This article describes the contradictions reported by student-teachers in Barcelona who engaged in telecollaboration with transatlantic peers via Second Life, during their initial training in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The data analysis draws upon Grounded Theory and is theoretically informed by Activity Theory and the notion of contradictions. The study discusses technology-based, intra- and inter-institutional contradictions, their impact on the development of the telecollaborative activity, and outcomes in bolstering student-teachers’ conceptual understanding of Network-Based Language Instruction.