Target learners and setting:  
Our goal is to outline some early lessons of a project-based collaboration between university ESL students in the U.S. and EFL students in Germany. 
Students will need to complete tasks in order to get to know one another (early phase of course). Tasks will need to 
(1) allow students to share their cultures, 
(2) serve their academic purposes, and 
(3) facilitate discussion in the target language (English).

Time: 
four, two-hour class sessions; classes meet one time per week

• Ss will be able to decide personal profile categories through CMC collaboration

• Ss will be able to write a personal profile with in-country partners and respond to personal profiles of their international keypal partners

• Understand the basics of internet research, such as using keywords in searches

• S pairs will be able to research basic information about the educational system of their keypals, and exchange findings (and check assumptions) with keypals

• Ss will be able to develop questionnaires through CMC collaboration

• S pairs will be able to conduct on campus oral interviews in their target language and then share results with their keypals

• S pairs will be able to negotiate the steps of an on-campus lecture visit and report the results to classmates and their keypals

• Ss will be able to interact with one another (compare/contrast/ask questions/clarify information), using gathered information and guiding questions within CMC collaboration

• S pairs will be able to report the progress of their CMC collaboration to their classmates and instructor

• S pairs will feel comfortable with synchronous and asynchronous communication.

Opening: S pairs share the profile categories they decided with their keypals.

1. S pairs work together and use profile categories to create shared profiles. These will include information about each individual member in the pair, such as name, family background, interests, age, academic discipline, etc. Ss send profiles to key pals.

2. S pairs initiate discussion with keypals about questionnaires for the on-campus oral interviews and suggest possible questions to include on the questionnaires.

Closing: Whole class comes together to discuss their progress so far and to talk about tasks for the following week.

Opening: S pairs talk about their progress so far on the questionnaires and interviews; class discusses their previous experience researching on Internet

1. Group discusses how to use the internet for research (brainstorming keywords and the process)

2. Group visits some University/Institutes/education websites (such as http://www.miis.edu/, http://www.uni-giessen.de/uni-veranst/englisch/englisch.htm and http://www.ed.gov/) and together figures out how to navigate the sites

3. Pairs start to research sites on own, gathering information to share with their CMC partners. Pairs also think of five questions to ask their keypals based on the information they find.

4. Pairs contact their keypals and:

1. Initiate a discussion about their educational systems

2. Finalize questionnaires

Closing: Whole group comes together to report progress and discuss their plans for conducting interviews (of four students on campus) before the next class meeting.

Opening: S pairs report on the class they plan to attend and discuss some of the challenges they are facing with CMC communication.

1. Small groups get together to discuss the interviewing process (e.g., types of questions asked, new information learned, challenges faced). Pairs report on what they heard from other groups.

2. S pairs contact keypals to initiate discussion about the questionnaire results. Pairs can use guiding questions to facilitate the discussion.

3. Whole group brainstorms how to approach a professor through e-mail to observe a lesson (i.e., appropriate and inappropriate greetings, titles, messages, closings)

4. Pairs compose e-mails to professors and share messages with their keypals

Closing: Pairs report on some of the communications received from keypals and brainstorm ways to resolve challenges

Opening: Ss talk about upcoming informal progress reports they will present with keypals in a videoconference (the following week); Ss also report any obstacles they face in their CMC communication

1. Small groups get together to discuss observation reports of the lectures

2. S pairs contact keypals to share observation reports and concerns about their upcoming transition to University study. CMC partner groups create a table of comparisons and contrasts of their observation experiences.

3. CMC partner groups also plan an informal agenda for their videoconferencing presentations next week.

Closing: Whole group comes together to discuss the comparison/contrast lecture observation tables they created with their keypals and to go over etiquette for videoconferencing.