Establishing learning objectives in teletandem context

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the issues related to the establishment of learning objectives for the interactions that occur in the virtual context of teletandem. In order to do so, we base our discussion on the theoretical contribution of the Language Teaching for Specific Purposes approach (HUTCHINSON; WATERS, 1987; ROBINSON, 1991; CELANI et al, 2005), which considers language teaching based on students' learning needs and can be applied to different educational contexts of a specific nature. The analyzed data come from questionnaires applied to teletandem interactants, students of a Brazilian university who interacted with students from a Mexican university during the second semester of 2018. The methodological perspective of the work is anchored in the grounded theory (CHARMAZ, 2009), whose methods are based on the systematic collection of data, which, after the analysis, give rise to concepts. The discussions undertaken here may serve as a subsidy to mediators and interactors who work in this online environment of teaching and learning languages, in the sense that they can direct and enhance the process from the established objectives.