Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn)
Vol. 15, No. 2, May 2021, pp. 223~233
ISSN: 2089-9823 DOI: 10.11591/edulearn.v15i2.19950

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A pedagogical framework of cross-cultural online collaborative
projects in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms
Yunchai Chen, Hsueh-Hua Chuang, Aurora Lacaste
Institiute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan

Article Info

ABSTRACT

Article history:

Many researchers have focused on online collaborative learning, crosscultural communication, project-based learning, digital literacy, and digital
storytelling but there is no pedagogical framework that incorporates these
elements for English as foreign language (EFL) teaching. This study based
on the qualitative design established a pedagogical framework from three
different types of cross-cultural collaborative projects with the collected data
including students’ artifacts and project structures. We have found that the
pedagogical framework proposed here serves as a guide to facilitate different
types of cross-cultural projects in their classrooms. The multiple cases of
cross-cultural online collaborative projects in an EFL class were taught
according to the theories of project-based learning and content language
integrated learning alike, proved to follow this pedagogical framework.
Implementation is also described to give more details on how the projects
were conducted. In the end, opportunities and challenges are provided for
future implementation of online collaborative EFL projects.

Received Feb 8, 2021
Revised May 8, 2021
Accepted May 13, 2021
Keywords:
Digital storytelling
Integrated learning
Online collaboration learning
Project-based learning

This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license.

Corresponding Author:
Yunchai Chen
Institute of Education
National Sun Yat-sen University
70, Lianhai Rd., Gushan Dist., Kaohsiung City 804, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Email: jenny386@gmail.com

1.

INTRODUCTION
Poor motivations due to lack of interest and superficial learning among students, are two problems
that educators face today. Boredom, or feeling of lack of interest in school, is recognized by parents and
teachers as being common among students although it is usually assumed that good students usually have
high learning motivation so do not have the problem of feeling bored, especially those who worked harder
and studied better [1]-[5]. Studies, however, showed that even students scoring well on standardized tests
also have the problem of boredom [6]. During the late twentieth century, researchers in education found that
this type of students are the ones who have low motivation in learning in the classroom [7], specifically, to
learn in a meaningful and holistic way. By about 1990, it became clear to education researchers that boredom
is associated with the wrong structure of schooling hence there is a need to rebuild the pedagogical
framework to make students more motivated and engaged in learning in class.
Moreover, around 1990, from the assessments done on college students, it has shown that what they
learned in high school was very shallow. Even the best students from top colleges, still did not deeply and
conceptually understand the subject matter – no matter it is science, literature, or mathematics [8].
Research in learning sciences (LS), presented a possible solution to the said problems. Based on the
cognitive sciences and other disciplines, scientists have brought out the cognitive structure of deeper
conceptual understanding, released learning principles, and proved what students learned at schools was
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superficial knowledge, but not deeper understanding. Making use of research findings, education
scientists have developed new curricula, with increasing students’ engagement and deeper understanding of
conceptual knowledge.
Our contribution in addressing the aforementioned problems is to articulate the features of projectbased learning (PBL) [9], [10] that allow students to learn by doing and realizing their ideas. We put forward
suggestions to help students overcome boredom and gain deeper understanding of the subject matter by
engaging in real world activities that are similar to the activities that adult professionals participate in.
In this study, we proposed a pedagogical framework developed for cross-cultural collaborative
projects in EFL classes, and show how the framework guided the instructional design of each case. We also
discussed the implementation of the design and identified the challenges and opportunities from the design to
implementation stage to bridge the gap between the theory and practice.

