdova and Paula Zulaica I  2021

The virtual Dual Immersion Program is a project between Latin American Jesuit universities (AUSJAL) and Jesuit universities in the United States of America (AJCU) 

ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, participates in this program where language exchanges (teletandem) are carried out on Zoom, half in English and half in Spanish. The main objective is that students practice the foreign language they are studying, with a native speaker and, at the same time, share their knowledge to help their counterpart to do the same. The program began as a project in the fall semester in 2012, but it was consolidated as a program in 2016. 

So far, we have incurred in this project only in the combination of English-Spanish, but we are working on it in order to be able to include other languages. Right now, we are already working on a collaboration with the University of Quebec to start having French-Spanish teletandems. 

Benefits:

• Mutual learning 
• Improvement of language skills 
• Intercultural communication skills 
• Increased confidence in foreign language ability 
• Active participation in a global community 
• Use of authentic materials 
• Professional development 
• Improved conversational and interaction skills 
• Training to better understand different accents 

In addition to the language exchanges (teletandem), the program also includes other kinds of collaborations, such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) activities. 

Statistics: 

• Spring semester 2021, nine universities from the USA and one from Canada (Boston College, Canisius College, Loyola Chicago, Xavier Ohio, Minnesota State University, University of Miami, University of San Francisco, Global Gateways, XULA, Marymount University) 
• 1088 ITESO students participated in 64 one-hour sessions