基于社交媒体的中美高校跨文化交流项目的研究

Using Social Media to Promote Intercultural Communication Between Chinese and American University Students

跨文化交际指的是来自不同文化背景的人们相互交流的过程。外语教学的根本目的是为了实现跨文化交际。本研究将社交媒体与跨文化外语教学相结合,利用网络教学手段拓展了传统意义上的面对面的跨文化授课环境,通过与外语国家的学生建立远程学习伙伴关系,开展交互性很强的有意义的活动,如目的语和本族语学生之间定期的电子邮件交际、论坛交际、即时通信和基于常用社交媒体如italki和微信的文化专题研究,为学生提供更为真实有效地跨文化交际途径,同时采取定量和定性相结合的研究方法考察中美学生在认知、态度、意识和技能四个层面如何实现跨文化交际能力的提高。该研究对我国外语跨文化教学有很强的借鉴意义,既可以弥补课堂教学实践环节的不足,提高学生的语言应用能力,又可以培养学生对目的语和本族语文化的敏感性和批判性思维,提高其解决跨文化交际中问题的能力和自主学习能力。

This paper reports a five-year computer-mediated intercultural exchange project between Chinese and American university students that explores the use of various social media tools with WeChat application as the main medium in collaborative intercultural assignments. The study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches by using questionnaires and action research, to investigate how Chinese EFL and American CFL learners increase their intercultural communication competence by assessing their knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and skills of discovery and awareness. The findings reveal their changes and progress in the following variables: knowledge about the variety and subtlety of both the home and target cultures, a different worldview, and cultural study methods;awareness of the importance of differences and similarities between the home and target cultures, their negative reactions to these differences(e.g., fear, ridicule, disgust, feeling of superiority, etc.) and therefore, critical evaluation of the target and home cultures;attitudes from excitement or blind admiration of the target culture to confusion, anxiety or frustration about the cultural differences, later to toleration and appreciation of cultural differences, adaptation to the target culture, and eventually to openness and readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s own;skills to contrast the target culture with their own, to demonstrate a capacity to interact appropriately in a variety of different social situations in the target culture and resolve cross-cultural conflicts and misunderstandings. This research will serve as a valuable reference for computer-mediated intercultural communication teaching and open up new possibilities to extend classroom teaching by bridging the gap between second-hand knowledge and hands-on experience.