透過部落格發展跨文化溝通能力: 三位台灣國小學生之個案研究

Abstract

本個案旨在探討臺灣國小學生在參與透過部落格學習跨文化溝通的計畫後，他們跨文化溝通能力的發展以及學習英語態度的改變。\n本研究方法採用質性研究，一開始先探討學生在面臨跨文化溝通學習過程中的關鍵事件，接著研究重心會放在探討當中三位學生如何和外國伙伴以及其他師生的學習歷程。研究工具主要為三位學生的訪談、部落格的學習歷程以及省思日記。Byram (2000) 跨文化溝通能力指標用來分析以及辨識學生跨文化溝通能力。\n本研究發現與外國學生互動的真實學習情境的確能提升學生跨文化溝通的學習動力。然而，缺乏溝通策略也讓學生在過程中感到焦慮而不能投入學習。在另一方面，學生的焦慮也驅使他們去尋求協助以及部落格上的資源以解決問題。透過老師的鼓勵以及同儕間的學習，學生學習如何發展自己的跨文化溝通能力，藉由仿效他人的溝通歷程來學習表達自己的想法。除了學習溝通策略，學生逐漸在過程中發展跨文化意識。他們更願意檢視自己的文化並且以不同角度來思考文化議題。\n透過更進一步研究當中三位學生的跨文化溝通歷程，他們在學習過程中有不同的表現。雖然他們皆對和外國伙伴交換文化以及學校生活資訊十分有興趣，但是他們的動機持續力、遇到的困難以及在過程中所扮演的角色皆有所不同。這都和學生的學習風格以及對網路使用的認知不同有關。\n在英語學習態度方面，結果顯示部落格的一些功能例如非同步溝通以及多媒體的整合皆讓學生更能體驗在較無焦慮的情境下學習用英語來進行互動，並且增加他們用自己的方式表達自我。學生在部落格的情境之下，能抱持著正面的態度來與外國伙伴互動。\n研究結果顯示個人的因素例如學生的背景、對網路使用的認知以及學習焦慮皆在學習者發展跨文化的過程扮演著重要的角色。因此，本研究希望透過教學現場的互動情形，提升老師對如何協助學習者，以及幫助他們整合不同資源來增加他們跨文化溝通能力的學習動機這方面的重視。

The case study investigated the development of Taiwan elementary school students’ intercultural communicative competences and their attitude toward English learning as they participated in the intercultural communication project in the blog environment.\nGrounded on qualitative inquiry, an overview of critical incidents which the students met in the project was discussed. Then the investigation focused on how three of the students interacted with the international partners, local students, and instructors. The major data collection instruments were adopted including the individual interviews with the three students, and their blog entries and reflection journals. Byram’s (2000) adapted intercultural guidelines were used as the framework to identify the three students’ intercultural competences.\nIt was found that the authentic task of communicating with the international partners was important factor which encouraged the students to get more involved in the communication. However, the lack of the communication strategies made the students feel anxious and stressed and distanced them from the intercultural communication. On the other hand, the students’ anxiety actually made them look for support and the resources on the blogs which could help them solve the difficulties. Through the instructor’s encouragement and peer learning, the students learnt how to develop intercultural communication skills and understood the benefits of learning how to reuse others’ communication process to express their own ideas. In addition to learning the strategies for intercultural communication, the students gradually developed intercultural awareness. They were more willing to reflect on their own culture and think cultural issues from different perspective.\nAs further investigating three of the students’ intercultural communication experience, it was found that students had different performance in the project. Although gaining interest in exchanging the information of cultures and school life with international partners, the three cases’ differences were seen in their continuity of motivation, the challenges they faced, and the roles they felt comfortable to be in the intercultural communication project. Their difference are related to learners’ learning styles and their perception of internet use which benefit or stop the cultivation of their intercultural communicative competences.\nAs for their attitude toward English learning, the results shows that the blog features like asynchronous communication and multimedia integration could help the students experience the process of using English as the medium for social interaction with less anxiety and increase their motivation for presenting life experience in their own way. The students developed positive attitude toward practicing English through communicating with international partners on the blogs. \nThe results of the study show that personal factors, such as individual background, perception of internet use and anxiety played an important role as learners develop intercultural communication. Thus, this study suggests that more efforts should be paid to explore how to support learners and help them integrate resources in order to increase their participation in intercultural communication on the internet.