2. RELATED WORKS
2.1. Project-based learning
Project-based learning is a form of situated learning [11] where students gain a deeper
understanding of the learning materials when they actively construct their understanding after applying the
ideas. Working in projects, students engage in real world problems that are important and interesting to them
and these are similar to what adult professionals and subject experts do. A classroom designed based on
project-based learning is student-centered and students can investigate real-life problems, provide
hypotheses, discuss their viewpoints, test the methods, and try out new ways. Research has demonstrated that
in project-based learning classrooms students perform better in examinations than students in traditional
mortar-and-brick classrooms [12]-[14].
Learning environments designed using the project-based approach have five major features [7], [10],
[15]: 1) A driving question or a problem to be solved is mentioned by the teacher; 2) From the driving
question, students participate in authentic and situational inquiry processes to solve the problem, which are
central to professional performance in the discipline; As students inquire on the driving question, they learn
and apply important notions; 3) Students, teachers, and community members engage in activities
collaboratively to help students find solutions to the problem raised by the driving question. This is very
closed to the complex real-life situation of expert problem-solving; 4) While students are engaged in the
inquiry process, learning technologies scaffold students’ learning and help them participate in activities
beyond their ability; 5) Students create their learning products that address the driving question. These
artifacts manifest the class’s project learning.
Project-based learning is an important teaching strategy which can foster diverse abilities and
stimulate learning attitudes amongst students. During the learning process of PBL, students acquire problemsolving, data collection, discussion, presentation, and reporting skills. Learners collaborate with each other by
communicating and discussing. It is employed with constructivism viewpoint that originated from Piaget’s
cognitive developmental theory. Educators working within the field of education and learning have identified
reforming measures and promoted project-based learning, especially when the project involves
interdisciplinary fields [16], [7], [17], [18].
With the above, it can be said that project-based learning makes students active learners and
collaborative partners. According to Holubec [19], project-based learning facilitates collaborative learning by
incorporating five elements: trust, person-to-person interaction, personal performance, interpersonal and
group skills, and group process. Project-based learning is also the best way for students to learn to create
products or to assess and solve problems using acquired knowledge and skills.
Wang, Huang and Hwang [20] have also shown that project-based learning is an innovative
approach that can cultivate students’ multiple competencies and boost their learning achievement by
acquiring 21st century skills such as problem-solving, higher-order thinking, critical thinking, communication
ability, and learning motivation.
There are eight essentials in project-based learning [21] namely: significant curriculum content, a
need to know, a driving questions, student voice and choice, 21st century skills, inquiry and innovation,
feedback and revision, and publicly presented product. Among these, ‘a need to know’ is crucial in creating a
need to know the significant curriculum content and relevant skills, also called 21st century skills [22].
2.2. Learning sciences theory behind project-based learning
Project-based learning can be traced back to over a hundred years ago, to the work done by the
educator and philosopher Dewey [23], who had researched on the process of inquiry in the Laboratory
School at the University of Chicago. Dewey argued that students’ engagement in real, meaningful tasks and
problems similar to what experts do in real-world situations will help them develop their involvement in the
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learning materials. During the past two decades, learning scientists have elaborated Dewey’s original
statement that deeper conceptual understanding results from active inquiry. These new discoveries have
given insight into how children function cognitively [24].
In the present study, we build upon four major learning sciences ideas: 1) Active construction;
2) Situational learning; 3) Interpersonal interactions; and 4) Learning tools. The drawback to having
developed materials available is lesser flexibility for teachers to customize the projects. We hoped it would
help teachers design student-centered or community-centered projects. Although a few teachers have the
professional knowledge of doing it, most teachers are not competent to develop projects. Instead of returning
to cookbook experiments or to teacher proof curriculum, models are provided for teachers on how to employ
project-based science and strategies to help learners engage more in scientific practices.
Like flipped-classroom, project-based learning is also a student-centered teaching method that aims
to cultivate student teamwork, interdisciplinary skills, critical thinking, interpersonal communication, and
project management abilities [25], [26]. Projects and group learning are used for students to begin working
with group mates rather than merely listening and reading abstract concepts on their own so that they can
apply these concepts to real-life problems [27], [28]. Online project-based learning (OPBL) is a popular
approach that uses technology to increase the efficiency of PBL [29], [30].
2.3. Online collaborative learning
Online collaborative learning (OCL) provides a framework of learning in which students are
encouraged and supported to work together to create and share knowledge, or to invent and to explore ways
to innovate and diffuse ideas. They seek the conceptual knowledge needed to identify, assess and solve
problems rather than recite what they think is the right answer [31]. Computer-supported collaborative
learning (CSCL) is based on a pedagogy where learners construct knowledge through online group
discussions [32]. Instructors have based their teaching on the concept of knowledge construction by gradual
building of knowledge mainly through asynchronous online discussions between students and instructor.
Therefore, discussion or interaction is an essential part of OCL. However, OCL more emphasizes on the
cross-cultural communication.
2.4. Content language integrated learning and tele-collaboration
In order to focus not just on the language itself, it is important to adopt an appropriate teaching
approach to facilitate understanding. Therefore, content language integrated learning (CLIL) was adopted in
this research. CLIL is widely adopted in European countries where there are different languages spoken by
the students. In addition to its dual-focused educational approach, according to Do Coyle, Hood, and Marsh
[33], there are four elements included in a successful CLIL lesson: content, communication, cognition and
culture. Content refers to progression of knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements of a
defined curriculum; communication refers to using language to learn while learning to use language;
cognition involves development thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and concrete),
understanding, and language; culture means exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings,
which deepens awareness of otherness and self [34].
In addition, four language skills are focused on in the CLIL lesson: listening, reading, speaking, and
writing [34]-[37]. Under the CLIL context with equal focus on content, communication, cognition, culture
and four language skills, the research aims to make clear whether students could obtain sustainability literacy
and knowledge through intercultural telecollaborative projects.
2.5. Digital storytelling
Lambert [38] indicated that digital storytelling (DST) originated in 1980s and was used by
community theater workers to record, produce and disseminate stories. However, it has gradually
transformed the art of storytelling into personal tales with technical tools by using images, music, sound, and
author’s own voice. It proved to be a successful way to trigger students’ interest [38]. Collaboration
motivates and helps students to present knowledge in a meaningful way. With systematic teaching
instruction, user-friendly software and appropriate evaluation, DST provides an effective way to motivate
students in creating narrative which generates both knowledge and meaning. The fundamental components of
storytelling can be understood in four phases: pre-production, production, post-production and distribution
[39]. Shelby-Caffey [40] also defines the seven elements of a digital story namely: 1) Point of view; 2)
Dramatic questions; 3) Emotional content; 4) Economy; 5) Pacing; 6) The gift of voice; and 7) Soundtrack
[41]. With scaffolding, teachers can use digital storytelling to enhance students’ information and
communications technology (ICT) literacy and also help struggling language learners.

