Trainee teachers’ engagement in initial synchronous virtual exchange interactions

This study sets out to explore how trainee teachers engage with each other in an initial synchronous virtual exchange task. We adopt Gijsen’s (2021) task engagement parameter of partner orientation in combination with multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris, 2004) to investigate how different verbal and coverbal modes contribute to establishing a connection between partners and engagement in a virtual exchange task. Our context is a virtual exchange involving trainee language teachers from French and Dutch institutions. Analysis of trainee teachers’ first online synchronous interaction reveals three extensions of Gijsen’s task parameter of engagement: talking about a common fact/interest, expressing empathy, and making an un/favourable comparison to their partner’s culture. These new extended markers of task engagement were reinforced by our multimodal analysis which showed that during these moments, interactions displayed higher modal density. With these results, we provide concrete recommendations for enhancing learner engagement in virtual exchange. Our results contribute to a more holistic understanding of task engagement in online environments and help identify effective strategies and subsequent recommendations for teacher educators to maximise engagement, and thus learning, in virtual exchange projects.