Developing L2 Intercultural Competence in an Online Context through Didactic Audiovisual Translation

Abstract

Developing intercultural competence is one of the most important aspects when mastering a second language (L2, henceforth). This can be achieved through different approaches, but this paper focuses on the possibility of acquiring this skill online through the use of Didactic Audiovisual Translation (DAT). Here, we present the findings of the TRADILEX Project, which has produced data that support the ability of DAT to encourage motivation in learners while they develop integrated L2 skills in general and intercultural competence in particular through a combination of intrinsic and explicit cultural components presented in different lesson plans.

1. Introduction

There is no such a thing as a language devoid of cultural references, as language and culture are inherently interconnected (Byram 1997; Kramsch 1993). Mastering an L2 extends beyond linguistic proficiency alone and involves understanding and effectively negotiating the cultural context embedded within that language (Rodríguez-Arancón 2023). L2 learners, therefore, must not only acquire linguistic skills but also navigate the cultural nuances present in any type of oral or written text (Kramsch 1998). Although when using an L2 we still carry our own identity, the way that we relate to others must adapt in order to fulfil the goal intended in our communication exchange, which requires the development of intercultural competence (Risager 2007).

In recent years, online learning environments have gained prominence in L2 education as they can offer synchronous and asynchronous opportunities for authentic cultural exposure and interaction (Belz and Thorne 2006). One innovative approach that holds promise for developing intercultural competence is DAT, which can combine audiovisual materials with implicit and explicit cultural components, providing learners with rich and authentic cultural contexts for language acquisition (Lertola 2018). Through DAT, learners not only develop their linguistic abilities but can also gain a deeper understanding of cultural perspectives, norms, values and practices.

The objective of this paper is to illustrate how DAT can support the development of intercultural competence through the results obtained in the TRADILEX Project (Audiovisual Translation as a Didactic Resource in Foreign Language Education). TRADILEX, an I+D+i project (2020–2023) coordinated by a research group of the UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia), which involves Spanish and international higher education institutions, uses a quasi-experimental design to analyse the degree of improvement that the participants involved achieve in their integrated production and reception skills, mediation, and intercultural competence after carrying out a series of complete online Lesson Plans (LPs). It is a long-term study with funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (reference no. PID2019-107362GA-l00).

The LPs considered in this paper include several modes of Audiovisual Translation (AVT), such as subtitling, voice-over, dubbing, audio description and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (Talaván and Lertola 2022). They follow a thorough methodological proposal of scaffolded content addressing the needs of B1- and B2-level students of English, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe 2020). Prior to its launch, the project had been tested in several pilot studies to guarantee the quality of the contents (Plaza Lara and Gonzalo Llera 2022; Sánchez-Requena et al. 2022; Ávila-Cabrera and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming; Talaván and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming) and the validity of the data collection tools, (Couto-Cantero et al. 2021) with very good results.

2. Literature Review

AVT is now widely visible and gathering momentum due to the fact that there is a need for it in the ever-growing industries associated with audiovisual genres, such as films, TV series, documentaries and cartoons, and the media (cinema, TV, DVD, mobile technology, Internet platforms, etc.) (Ávila-Cabrera and Rodríguez-Arancón 2021), to make their products available to a wider audience. With millions of users consuming these AVT products as a form of home or on-the-move entertainment, there are also numerous scholars carrying out studies in varied lines of research (Díaz Cintas 2019).

Media products have been used in L2 teaching for decades as they provide examples of realistic situations of oral communication (Herrero and Vanderschelden 2019). Research on and practice with the pedagogical applications of AVT products eventually moved from passive support for learning with interlingual or intralingual subtitles, for example, to the active approach of creating revoicing or captioning for videos. DAT has become a field of research that is gaining a solid position in academia, as it presents consistently positive results (Lertola 2019a; Talaván 2020). When students get involved in DAT tasks, they transfer verbal language in audiovisual media by means of captioning and revoicing tasks (subtitling, dubbing, voice-over, audio description, etc.), “where they transfer the original message using diverse mediation skills, into written form or into an alternative oral form (be it through intralingual, interlingual, intersemiotic, or creative translation)” (Talaván and Lertola 2022, p. 24).

