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Volume 38, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1461-0213
  • E-ISSN: 1570-5595
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Abstract

Abstract

Educators have underscored the synergy between language education and civic engagement due to the potential of enhancing students’ linguistic and cultural growth through participating in social action, which is where languages and communities converge (e.g., Palpacuer Lee et al., 2018). Virtual exchange can facilitate such engagement by reaching global communities. We present findings from a longitudinal intergenerational virtual civic engagement between intermediate-level undergraduate learners of German at a private research institution on the East Coast in the U.S. and older adults in Germany. Participants engaged with tandem partners via Zoom or WhatsApp. Particular focus is on three returning tandem partnerships. The exploratory study is part of a larger program (Fuchs, 2024) and situates itself within a sociocultural framework for telecollaboration (Dooly & O’Dowd, 2012). Both authors were participant-observers (Richards, 2003). Our research set out to explore the following questions: (1) How do university language students in returning tandem partnerships perceive their virtual civic engagements with older adults in Germany? (2) How do all students perceive the impact of their civic engagement on their academic experience in relation to the course? Qualitative data were coded by the authors using NVivo 12. Findings suggest that returning tandem partnerships can be particularly helpful, especially for lower-level students, as evidenced in students’ reflections on their perspective changes, comfort levels, and the overall impact of the intergenerational exchanges.

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2025-12-11
2026-01-24

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Longitudinal civic engagement
AILA Review 38, 294 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.24045.fuc
/content/journals/10.1075/aila.24045.fuc
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): civic engagement; intercultural citizenship education (ICE); intergenerational; longitudinal; service-learning (S-L); tandem; telecollaboration; United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); virtual exchange (VE)

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