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Digital storytelling is a way to demonstrate a learner’s learning process. In this research, DST was
used in a language project to motivate students, and enhance students’ ICT literacy and learning
achievement.
Online collaborative learning, cross-cultural communication, project-based learning and digital
storytelling have been discussed in various educational researches [1]-[5]. The individual pedagogical
frameworks for the said areas have been established but there is still no integrated pedagogical framework for
English as foreign language (EFL) teachers to incorporate all these elements into their EFL teaching.

3.

RESEARCH METHOD
In this study, a qualitative design was adopted by establishing a pedagogical framework from
different types of cross-cultural collaborative projects. Data including students’ artifacts and project
structures are collected to form a pedagogical framework for online collaboration project.
From the literature, we have noticed the process of cross-cultural collaborative projects where
students begin from the stage of knowing to the stage of doing with the CLIL approach. In the Knowing
stage, a need to know is a crucial point when starting the cross-cultural projects. Students’ knowledge has to
be constructed to solve a real-world problem by means of online collaborative learning. In the stage of doing,
students have to apply what they learn in the knowing stage to produce project products which are the digital
stories. In this research, under the idea of project-based learning with the CLIL teaching approach, it is
explored whether students can obtain deeper conceptual understanding through cross-cultural collaborative
project. The framework is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Proposed pedagogical framework for project-based learning

With the project on Cyber Academy, in the beginning stage of the project, students will be aware of
why ICT helps them to learn in their daily lives. In this way, Students’ needs to know have been raised. The
teacher structures the project in order to construct students’ knowledge about introducing different ICT
approaches. Students submit their task assignments on the site through collaborative learning by watching
and reading others’ works, commenting and evaluating on them. After the knowledge-constructing tasks,
students are able to apply what they learn to make a digital story to introduce the best ICT approach for
learning they have found. The digital stories are their project products in the doing stage.
There are three cross-cultural cases discussed in this research namely the Cyber Academy, Global
Issues and Global Forest Link. The design of the three projects is in line with the proposed pedagogical
framework for project-based learning. In the Cyber Academy project, Taiwan has collaborated with the
Philippines to have a cyber-to-cyber project for eight months via the online collaborative platform, the Cyber
Academy [42]. The Global Issues is a project with Japan, which is being done every semester through
Moodle or Skype. The Global Forest Link is a year-long project associating with Russia and America via
Global Forest Link, an online collaborative DST website.
3.1. Projects with the Philippines
The project with the Philippines and the United States in 2013 was operated via Cyber Academy
with digital storytelling films as students’ learning projects; in 2016; however, the project just involved the
Philippines and Taiwan. The project website is shown in Figure 2.
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In these projects, students were grouped into five. Each team introduced themselves using
PowerPoint. After the teacher has introduced the project, students explored the topic, “What is the best
approach for ICT learning?” The students worked on the project collaboratively and created a narrative
through Digital Storytelling. After the team projects were completed, the students uploaded their DST
outputs into the Cyber Academy. The last phase was the peer evaluation where students view other teams’
DST outputs and gave comments. The teacher assigned grades for each student after the presentation and
peer evaluation.
In this case, we observed how the stage of knowing led to the stage of doing. These two stages
constitute the elements in this pedagogical framework. In the project, students first need to obtain the
knowledge related to the topic and then they are guided by teachers to inquire on the best approach of ICT
learning. It shows that students’ learning goes from the stage of knowing to the stage of doing.

