The Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG), in Brazil, has improved its internationalization process at home, which results in the attraction and reception of international professors, students, and technical-administrative staff, as well as in the development of curricula that include an international orientation in its form and content, and in fostering the improvement of the teaching-learning processes of foreign languages. Several authors emphasize the importance of well-defined language policies for the development of the higher education internationalization process (Finardi & Archanjo, 2018; Leal, 2019), which aims, for example, to prepare students linguistically so that they would be able to participate in international mobilities, since experience has shown that the lack of proficiency in a foreign language has been an obstacle to the success of some students (Finardi & Archanjo, 2018; Leal, 2019). Knowing a foreign language is a prerequisite for the university community to participate, for example, in mobility programs. The UFG considers that the participation of students, technical-administrative staff and faculty in international exchange programs favors the learning of another language, the development of intercultural competence, and personal, academic, and professional development. According to a questionnaire responded by undergraduate students at UFG, only 24% of them have an advanced level of English, and 86% of them do not have International Certification in a foreign language. As we can see, the level of language knowledge of undergraduate students is not very high, which corroborates the results found by Finardi & Archanjo (2018) and Leal (2019). This low level of proficiency of the students led us to take some actions that aimed to improve their competence in a foreign language, as the offer of teletandem subjects (Telles, 2009). Teletandem is a context of language learning that it is carried out virtually, through synchronous communication, provided through a communication software, such as Zoom, etc. So, in this presentation, I share the results of a case study (Johnson, 1992) I conducted about the experience we had when we first offered a teletandem subject to Brazilian and Argentinian students where they had the opportunity to interact for a school semester to teach each other their language and cultural aspects about their countries. The sessions took place every Friday in the morning and the classes were divided into two parts; in one the focus was on Portuguese, and in the other, on Spanish.
Finardi, K. R., & Archanjo, R. (2018). Washback effects of the Science without Borders, English without Borders and Languages without Borders programs in Brazilian language policies and rights. In M. Siiner, F. M. Hult, & T. Kupisch (Eds.), Language policy and language acquisition planning (pp. 173-185). [S.l.]: Springer International Publishing.
Johnson, D. M. (1992). Approaches to research in second language learning. New York: Longman.
Leal, F. (2019). Os caminhos recentes da internacionalização da Educação Superior Brasileira. Revista de Educación Superior en América Latina (ESAL), 6, 14-18.
Telles, J. A. (org.). Teletandem: um contexto virtual, autônomo e colaborativo para aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras no século XXI. Campinas, S.P.: Pontes, 2009.
