Legitimate codes of exchange: Gaining awareness of transnational inquiry of language awareness

The U.S. and Mexico are historically connected despite the current political tensions. Following a research exchange, two university instructors from either side of the border sought to bring together their pre-service teachers through an International Virtual Exchange (IVE) exploring theories of language acquisition with a goal of fostering cultural awareness and global competency. This qualitative study examines student reflections after IVE on language learning between pre-service elementary school teachers from California, USA (N=7) and pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers from Puebla, Mexico (N=7). The extracted data was analyzed using the conceptual toolkit offered by Legitimate Code Theory to investigate the interlocutors’ reflections on their exchange. The research questions that this study addresses are: What focus did the LCT analysis reveal in student reflections and how might an LCT analysis provide insights into participants’ constructed experiences? The focus of each reflection was analyzed through LCT and themes were quantitatively evaluated to reveal a total prevalence of Epistemic Relations.