Joshua Borden

1
Establishing an Intercultural Communication Class
Project A Pilot Study Between University
Students in Taiwan and Japan.

• Joshua Borden
• National Central University (Taiwan)
• joshua_at_ncu.edu.tw www.ncu.edu.tw/joshua
• Fumiko Kurihara, PhD
• Chuo University (Japan)
• fkuri_at_tamacc.chuo-u.ac.jp

2
Contents

• Part 1 Background
• Part 2 English linguistic Skills
• Part 3 Intercultural Communicative Skills
• Part 4 Conclusion
• QA

3
Part 1 Background
Activity Concept Goals
Partner class selection
Activity Details
Project Administration
4
Part 1 Background

• Activity Concept Goals

• Activity modeled from previous study by Sharon
  Hsieh, PhD student, U. of Birmingham

• Goal 1 Provide (enjoyable) experience to use
  English as a means of communication

• Goal 2 Provide real intercultural communicative
  experience (to supplement textbook)

5
Part 1 Background

• Partner class selection

• Posted inq. on international list serves forums

• Sent additional targeted e-mail to organization
  members who met criteria (targeted search)

• Selected classes by class size, English
  abilities, and partner instructor

• Bias--prioritized cultures I knew and those most
  relevant to students

6
Part 1 Background

• Activity Details

• E-mails Students sent 3 e-mails to their pen pal
  per week on guided and free topics.

• Journals Students submitted weekly journal
  entries summarizing their experiences.

• Questionnaires Students completed a 14 item
  survey after the activity was finished.

• Others The NCU class regularly discussed the
  activity in class, and prepared a multimedia
  presentation for the partner classes.

7
Part 1 Background

• Project Administration

• Students e-mailed partners sent cc to
  administrative e-mail address (asia.ic_at_gmail.com)

• Administrator sorted e-mails into different
  folders by school

• Students also sent journals to administrative
  account (not to pen pals) and were similarly
  sorted

• Administrator kept record of who sent which mails
  to whom.

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Part 2 Linguistic Skills

• 1. Language-related episodes
• 2. Possible affect of NNS exchange on
• learners linguistic development

9
Part 2 Linguistic Skills1. Language-related
episodes

• Vocabulary Expressions

Ryosuke I started to work at a dram shop
recently. Lin By the way, what is a
dram shop? Ryosuke Dram shop is a restaurant
that you mainly drink alchol Lin The
place you work sounds like a pub. But I think I
know what a dram shop. Is it more like a
traditional Japanese pub (???)? Ryosuke
Exactly. ??? is where I work.
Kazu By the way, I started business in
computer with my friend! Carson You said you
start business in computer, can you explain
it much more? I am not quite sure
what the sentence means. Kazu Im sorry I
explain about the meaning of start my business
in computer. It means I opened
online shop with my friend.
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Part 2 Linguistic Skills1. Language-related
episodes

• Spelling

• Yoshiaki Maybe some girls feel lack of
  not-material thing, they feel
• spiritual hanger. And they tend
  to think they can satisfy
• its spiritual hanger with lover.
• James I cant figure out spiritual hanger.
  I look up many
• dictionaries, but the meaning of hanger
  is coat hanger.
• Could you explain it for me even if I
  understand main idea
• of that paragraph which you talk about
  Japanese girls?
• Yoshiaki Last time, I mistyped the work
  spiritual hunger as
• spiritual hanger!

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Part 2 Linguistic Skills1. Language-related
episodes

• Emoticons

She likes to use these LOL ,(T_T) symbols
similar to orz, which I dont use often.
However, those are common and can be easily
understood right away. (Missy, NCU, IC Journal,
11-13-07)

• Maiko OK. And there is one question. The end
  of the sentence, you
• use P. What does it mean?
• Pohan P is a sign which means a smiling
  face.Im also confused
• with the sign ??. Does it mean
  something?
• Maiko And in the expression of ?, I wanted
  to express the feeling
• of sadness or depression or
  apology.