There is available research on the benefits of standard and reverse interlingual subtitling with regard to listening comprehension (Talaván and Rodríguez-Arancón 2014a), writing skills (Talaván and Rodríguez-Arancón 2014b; Talaván et al. 2016), vocabulary acquisition (Lertola 2019b) and pragmatic awareness (McLoughlin and Lertola 2016). A more recent application has seen research on Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) as a pedagogical task to enhance written production and listening comprehension (Talaván 2019). Subtitling has also been used in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and in bilingual education contexts (Fernández-Costales 2021).

Moving on to revoicing tasks, most of the research has focused on dubbing and how it can foster speaking as well as writing skills (Talaván and Costal 2017; Sánchez-Requena 2020). A new line of research has recently started in audio description (AD) tasks for enhancing vocabulary acquisition as well as oral, written and integrated language skills (Ibañez Moreno and Vermeulen 2014; Talaván and Lertola 2016; Calduch and Talaván 2018; Navarrete 2020). Voice-over has also proved to have great potential to improve speaking skills, although further research is needed (Talaván and Rodríguez-Arancón 2018).

The potential of didactic AVT has also been recognised by European institutions through the funding of research-led projects, such as ClipFlair (Sokoli and Zabalbeascoa 2019), PluriTAV (Baños et al. 2021) and TRADILEX (Talaván and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming).

The novelty of the research presented here is the application of DAT to foster intercultural competence among students, which, so far, has not been extensively explored (Borghetti and Lertola 2014). There are, however, some studies in the literature on enhancing DAT skills in online contexts (Jiang et al. 2021). Intercultural competence refers to the ability to effectively interact, communicate and engage with people from diverse cultural backgrounds (Deardorff 2006). It involves the development of knowledge, skills, attitudes and awareness to enable individuals to navigate and adapt to different cultural contexts; students are expected to develop global citizenship (Habib 2018) in the ever-increasingly multicultural world. In this scenario, L2 teachers must support their students not only with English linguistic knowledge and skills but also by instilling intercultural competence to help them better master communication skills and improve interactions with people of other languages and cultures (Mede and Cansever 2016).

Neither language nor knowledge alone are sufficient for the development of intercultural competence, according to Deardorff (2009). This can be defined as “a person’s ability to interact effectively and appropriately in cross-cultural situations based on his or her intercultural attitudes, knowledge and comprehension and skills” (Gopal 2011, p. 374). Morris and Isemiger (2017, p. 97) expand the idea and add that it is a matter of “communicating appropriately and effectively refers to being mindful of valued rules, norms, and expectations of the relationship so they are not violated significantly”. To develop this ability, one has to grasp three central components, which are defined as follows:

• Attitudes refer to holding an open outlook towards other cultures, respecting and valuing them, being intrinsically motivated to learn, and avoiding an ethnocentric assumption of one’s own culture (Gopal 2011).
• Knowledge and comprehension pertain to acquiring in-depth understanding of the target language (including verbal and nonverbal cues) and developing cultural self-awareness, for instance, how one’s own culture influences one’s identity, behaviours, values and way of thinking (Gopal 2011).
• Skills relate to experimenting with meaning, being critical of one’s communication with others for meta-cognitive knowledge, having communication skills, and self-reflection regarding noticing, coding and interpreting (Gopal 2011).

Fantini (2009) asserts that to obtain intercultural competence requires time and processes (p. 459). Thus, individuals should necessarily engage in intensive intercultural interactions to practice and cultivate it; however, this is not always possible in face-to-face classes. Moreover, intercultural education should extend beyond the classroom (Aguado Odina 2003; Gómez-Parra 2020) to pursue inclusive values (Benet Gil et al. 2020). It must be borne in mind that intercultural interactions must be conducted thoroughly, as a backwash may emerge, such as emotional force due to overprotectiveness with respect to a particular culture (Lustig and Koester 1993). As Walsh (2009) points out, interculturality is a work-in-progress rather than a goal to achieve, and the TRADILEX Project can offer complete stand-alone online resources that can contribute to this lifelong quest.

3. Materials and Methods

The TRADILEX Project was set up in order to analyse how the use of DAT, through a combination of the use of technology, audiovisual media and mediation, can foster integrated skills and enhance L2 language proficiency and intercultural competence. The methodological proposal includes 2 didactic sequences, one for English B1 and another for English B2, involving 5 AVT modes with 6 complete LPs each (Talaván and Lertola 2022). The workload for the participants that the tasks represent requires about 1 h per week, as will be explained later in this section.