(a) Cyber Academy webpage

(b) Participants from Taiwan and the Philippines

Figure 2. (a) The Cyber Academy and (b) Screen capture of the submitted student outputs from Taiwan
and Philippines.

3.2. Projects with Japan
The projects with Japan were conducted through Skype video conferencing. There were one or two
sessions of Skype conferencing in a semester since the semesters start at different times in Taiwan (Wunshan
Senior High School) and Japan (Toyama Minami High School). Approximately 30 students from each
country participated in the Skype® sessions. The Skype® sessions served as venue for students’
introductions. In the four years of implementation starting from 2015 through 2018, topics included pop
culture, teenager’s life, sustainable development goals, and the GOMI (garbage) project.
During the project, students were paired up with students in Japan. Students were notified of the
topic before the Skype session so they will be able to read on the topic and practice the dialogue with their
peers first. During the Skype session with Japanese students, students introduced themselves first and then
discuss the selected topics with the aid of computers, pads, and other smart devices.
With regard the teaching procedure, Taiwanese students were grouped and were asked to complete a
self-introduction worksheet and then practice in pairs. After the students have completed the self-introduction
worksheet, they formulated questions related to the discussion topic for a particular session. Resources on the
subtopics were also provided. Through the above, the students were trained with problem-solving skills to
deal with communication problems and technical problems. During the Skype session, students were asked
also to fill in the Skype session worksheet. After the session, the students were asked to reflect assess, and
self-evaluate. The activities are shown in Figure 3.

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(a) Skype Conference Worksheet

(b) Skype Conference on Japan local newspaper

(c) Skype session with Japanese students

(d) Skype happily with Japanese students

Figure 3. Clockwise from the top picture: (a) Sample worksheet, (b) The news feature in a local paper in
Japan, (c) Students engaging in mobile learning, and (d) Computer-based interaction.

3.3. Projects with United States of America and Russia
The third project mentioned in this research involved Taiwan, the United States of America (USA),
and Russia. The project made use of the Deforestation via Global Forest Link [43], a website where the
students can upload their digital stories. It took approximately two semesters (eight months) for students to
make their digital stories and upload them in the said site.
In this CLIL classroom, an intercultural tele-collaborative project with the theme A Global Forest
was facilitated by the teacher from the USA, Russia and Taiwan, which is shown in Figure 4. Students from
the USA, Russia and Taiwan worked collaboratively to complete the project, the final product of which were
short videos about deforestation (DSTs) uploaded to the website.
For this project, the students also worked in groups of four. Each team introduced themselves by
using PowerPoint slides. Students completed the worksheets on deforestation after which they created
their own DST outputs in the form of short videos on deforestation. The Table 1 shows the schedule of
project activities.

Table 1. Timetable of activities
Week
Week 1-2
Week 3-4
Week 5-8
Week 9-10
Week 11-12

Activity
Introduction of deforestation
Photo collection and description
Video-making skills
Action-taking to preserve forests
Project final presentation

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(a) The home page of the project site

229

(b) Video-conference with American and Russian
teachers

Figure 4. (a) The Global Forest website and (b) Students participated in a video conference in the project.

The project was also facilitated on a class Facebook group with CLIL teaching instruction where
content and language are dual focus in the classroom. Students had to complete the tasks and submitted their
worksheets to the Google Drive. Students’ worksheets were also digitally stored in the Google Drive.
Students’ worksheets and students’ forest photos on the site are shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6.

