Just the Two of us? The “¿Qué tal?” E-tandem Project for Translation Students

Within the academic year 2012-2013, “¿Qué tal?” email tandem project was implemented amongst the students of the first course of Translation at Pablo de Olavide University and students from several North American universities. The primary aim of the project was to promote the autonomous practice of literacy in L2, while reflecting upon the linguistic codes and pragmatics of L1 and L2 through the correction of errors. Alongside previous work (Appel, 1999; Appel & Mullen, 2000 & 2002; Appel & Gilabert, 2002; Braun, 2006; Muñoz Vicente, 2013; Schenker, 2012; Ushioda, 2000), the present study is based on the axiomatic principles of autonomy and reciprocity in order to detect weak points in the project. The varying levels of motivation within the tandem pairs and an insufficient command of the native language are identified as the main pitfalls.