Although audiovisual materials offer richer input with acoustic and visual clues which can aid the understanding and interpretation of a message in context, it is essential to design all activities carefully to achieve the expected results. This is the reason for the robust methodology behind TRADILEX and all the piloting stages, which were carried out to ensure the quality of the didactic content and the accuracy of the data gathering tools (Talaván and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming).

The didactic sequence starts with an Integrated Skills Test (ITIS) that is used to stablish the entry level of the participants before the intervention. It includes automatically assessed tests for reading and listening comprehension and open production activities that are marked with the use of rubrics. The following examples, illustrated in

Table 1. Rubric to assess speaking activities.

SPEAKING	Poor (0–5%)	Adequate (6–10%)	Good (11–15%)	Excellent (16–20%)
Pronunciation and intonation
Range of vocabulary
Grammar
Fluency
General coherence

(Ávila-Cabrera and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming).

and

Table 2. Rubric to assess writing activities.

WRITING	Poor (0–5%)	Adequate (6–10%)	Good (11–15%)	Excellent (16–20%)
Spelling
Grammatical precision
Punctuation
Word usage
Text composition, coherence and cohesion

(Ávila-Cabrera and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming).

, were used for the assessment of the speaking and writing activities.

The LPs were designed as a didactic sequence with scaffolded content that goes from the simple forms of AVT to the more complex and cognitively demanding forms for each of the 5 modes (subtitling, voice-over, dubbing, audio description and subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing). LP1 works as an introduction to the specific AVT mode and involves simple activities, such as filling gaps with missing words in the transcriptions of videos. By LP6, students are required to create their own new dialogue. There is a total of 60 complete LPs, 6 for each AVT mode, that is, 30 for English B1 and 30 for English B2. Each LP follows the same structure, shown in

Table 3. Structure of all the Lesson Plans.

PHASE	DESCRITION	OBJECTIVE
Warm-up Reception and/or production task (reading, writing, listening, speaking and/or mediation) 10 min	Anticipating video content, characters and events and presenting new vocabulary, structures or cultural information	To gather the necessary background knowledge to face the video viewing and the didactic AVT phases
Video viewing Reception and mediation task (listening, reading and mediation) 5/10 min	The video extract is watched at least twice, with or without subtitles, and accompanied by related tasks	To understand the messages to be translated and to become familiar with the key linguistic content
Didactic AVT Reception, production and mediation task (listening, writing and/or speaking, and mediation) 30 min	Students work on the AVT of the one-minute clip extracted from the video, making use of the recommended software in each case	To work on AV mediation skills and strategies and to develop lexical, grammatical and intercultural competence
Post-AVT task Production and/or reception task (writing, speaking, reading, listening and/or mediation) 15 min	Related production (and/or reception) tasks to practice elements present in the video	To make the most of the linguistic and cultural content of the video and to complement the previous mediation practice

(Talaván and Lertola 2022, p. 28).

, and has been developed for online self-study taking one hour a week.

When the students have finished all the work in the LPs, they complete a Final Integrated Skills Test (FITIS), which involves the same type of activities as the ITIS and is assessed with the same rubrics in order to gather comparable data on their progress after the intervention. All the LPs were piloted in a MOODLE platform but can also be used for independent self-study, as there are complete keys and sample answers available.

The videos for each LP for the L2 levels of B1 or B2, according to the CEFR (Council of Europe 2020), have been carefully selected, as have the activities related to them. The students work on the AVT tasks in 60 s sections, although the videos are generally longer. The videos are supposed to tell a full story and should not require any extra contextual clues in order to be fully understood (Talaván 2013); however, as the AVT tasks can be highly cognitively demanding, one minute is considered enough so as not to overload the participants. It must be borne in mind that these videos have not been created or adapted for L2 teaching, so they present the participants with rich and authentic primary source input.

The selection process for the audiovisual content used went a step further, incorporating topics that may act as food for thought, developing critical thinking and intercultural competence, and helping to reduce the affective filters of the students, which, according to Krashen (1988), enhances L2 learning. The purpose of these choices was to influence all three variables related to the affective filter, with students feeling interested in understanding the message and forgetting that they are working on a didactic sequence and thus acquiring the L2 unconsciously and both incidentally through a passive intake of the input while simultaneously learning intentionally by making an active effort to create their own mediated contents for the videos. This mediation is the result of the rephrasing and transfer of a message to a different format (Council of Europe 2020)—subtitled dubbed, audio-described, etc.—which would make it understandable to a receiver who is not able to enjoy the original for linguistic, cultural or accessibility reasons.