(a) Project Facebook Group

(b) Project Google Drive

(c) CLIL reading worksheet 1

(d) CLIL reading worksheet 2 with questions

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(f) Urban forest photos taken by students

(e) CLIL Comprehension questions
Figure 5. (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), and (f) are sample works of students

(a) Photo taking and presentation

(b) Students’ video files on Google Drive

Figure 6. (a) Students giving their report and (b) The uploaded final video of each group

4.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Feedbacks from students from Taiwan were positive, saying that this project enhanced their
teamwork, and English writing and speaking skills. The students mentioned that through the project, they
learned to communicate with their peers about the global problem of deforestation and gained broader
perspective, awareness, and appreciation of the earth’s resources with their critical thinking skills. They even
brainstormed for creative ideas to solve those problems. This echoes with the PBL experiences students gain
in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) High Schools because the 21 st century skills include
communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity prepare students for their
academic performance and future career pursuits in [44]. Besides, students said that after learning from the
project, they need to work together to curb deforestation, adding that humans should find a balance in
ecosystems protection and economic development. These projects also bridge socio-economic gaps because
students who cannot afford to go abroad to study were able to interact with international students through the
cross-cultural collaboration aspect of the projects. All students should have the opportunities to strengthen
their language and literacy skills in spite of their socioeconomic background. On the other hand, teachers
own the decision to include students from different cultural, linguistic, physical and academic backgrounds
in [45].

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For teachers, the projects offer an opportunity for continuous professional development on the area
of global citizenship using various teaching technology. With the emergence of an international leadership
community, teachers from all over the world can share their ideas and initiate projects easily. With the
international partnership for projects, teachers as change agents at an international level collaborate with
international partners and practice action research, which will all contribute to teacher growth in [46]
Collaborative projects are not without challenges. However, for teachers, the biggest problem is how
to secure stable funding sources for the purchase of software and hardware, expenses during field trips, and
budget for other resources. A study done in Nigeria in [47] suggested that government should provide
sufficient computers and ICT devices for school administration, teaching and learning. Because of the crosscultural nature of the projects, teachers also need to consider the time differences between Taiwan and
partner countries when arranging real-time online sessions. This findings in accordance with the research
done in Jakarta in [48] with 32 EFL teachers on their perception of using ICT show that when the teachers
are faced with the issues about facilities and technical expertise, they asked help from technicians or
colleagues and they recognized the importance of attending training to strengthen their skills in ICT uses
in teaching.
English teachers also need technology know-how and assistance to deal with a variety of technical
problems students face in the online classroom such as how to edit video clips and how to upload files to the
Google Drive. Sometimes, the technical problems came from the instability of school Internet connection.
Moreover, they need to develop cross-cultural communication skills to coordinate efficiently with their
foreign counterparts regarding how to facilitate the projects. Copyright issues for artifacts that were obtained
from the internet are also a concern for the teachers. In one recent research in [49], it mentioned that
preservice elementary teachers also had science teaching anxiety when working on 3D printing technology,
which will be the field of research for further research on teacher education.
Cross-cultural collaborative projects can be challenging for students who are non-English speakers
because they need to focus/double up efforts on their language skills such as listening speaking, reading and
writing, especially when they encounter obstacles. Completing the project at different time zones, and at a
distance from each other could also be a challenge for students especially when they have to do it outside
regular class hours without the supervision of the teacher. One study in [50] also proved that learning and
activation can both exist inside and outside the classroom and this kind of learning provides optimal language
learning environment with four case studies from the classroom to the wider world.

5.

CONCLUSION
Cross-cultural projects in EFL classes can be carried out using the pedagogical framework presented
in this paper. The integration of project-based learning, online collaborative learning, CLIL, telecollaboration and digital storytelling into this framework offers a solution to student behaviors such as
boredom and surface-level learning that hinder quality and meaningful learning. Implementing the projects
would require considerable time and efforts from the teachers but the pedagogical framework that we have
proposed could serve as a starting point and a guide to facilitate more holistic and integrated cross-cultural
projects in their classrooms.

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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS
Yunchai Chen is A Ph.D student at the National Sun Yat-sen University. She holds a
Master’s in linguistics from the department of English, National Kaohsiung Normal
University. Her research interests include English language teaching and learning,
international education, bilingual education and global competence.

Dr. Hsueh-Hua Chuang is a director of Center for Teacher Education and Graduate
Institute of Education, and professor of International Graduate Program of Education and
Human Development at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. Her research interests
include distance learning, faculty professional development, and technology adoptions at
schools.

Aurora Lacaste is A PhD student at the National Sun Yat Sen University. She holds a
Masters in Zoology from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Her research
interests include biodiversity education, education for sustainable development, and open
and distance e-learning.

A pedagogical framework of cross-cultural online collaborative projects in English as … (Chen, Yunchai)