Marina Orsini-Jones

This book presents a snapshot of innovative blended learning practices that either stem from the affordances of web 2.0 technologies or illustrate the re-purposing of 'older' ones, like the creation of tailor-made virtual learning environments, to set up telecollaborative projects. It is based on the papers presented at the B-MELTT: Flipping the Blend through MALL, MOOCs, and (Blended) OIL - New Directions in CALL symposium held at Coventry University in June 2017. It is hoped that the work presented here can provide some ideas on pedagogically sound ways of blending technology into higher education curriculums to enhance both the digital literacy and the intercultural awareness of all stakeholders involved.

This work builds on the assumption that language learning and teaching needs to be made more relevant to the 'glocalised' digital world we live in. Its authors argue that staff in Higher Education (HE) must prepare students for effective online interaction and explores the digital, linguistic and critical intercultural components of ‘global citizenship’. The book pivots around an innovative research study; linguistic politeness frameworks are revisited to analyse the written online exchanges on an Online International Learning (OIL) - or intercultural telecollaborative - project between the UK and France. Through the use of cyberpragmatics, and inspired by Meyer and Land’s ‘threshold concept pedagogy’, the authors examine the challenges and solutions identified by an ‘expert student’ in managing rules of engagement and intercultural awareness when interacting online. This book will appeal to students and scholars of applied linguistics, education, sociolinguistics and interculturalcommunication, and provide a valuable resource for teacher trainers, language teachers and educators across the world.