As the purpose of the intervention was not to train future translators but to use DAT to improve their L2 skills, the participants were provided with only basic instructions to carry out the AVT tasks. For example, for subtitling, they were asked to be aware of linguistic correction (grammar and punctuation), condensation strategies (avoiding repetitions and using significant and independent subtitles), extension and duration (using a maximum of 2 lines separated by grammatical units that remain on the screen for a minimum of 1 min and a maximum of 7), and synchrony with the action. They were also provided with tutorials on how to download and use Aegisub1 for these activities.

For dubbing, the instructions advised on lip synchrony, fluency and speed of speech (to fit recordings with the lip movements of the characters), dramatisation (to strive to make the result as realistic as possible), and naturalness (with correct pronunciation and intonation). The tutorials provided in this case was for Windows MovieMaker2.

The resulting AVT tasks were assessed with rubrics. The rubric for dubbing is illustrated in

Table 4. Rubric to assess dubbing activities.

DUBBING	Poor (0–5%)	Adequate (6–10%)	Good (11–15%)	Excellent (16–20%)
Linguistic accuracy (pronunciation and intonation)
Lip synchrony
Fluency and speed of speech (naturalness)
Technical quality
Dramatisation

(Ávila-Cabrera and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming).

as an example.

All the LPs and data gathering tools were piloted to guarantee the quality of the final sequences and the effective collection of results before and after the intervention of the participants. This is a necessary step to make any desirable adjustments if any weaknesses are detected before a large-scale implementation phase (Malmqvist et al. 2019). There were a total of 120 reports by students and 120 by experts on the LPs that were used to make improvements in their contents. These were followed by an extra 60 reports from students after the modifications were implemented. The rubrics used to assess the AVT tasks and the ITIS and FITIS open answers were also improved following the experience of the researchers in previous projects (Ávila-Cabrera and Rodríguez-Arancón 2021, for example).

After the pre-piloting phase, two questionnaires were added to the sequence. The first one would help to identify general traits in the participants, such as previous experience with AVT, their perceptions of L2 level according to the different skills, etc. The second questionnaire, which would be the final step after the intervention, was divided into four sections and asked the participants about their experience working with the LPs and the skills that they felt that they had improved. Questions about intercultural competence development were introduced here and will be presented and analysed in the following section of this paper. As a final stage, some of the participant volunteers were also invited to take part in a personal semi-structured interview (that had previously been pre-piloted by two experts) which included several questions about their learning experience (Talaván and Rodríguez-Arancón, forthcoming).

Table 5. B1 timeline of activities.

Initial questionnaire

ITIS (Reception skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021) ITIS (Production skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021)

Lesson Plan 1 on subtitling: The worst that could happen (1 h) Lesson Plan 2 on subtitling: A shorter letter (1 h) Lesson Plan 3 on subtitling: If 2020 was a boyfriend (1 h) Lesson Plan 4 on voice-over: Why do languages borrow words (1 h) Lesson Plan 5 on voice-over: Brave art (1 h) Lesson Plan 6 on voice-over: The snow guardian (1 h) Lesson Plan 7 on dubbing: The controller (1 h) Lesson Plan 8 on dubbing: Alternative Math (1 h) Lesson Plan 9 on dubbing: Being good (1 h) Lesson Plan 10 on audio description: The right way (1 h) Lesson Plan 11 on audio description: Pip (1 h) Lesson Plan 12 on audio description: Too quick to judge (1 h) Lesson Plan 13 on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: Tangled (1 h) Lesson Plan 14 on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: Come prepared! (1 h) Lesson Plan 15 on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: New boy (1 h)

FITIS (Reception skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021) FITIS (Production skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021)

Final questionnaire

Certificate of participation

and

Table 6. B2 timeline of activities.