Common emoticons by Taiwanese students orz
) XD XP P Common emoticons by
Japanese students o _
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Part 2 Linguistic Skills 2. Affect of NNS
exchange on learners linguistic
development

• I dont worry about the grammar or words I use
  when Im writing e-mails. Maybe Ill feel or
  little bit afraid to write to the native
  speakers. (Carson, NCU, Questionnaire, Q10)
• No stress. I dont need to care about the
  grammar. (Sarah, NCU, Questionnaire, Q10)
• I wont know whether Ive made grammatical
  mistakes. (Hiromi, Chuo, Questionnaire, Q10)

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Part 2 Linguistic Skills 2. Affect of NNS
exchange on learners linguistic
development

• 2.2 Difficulty of finding good topics which
  would have
• increased the learners vocabulary or
  expressions
• I didnt know about Taiwan, so I didnt know
  what to ask. (Hiromi, Chuo, Questionnaire, Q13)
• Basically both of us use simple vocabulary
  and talk about
• common topics, so there is no problems to
  communicate
• with her. (Eric, NCU, IC Journal, 1-07-07)

14
Part 3 Intercultural Communicative Skills

• IC Goal Review
• Methodology
• Overview of exchanges
• Specific IC related patterns
• IC Failure/Misunderstandings
• (Case Study)

15
Part 3 IC skills

• Q Was the activity a successful IC learning
  tool?

Goals

• Increase intercultural awareness
• (Learn to recognize cultural patterns
  non-judgmentally)

• Build intercultural communicative competence
• (Improve skills to communicate successfully with
  people from other cultural backgrounds)

16
Part 3 IC skills

• Determining whether the activity met the goals

• Data reviewed
• E-mail exchanges
• Journals
• Questionnaires
• (Class discussions)

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Part 3 IC skills

• 1. Overview of E-mail exchanges
• a.) Multimodal communication
• b.) Types of issues discussed
• 2. Specific IC related patterns
• 3. Failure/Misunderstandings

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Part 3 IC skills1a. Multimodal Communication

• Students voluntarily supplemented messages with
• a.) pictures of self/home culture
• b.) blogs
• c.) chat
• d.) music video links
• e.) home culture info links

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Part 3 IC skills Pictures

• Jackie orders pudding

Chantal introduces food
Hans plays beach volleyball
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Part 3 IC skills 1b. Types of issues discussed

• Introductions of self culture
• - History
• Politics
• Views of other culture(s)
• Stereotypes Discrimination
• Current problems (tests, girls, etc.)
• Future hopes dreams

21
Part 3 IC skills 2. Specific IC related
patterns
Japanese
Taiwanese

• Japanese held little to no previous knowledge of
  Taiwan (location lang.)

Taiwanese were highly knowledgeable of Japan
(pop culture, products, etc.)
Japanese had greater learning experience of
Taiwanese culture
Taiwanese encountered position of explaining
Taiwan to their pen pals.
Both groups enjoyed these experiences.
22
Part 3 IC skills 2. Specific IC related
patterns

• Comparative knowledge
• in class I heard that you Taiwanese are
  very interested in Japanese things like
  cartoon, games, television drama If you
  dont mind, what is your most favorite Japanese
  thing?
• By the way, We Japanese dont know about your
  culture. I even dont know how to exchange
  greetings bowing or shaking hands? We usually
  bow to each other when we meet people for the
  first time. Do you use chopsticks? When you
  enter your house, do you take off your shoes?
  I want to know these things. Please answer for
  me!!
• Naohiro to partner

23
Part 3 IC skills 2. Specific IC related
patterns

• I like my partner. He is very polite and
  friendly!
• He is very interested in Japan and also
  Japanese cultures. He knows Japanese TV programs
  and Japanese movie. But, sadly I dont know
  about Taiwan culture...
• This project aroused my interest in things
  of Taiwan! I really enjoy this project

From Chiakis 11-26 journal
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Part 3 IC skills

• IC Failure/Misunderstandings in the activity
• Case study
• Ian (NCU) and Riina (Chuo)

25
Part 3 IC skills Case Study Ian and Riina

• Riina In Japan people who want to be a teacher
  can get teacher license in most of Japanese
  university
• Ian People can hardly get hired to be a
  teacher in Taiwan.
• Riina Is it difficult to be a teacher in
  China?? 
• Ian MM, its seems that the situation of
  teachers in
• Japan and Taiwan are alike

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Part 3 IC skills Case Study Ian and Riina
the most interesting is that when I said people
can hardly get hired to be a teacher in Taiwan,
she replied Is it difficult to be a teacher in
China?? It seems that people in Japan also
regard Taiwan as a part of china, just like most
of the countries in the world. Maybe we are the
last persons who still fight for our independence
stubbornly, without anyone elses support...
From Ians 11-23 journal
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Part 3 IC skills Case Study Ian and Riina

• How do you I feel about my partner?
• I like my partner And we are talking about
  teachers in Japan and China and so on.
• Japanese teachers and Chinese teachers have
  similarities, for example they must not beat
  students when they scold them l 
• Can you identify any differences from the
  exchange? 
• I dont feel big differences yet but as I said
  before Japanese university and Chinese university
  is different...

