英文摘要 |
Intercultural communication abilities have become a fundamental part of civic literacy in the 21st century, which is characterized by frequent international interactions. However, at English teaching sites in Taiwan, students are rarely provided with opportunities for intercultural interactions. Approaches to improving the intercultural communication abilities of Taiwanese university students were the focus of this study, which examined the learning processes and outcomes of students in an English course aimed at improving intercultural communication abilities. In the course, 20 Taiwanese students were connected with 34 Filipino students for an 11-week online transnational collaboration project. The students participated in extracurricular intercultural interactions by using asynchronous and synchronous social platforms. The ABC's teaching model, which stands for autobiography, biography, and cross-cultural comparison, was adopted. Through the use of five steps, namely preparation, sharing their own stories, sharing the stories of others, intercultural comparison, and reflection, the Taiwanese students examined their own cultural beliefs, strengthened their understanding of the cultures of Southeast Asian countries, improved their intercultural cognition and interaction skills, thereby developing intercultural communication knowledge and skills. The instructor synchronously revised the course contents according to the student feedback by using the qualitative action research method. The students' reflection journals, the instructor's observation notes, and an in-depth focus group interview served as the data sources. The results revealed that the Taiwanese students' process of transnational long-distance collaboration consisted of five stages: expectations and concerns, first contact, developing self-adjustment, analysis and reflection, and establishment of intercultural friendships. The data confirmed that the English practice strategy incorporating transnational long-distance collaboration effectively improved the Taiwanese students' intercultural communication abilities, which include knowledge, attitudes, interpretation and connection skills, communication and interaction skills, and critical cultural awareness. Therefore, this approach is a feasible English teaching strategy. Students' intercultural learning processes are affected by their perceptions and contribution to each other, personal reflection, sharing among peers, and instructor guidance. Suggestions are presented in this paper for incorporating online intercultural collaboration programs in English teaching. |