Initial questionnaire

ITIS (Reception skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021) ITIS (Production skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021)

Lesson Plan 1 on subtitling: One-minute time machine (1 h) Lesson Plan 2 on subtitling: Post-it (1 h) Lesson Plan 3 on subtitling: The milkman (1 h) Lesson Plan 4 on voice-over: What makes ‘Star Wars’ so immersive? (1 h) Lesson Plan 5 on voice-over: Machine learning (1 h) Lesson Plan 6 on voice-over: Creative sparks (1 h) Lesson Plan 7 on dubbing: Chicken (1 h) Lesson Plan 8 on dubbing: Alternative Math (1 h) Lesson Plan 9 on dubbing: Our prices have never been lower (1 h) Lesson Plan 10 on audio description: Eggs change (1 h) Lesson Plan 11 on audio description: Pip (1 h) Lesson Plan 12 on audio description: Too quick to judge (1 h) Lesson Plan 13 on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: In a heartbeat (1 h) Lesson Plan 14 on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: Who are you? (1 h) Lesson Plan 15 on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: The mirror (1 h)

FITIS (Reception skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021) FITIS (Production skills) (60′) by Couto-Cantero et al. (2021)

Final questionnaire

Certificate of participation

reflect the final organisation of the activities that the participants performed in this project, which included a combination of some of the LPs for each of the AVT modes, 3 LPs for each.

The intercultural aspects were included in the LPs in different ways, from directly discussing the topic to highlighting observable issues from a video. The intention was to create an environment with many opportunities for the development of awareness, and this was achieved through examples of intrinsic and extrinsic intercultural learning. For example, in LP 2 on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing for B2, a text about culture was used, and it is reproduced below with one of its associated activities. This is an example of intrinsic learning through engaging self-reflection:

Culture is an important factor affecting happiness. International surveys of subjective well-being (SWB) show consistent mean level differences across nations. For example, in a survey carried out last year 65% of Danes were very satisfied with their lives, while only 5% of the Portuguese said they were very satisfied. In the several surveys before that, the proportion of Danes who were very satisfied with life was also around 12 times that of the Portuguese.

Culture of individualism prevails in Western countries in Europe and America. People emphasise individual freedom, individual achievement, and the pursuit of individual positive feelings. Thus, the relationships between SWB and individual effort and achievement are more direct, possibly making happiness levels higher.

In the collectivist culture zones including Japan, Korea, and China, people put relatively more emphasis on human relationships, including families, colleagues and neighbours. Happiness feelings are affected relatively more by the evaluation of others. The relationships between SWB and individual effort and achievement are not clear. This may make their happiness levels lower than in the individualist countries.

• SWB codes do not vary across nations:
  • True
  • False
  • Not mentioned
• According to the text, European people…
  • are happier if they feel they have achieved something
  • feel happier if they are valued positively by their community.
  • Do not put the focus on the individual effort but on teamwork.

Another example can be observed in LP 3 on subtitling for B2, in which the topic of the adapted text is about common foods in England. This is a study of cultural practise that can be considered extrinsic learning:

Health and Tradition

Dairy products like milk, yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese, are good sources of calcium, which helps maintain bone density and reduces the risk of fractures. Adults up to the age of 50 need 1000 milligrams (mg) of calcium per day. Women older than 50 and men older than 70 need 1200 mg. Milk is also fortified with vitamin D, which bones need to maintain bone mass.

British people are cheese lovers and they have traditional delicious cheeses such as: Cheshire, Red Leicester, Double Gloucester and Cheddar.

Cheshire Cheese is a traditional cheese which is one of the oldest made in England with an open, crumbly and silky-smooth texture. Red Leicester…

In the case of LP 3 on dubbing for B2, the activity delves into students’ understanding of typical expressions in context, which is an example of engaging in an immersive cultural experience:

“I think maybe Dan has something to add” means…

Taking a break

Dealing with names

Making sure everyone has a chance to speak

Talking about documents

Checking what someone means

Checking who said something […]

In LP 1 on subtitling for B1, the activity is of similar characteristics:

Read the following sayings and quotes about dating and find an equivalent in Spanish for at least two of them (you don’t need to translate them word by word, just look for a phrase that could mean the same):

Example: Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgement from others. La verdadera magia de una relación reside en la ausencia de juicios externos.

• You are my happy place.
• Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.
• Love is like a virus. It can happen to anyone at any time.

There are other tasks that are related to more typical ways of teaching culture, such as using literature, as in the following example taken from LP 2 on voice-over for B1. This is an illustration of extrinsic cultural exposure:

Virginia was asked to talk about women and fiction…

• and it was most interesting for her to approach this topic.
• but she avoided the common option of naming relevant authors.
• and she talked about how important it is to have a big and good illuminated room.

Finally, the option of establishing a control group was not considered, as, based on equality and equal opportunities, the same training was offered to anyone who wished to start in DAT.