From Riinas 11-30 journal
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Part 3 IC skills Case Study Ian and Riina

• Analysis of IC Failure/Misunderstanding
• IC Failure possibly occurred because
• 1.) Low intercultural knowledge/awareness
• Riina was perhaps unaware of the sensitive issue
  of Taiwans political status, or impact on Ians
  feelings.
• 2.) Failure to communicate
• Ian failed to effectively communicate his
  feelings about the issue with her, perhaps
  believing that Riina was making an intentional
  political statement.

29
Part 4 Conclusion

• 1. Linguistic Skills
• 2. Intercultural Communicative skills
• 3. Other things learned
• (Project Administration, etc.)

30
Part 4 Conclusion
1. Linguistic Skills
31
Questionnaire Results
32
Questionnaire Results

• The questionnaire results show the following
  self-assessments
• Chuo 13/17 improved writing
  skills
• NCU 10/15
• Chuo 10/17 acquired new vocabulary
• NCU 6/15
• It helps me in not only increasing my
  vocabulary, but also writing English. (Kou
  Hatsukon, Chuo, Journal, 12-12-2006)
• While typing English letters, there are always
  some words you must look up in the dictionary and
  then youll learn some new words. (Chantal, NCU,
  Q.10)

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Conclusion

• 1. Linguistic Skills
• - Students learned new expressions, vocabulary,
  that spelling matters

Significance of NNS exchange - Low stress
communicative activity between non-native speakers
Drawback of NNS exchange - No NS linguistic
feedback, mistakes repeated
34
Questionnaire Results
Second Look
35
Part 4 Conclusion
2. Intercultural Communicative skills
36
Questionnaire Results
37
Questionnaire Results
Q7 Are you more interested in your partner's
culture now than before?
Note Taiwanese already exhibited high interest
in Japan before activity, significantly higher
positive response for pen pals from other
countries (not listed in study)
38
Questionnaire Results
Q10 Do you think exchanging English e-mails with
non-native speakers is beneficial?
39
Questionnaire Results
Q11 Would you rather have a pen-pal who is a
native speaker of English (i.e., from Australia,
England, Canada, or the U.S.)?
40
Conclusion
2 Intercultural Communication Skills
- Increased IC Awareness - Built IC
competence - Had pleasurable IC experience
41
Part 4 Conclusion
3. Other things learned (Project
Administration, etc.)
42
Part 4 Conclusion 3 Changes Made
To further improve linguistic skills

• 1. Receive more teacher feedback on
  their
• linguistic errors (Focus on Form)
• 2. Use journals entries
• Students record new vocabulary items and
  language related questions from exchange, and
  teachers provide assistance when necessary.
• 3. Provide clear and specific topics on
  issues that guide them to expand their
  vocabulary and grammatical knowledge

43
Part 4 Conclusion 3 Changes Made
To further improve IC skills, teachers can

• 1. Pull some IC related issues from exchanges
  and discuss in class
  
• 2. Provide additional information related to
  exchanges partners cultures.
• 3. Provide regular topics on issues that will
  encourage development of IC skills.

44
Part 4 Conclusion 3 Changes Made
To further improve project administration

• 1. E-mail exchanges reduced to 2 exchanges per
  week (from 3)
• 2. Number of journal entries reduced (from
  weekly entries)
• 3. Administrative Form shared among teachers
  and shown to students regularly to encourage
  participation

45
Appendixes

• O Sample E-mail page
• O E-mail Schedule
• O Administration Form

Provided from second semester of activity,
incorporating changes from discussed results.
46
Appendix 1
47
Appendix 2Admin form
Okay
L Late
13 Date
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E-mail Administration
INBOX
New Message! To sarahx_at_ncu.edu.tw Cc
asia.ic_at_gmail.com Subject Anna to Sarah (2-1)
(Chuo) (NCU)
New Message! To annax_at_chuo-u.ac.jp Cc
asia.ic_at_gmail.com Subject Sarah to Anna (2-1)
(NCU) (Chuo)
New Message! To nancyx_at_school2.edu Cc
asia.ic_at_gmail.com Subject Betty to Nancy (2-1)
(NCU) (School
2)
Folders Chuo Chuo Journals School 2 School 2
Journals
49
Thank you for your kind attention.

• Q A
• Questions?
• Comments?
• Suggestions?
• We welcome all!

50
Unsolicited Praise (from NCU journals)

• I really treasure the experience in IC
  project! 
• -Angelina
• I have an excellent pen-pal I really like him so
  much.
• -Lillian
• It's really good to receive my pan-pal's mail.
• -Missy
• I think the ability of exchange email is so fun
• I can know something different
• I can make a new friend via the class
  homework.