Guest speakers in the online space: Fostering discussion and intercultural competence

2026 Peralta Online Equity Conference- Session 7B: Guest speakers in the online space: Fostering discussion and intercultural competence Sarah Dietrich | Southeast Missouri State University This presentation shares lessons learned from an online English language course which leveraged guest speakers to create opportunities to develop linguistic and intercultural competence. The instructor was based in the U.S, and the participants were civil service activists in the Kurdistan area of Iraq. The group included men and women, native speakers of Kurdish and Assyrian, Muslims and Christians. Their areas of expertise included environmental law, urban planning. women’s rights and gender-based violence. Some participants lived and worked in Erbil, the capital of the region, while others were in smaller cities. At the outset of the ten-week course, participants were asked to choose themes they would be interested in exploring together. Based on participants’ responses, guest-speakers were invited to present to and engage with the class. Topics discussed by the speakers included sexual violence policies and prevention in the U.S., fighting intergenerational poverty in the Dominican Republic, and sustainable urban development in Brazil. Preparing for and engaging in interactions with the guest-speakers, the course participants developed vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, practiced reading and discussing academic texts as they shared their own areas of expertise. In addition, discussions before, during, and after the guest-speakers’ presentations participants, and the instructor, were challenged to deepen their intercultural competence, as they navigated their diverse understandings of conditions in their home regions, their countries, and the world. Attendees will share their experiences teaching in the virtual space and have the opportunity to brainstorm ways in which they might incorporate guest-speakers in their classrooms.