In the following section, the sample of students for this piece of research on intercultural learning is described.

4. Sample Description

The sample of students who volunteered to take part in TRADILEX totalled 222 B1 and 411 B2 students who belonged to eight different universities: Universitat Jaume I (UJI), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Universidad de Zaragoza (UNIZAR), Universidad de Córdoba (UCO), Universidad de Lleida (UdL), Universidad de Almería (UAL) and Universidad de La Coruña (UDC). However, for the purpose of this study, only those participants who completed the final questionnaire were considered. Thus, the responses from a total of 184 students in B1 and B2 are analysed in the following section, which, compared to previous similar projects undertaken by the researchers, indicates a rather low dropout rate (Talaván et al. 2022), as the level of commitment necessary to finish all the work was quite high and the work did not form a part of the English course that the students were taking. The number who finished all or most of the tasks related to the 15 LPs was much higher.

The initial questionnaire, which gathered general information about the participants, was answered by 513 people who were mostly between 18 and 30 years of age (276 or 56.8%), but there were also older students in the original group of respondents: 92 (17.9%) were between 31 and 40, 88 (17.2%) were between 41 and 50, and 57 (11.1%) were older than 51. The older-than-30 group of students belonged to the UNED, with very few exceptions. This is common in a distance-learning university that accommodates people who wish to continue their studies but need more flexibility in their timetables to be able to adapt to work and family commitments. Out of these 513 people, only 54 had had any previous experience carrying out DAT tasks.

With regard to completing a general picture of the total number of respondents to the initial general questionnaire, when asked about their knowledge of the L2 culture, they answered that it was mostly intermediate (238), a few considered their knowledge high (75) and even fewer considered theirs very high (14). There were many respondents who stated that their level of the L2 culture was low (125) or even basic (61). It seems that a course which provided an opportunity to enrich those intercultural skills was suitable and adequate for these students and that such courses might contribute to making these students feel more comfortable when exposed to an L2 environment.

5. Results

This paper focuses on the improvement of intercultural awareness among the participants who experimented with the intervention; however, it is also important to take into account the difference that the project made to their integrated skills. The first example that will be reviewed here is illustrated in Figure 1, which reflects a comparison of their results in the different sections of the ITIS and FITIS and summarises the basic descriptive statistics:

The figure displays the results of the comparison of the results of the ITIS and FITIS. The success rate in oral reception stood at 41.62%, in written reception at 43.18%, in oral production at 49.45% and in written production at 47.48% (Fernández-Costales et al. 2023, p. 6). It is necessary to highlight at this point that the time lapse between these two tests was 3 months, as the participants worked on 15 LPs, 3 per AVT mode, so the data reflect a clear improvement in their L2 skills.

As explained earlier, only the data related to those participants who completed the final questionnaire will be analysed from this point, that is, a total of 184 students in B1 and B2. This group included 94 females, 88 males and 1 person who did not fit into either of those two categories. These participants were asked about topics related to the development of their integrated skills, from grammar to ICT, through intercultural awareness. When asked whether they felt that their ICT skills had improved after their work on the project, their answers were very positive, as 28.26% agreed to a very large extent with the statement, 21.74% agreed to a large extent and 25% agreed, which accounts for 75% of the 184-people sample. Figure 2 reflects those results.

Figure 3 illustrates another example of the positive integrated skills development that can be observed in the results regarding the question about the development of the students’ creativity. When asked whether they considered that their creativity had been encouraged through their work on DAT activities, 28.26% stated that they agreed to a very large extent, 26.63% that they agreed to a large extent and 29.37% that they agreed, which represents over 84% of the total sample.

The students considered that the inclusion of intercultural aspects throughout the LPs was motivating, as 24% agreed to a very large extent with the statement, 27.72% agreed to a large extent and 31.52% agreed. Again, the total of positive answers was encouraging with over 83%. This is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 5 shows the answers that were gathered when the students were asked about whether the inclusion of intercultural aspects in L2 learning fostered respect towards other cultures. The results were very positive, with as many as 45.6% of the participants replying that they agreed to a very large extent with that fact, 28.26% that they agreed to a large extent and 16.3% that they agreed.

The work on the TRADILEX Project was also considered to have deepened the knowledge that the students had of their own culture, as represented in Figure 6. A total of 21.74% agreed with this statement to a very large extent, 28.8% a large extent and another 28.8% agreed.

