Experiencing Cross-cultural Communication in Taiwan: A Qualitative Case Study on Three Learners of Chinese from the West

Abstract

Study abroad experiences have been a widely pursued line of research in second language acquisition, but there have not been many studies qualitatively examining the experiences of Western learners of Chinese in Taiwan. Informed by the Vygotskian Sociocultural perspectives, this qualitative case study analyzed narratives and interview data in order to develop a deep understanding of how three Western learners experienced Taiwan at the beginning stages of their study abroad experience. The result shows that their challenges in terms of cross-cultural communication with Taiwanese could be attributed to the fact that both the participants and the local residents interacted in ways mediated by their own cultural backgrounds. The three learners gradually developed agentive activities in the ＂third place,＂ which was between their home cultural background and their understanding of Taiwanese culture. Even though the local context remained unchanged, they know how to create better learning opportunities for themselves. The study suggests that both the students and the local residents who have chances to interact with Chinese learners from overseas need to better prepare themselves in order to create best possible cross-cultural learning opportunities.

留學經驗最近幾年已成為第二語言學習研究上重要的研究路線，然而以西方華語文學習者之留學臺灣經驗為主的質性研究尚屬少見。本研究採質性個案法與衛考斯基社會文化理論架構，分析歐美華語文學習者自述之跨文化溝通經驗，探討他們如何在自我概念與臺灣社會中習以為常之待人接物間創造學習機會？研究蒐集三位來自歐美地區留學生的敘事與深入訪談資料，分析他們對初來臺時實際互動經驗與感受的敘述。研究揭示了主客雙方如何以自己的文化作為溝通中介，且留學生如何在新環境的社會文化框架與自己所屬文化間，找到第三位階。文後建議不論是來臺留學的學生，或有機會與留學生互動的臺灣居民，都應做好準備，以共同創造理想的跨文化交流與華語學習環境。