Using AI to enable intercultural communication through virtual exchange projects for pre-service teachers

Abstract

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is an effective and accessible method of facilitating student communication without spending the large amounts of money that traditional study abroad programs entail. This is of particular benefit for education majors, who are required to complete various periods of practical training in schools, making study abroad unfeasible for most students. Unfortunately, Japanese education majors are often not proficient in English, so communication in COIL can be very challenging. This research project sought to find a way in which pre-service teachers without high levels of English proficiency could collaborate with teachers at international schools using English as a lingua franca with the aid of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enable virtual exchange to take place smoothly.