Finally, the students’ opinions about their improved understanding of the L2 culture were also reflected in their answers, as illustrated in Figure 7. They agreed that they felt it had improved in over 81% of cases. A total of 24% stated that they agreed with the statement to a very large extent, 26.63% that they agreed to a large extent and as many as 30.98% that they agreed.

In order to demonstrate more clearly the correlation among all these aspects related to intercultural awareness development previously analysed, a Pearson correlation coefficient test was carried out. The Pearson correlation coefficient, also known as Pearson’s r, is a measure of the linear relationship between two continuous variables and quantifies its strength and direction. It is computed by dividing the covariance between two variables by the product of their standard deviations according to the formula: r = (Σ ((X − $\overline{\mathrm{X}}$)(Y − Ȳ)))/(n σX σY), where X and Y represent the values and $\overline{\mathrm{X}}$ and Ȳ are their respective means, σX and σY are their standard deviations, and n is the sample size. The result can range from −1 to +1, and a positive value indicates a positive relationship, while the opposite is represented by a negative value. The closer the value is to +1 or −1, the stronger the relationship, and a value of 0 suggests no linear relationship. The p-value assesses the probability of observing the correlation coefficient, or a more extreme value, assuming that the null hypothesis is true. If the p-value is below 0.05, it is considered statistically significant. The results are shown in

Table 7. Correlation of data presented.

		(a) Inclusion of Cultural Aspects Is Motivating	(b) Cultural Contents Foster Respect for Other Cultures	(c) Improvement of Understanding of Own Culture	(d) Improvement of Understanding of L2 Culture
(a) Inclusion of cultural aspects is motivating	Pearson correlation	1	0.606 **	0.708 **	0.735 **
	p-value		<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
	n	184	184	184	184
(b) Cultural contents foster respect for other cultures	Pearson correlation	0.606 **	1	0.603 **	0.630 **
	p-value	<0.001		<0.001	<0.001
	n	184	184	184	184
(c) Improvement of understanding of own culture	Pearson correlation	0.708 **	0.603 **	1	0.882 **
	p-value	<0.001	<0.001		<0.001
	n	184	184	184	184
(d) Improvement of understanding of L2 culture	Pearson correlation	0.735 **	0.630 **	0.882 **	1
	p-value	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
	n	184	184	184	184

** The correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (bilateral).

.

All the Pearson correlations between variables showed a positive association. It seems that, according to the participants’ perceptions, those with a higher level of motivation (who considered that the inclusion of cultural aspects in the LPs is motivating) also perceived a higher level of development in the knowledge of their own culture (variable c). Such correlation was also displayed between the improvement in the understanding of their own culture and that of the L2 culture, between the affirmation that cultural contents foster respect for other cultures and the level of motivation, etc. The remarkably low p-values suggest that these correlations are statistically significant, rendering it highly unlikely that they occurred by chance alone, although it is important to note that all variables are based on perceptual measures using Likert scales and that the correlations reflect the relationship between respondents’ answers within the sample and do not imply a direct causal connection between variables, as other hidden variables or factors may have been at play and influenced the results.

Finally, there were also some open questions that the students could answer to provide more information about their opinions. For instance, they were asked about how they believed that their participation in this project had influenced the improvement of their cultural knowledge. Among the answers, there were comments such as “it has helped me broaden my horizons as it not only focuses primarily on the UK as is done in face-to-face academic classes at any college or university, but also takes other territories and viewpoints into account”. Another sample answer highlighted that “I think it has had a very positive and enriching influence in expanding my knowledge of other cultures”. There were also comments about the advantage of being exposed to the way that people from many countries speak: “I have learned and heard accents that I had not heard until now”, or “[…] in this course we have learned, for example, various distinctive accents when dubbing, ‘slang’ words, descriptive adjectives that vary from one area to another, etc.” Finally, and importantly, there were comments about how this content made a deeper impression and had consequences, such as “[…] has helped me to reflect”, “it has increased my curiosity and interest to seek more information” and “I have seen other points of view from other cultures on some complicated issues”.

