One thing Ayat is clear about is the need to carefully manage the telecollaboration,
which Corbett (2010: 7) states is a very important factor if online exchanges are to
be effective. The exchanges were also planned to be as authentic as possible, and
although they involved substantial teacher preparation, they can be claimed to be
authentic as defined by Higgins (1991: 5) as ‘anything not created by a teacher for
the purpose of demonstrating language at work’.
To prepare for the interviews, each teacher thought of a context for the language
practice so that it would fit with their syllabus. In Ayat’s case, there was a unit in the
coursebook she was using with her learners on global warming, with one section
covering rainforests. She decided to start there, and asked her students about
countries where rainforests could be found. They mentioned Chile, Argentina and
Brazil. Ayat then asked them what Argentina was famous for and finished by asking
the students what they thought about interviewing someone from Argentina. They
were all positive about this opportunity.