From monolingual virtual exchange to AI-supported multilingualism: a critical perspective

Abstract

Virtual Exchange (VE) has become a key approach in higher education for fostering intercultural competence through online collaboration. However, despite its inclusive framing, many VE initiatives continue to rely on English as a lingua franca or other shared-language arrangements, which may reproduce linguistic hierarchies and unequal participation. This paper examines the potential of AI-supported multilingualism to rethink predominantly monolingual approaches to VE. It argues that while generative AI and translation technologies may reduce communicative barriers and enable broader participation, they do not automatically transform underlying language ideologies or power relations. In doing so, it highlights a tension between accessibility and the interactional work through which intercultural learning occurs. Drawing on Critical Virtual Exchange, relational learning, translanguaging theory, and ethical interculturality, the paper proposes a critical perspective on AI-mediated VE. It further explores how AI may support linguistic equity, multilingual participation, and translanguaging-oriented meaning-making in Virtual Exchange. At the same time, it critically addresses risks such as technological solutionism, linguistic bias in AI systems, and the reinforcement of dominant language ideologies. It concludes that AI-supported VE should be grounded in critical pedagogy and linguistic justice. In this way, VE is reframed not as a site of frictionless communication, but as a relational and ethically accountable educational practice.