Another open question asked whether the inclusion of DAT was useful for L2 learning. The answers were encouraging, with comments such as “Yes, because it is an easy and dynamic way to learn more about a language and not only that, but also aspects of the culture of its speakers”, “yes, because it is a good way to put all your skills into practice (spoken, written, comprehension, etc.) through creative entertainment content”, “I believe that DAT can be used as a resource in language teaching because it helps to learn a language in a fun and interesting way”, “yes, it helps with expression and vocabulary”, “yes, because it helps to put students’ communication skills into practice in an authentic and meaningful way”, “obviously, it is a very useful method. Honestly, I don’t know why these types of courses are not held more frequently”, “because it greatly improves (at least in my case) the fluency when speaking” and “Yes, I think that it is a fundamental resource, since it faces you with a “real problem”, in which you must use English, promoting the learning of the language in a motivating way”.

In the next section, all these data are discussed in some detail.

6. Discussion

This piece of research has shown how the use of AVT products in a DAT online course can enhance the integrated L2 skills of participants in just 3 months. Among those improvements, results for written and oral production, written and aural comprehension, ICT skills and creativity have been presented. However, the main objective of this study was to determine whether the inclusion of intercultural aspects in the LPs increased motivation and awareness among the participating students.

The data were collected using a final questionnaire that was answered by 184 people who had previously worked on the 15 LPs. The questions gathered their opinions in two ways: closed questions that were answered by choosing the level of agreement with each statement according to Likert scales, which provided quantitative results, and some open questions, in their answers to which the students could elaborate on their opinions and therefore provide qualitative information. Some of those open answers have been presented in this paper, and, in order to assess the validity of the closed answers, a Pearson correlation coefficient test was performed. The results showed a clear correlation between all the variables.

The data gathered from the closed questions confirmed the hypothesis that the inclusion of intercultural contents in the LPs was motivating for the L2 learners but also that they felt that this encouraged respect for other cultures. This is an issue that has been highlighted in the CEFR (Council of Europe 2020, p. 114), which has established that it is important when learning languages to create a “a shared space between linguistically and culturally different interlocutors (that is, the capacity to deal with “otherness”, to identify similarities and differences, to build on known and unknown cultural features […] in order to enable communication and collaboration”. These results were also triangulated with the open answers, in which the students mentioned the importance of the cultural components to enhance motivation, to make the course more interesting and rewarding, and to make the tasks seem like real life experiences of mediation. They also appreciated the presence of different accents and points of view on complicated issues, among other things.

There were also closed questions that asked about the participants’ perceptions of how, through the work for the LPs, they had learnt more about their own culture and that of the L2. The answers given were also very positive and perfectly in sync with what the CEFR (Council of Europe 2020, p. 125) states as necessary achievements for B1 and B2 students to build their pluricultural repertoires: B1 students “Can explain features of their own culture to members of another culture or explain features of the other culture to members of their own culture”, and B2 students “Can interpret and explain a document or event from another culture and relate it to documents or events from their own culture(s) and/or from cultures with which they are familiar”. Therefore, the LPs provided students with opportunities to reach the desired levels of intercultural competence.

The open-ended questions asked about the influence that the work on the LPs had had on the development of the intercultural knowledge and awareness of the students who took part in the project and whether they considered that DAT could be useful in L2 learning. Both questions invited an array of positive comments that encourage the researchers to believe that this line of research can not only improve L2 skills but also motivate students to dedicate more time to L2 learning. This, in turn, will help them to become competent intercultural citizens, as AVT products can expose students to many different L2 accents as well as diverse cultural perspectives, norms, values and practices. The students highlighted these points themselves.

Previous studies on DAT had shown how most AVT modes can be used in face-to-face and online learning environments to foster students L2 abilities (Talaván 2020), but there had not been any large-scale studies on this topic before the TRADILEX Project. This research has been pioneering on an international level, as it presents results from a large sample collated from several universities (Fernández-Costales et al. 2023). This article has aimed to contribute to this research effort with more empirical results that support the potential of AVT for intercultural learning.

As a weakness of the present study, the dropout rate must be mentioned. It is common that this type of project demands a relatively long-term commitment on the part of participants and that participation is voluntary, being outside course requirements. However, it is a matter that needs to be addressed and studied in the future.

This research also opens doors for the integration of DAT in the classroom at any educational level and in traditional, hybrid and virtual modalities. TRADILEX materials can be exploited as extra teaching resources or for independent learning, and the solid methodology of the theoretical proposal (Talaván and Lertola 2022) can be followed for the creation of new courses on any other L2 or even for teacher training modalities. It is worth noting that the use of AVT materials in an online course can provide ample possibilities for extra L2 culture exposure, especially considering the time restrictions that most courses have.