The Canadian Modern Language Review
Special Issue 2027
Although within language learning, the word authentic is widely evoked, virtual exchanges, offer up opportunities to go beyond traditional in-class teaching by enabling learners to communicate and interact with speakers of target language communities. Since the advent of the internet in the 1990s, instructors of second/foreign/additional languages have increasingly engaged students in virtual exchanges (or telecollaboration) as a means to develop language and/or intercultural competence (O’Dowd, 2017). Such emerging practices currently underway portend a potentially transformative paradigm shift in terms of the way language learning and teaching are conceptualized. This special issue is dedicated to the exploration of these practices.
This special issue invites contributions on a range of topics, including (but not limited to):
- virtual exchanges, including eTandem, in elementary and secondary school contexts
- exchanges with at least one Canadian partner
- evidence of gains pertaining to language learning
- role of multimodality, including translanguaging/plurilingualism, in regard to negotiation of meaning/form
- comparisons of eTandem and lingua franca with respect to language and/or cultural learning
- benefits and challenges related to intercultural exchanges
- teacher perspectives in terms of how exchanges are conceptualized and implemented
- virtual reality or artificial intelligence (e.g. ChatGPT) in the context of virtual exchanges
- exchanges involving less learned or minority languages, including indigenous languages
- integration of virtual exchanges, including eTandem, in teacher education courses
- integration of virtual exchanges in the foreign language curriculum (K-12, higher education, vocational education and training, etc.)
recognition scheme of virtual exchange participation by awarding degree-relevant academic credits and workload reduction for the organizers (teachers and professors).
Deadline for submitting an article: Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Both research and more pedagogically oriented articles for the In the Classroom section will be accepted. Submissions can be written in English or French and must be sent electronically through the ScholarOne system: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/cmlr Receipt of manuscripts will be acknowledged by ScholarOne.