An Exploration of English Learning and Teaching Model for Cross-cultural Computer-mediated Communication

An Exploration of English Learning and Teaching Model for Cross-cultural Computer-mediated Communication

  This study is an exploratory investigation of the learning opportunities provided by a cross-cultural CMC project which connected one graduate-level EFL teacher education course in Korea with one college-level pre-service teacher education course in the United States. This study was conducted with the following objectives: (1) to analyze the patterns and types of collaborative interactions taking place in a cross-cultural CMC project and Korean students’ perceptions toward the online experience and (2) to use these findings to support instructor efforts to include cross-cultural collaborative interactions in their courses. Students engaged in three CMC discussions throughout a semester. Data for the article include transcripts from CMC discussions conducted through a bulletin board system as well as data provided by Korean students in discourse-based interviews and in end-of-semester reflective essays. Patterns in the data were identified through a grounded procedure in which themes and issues emerged from the data through an interactive process of analysis and tentative category assignment. The results of the discourse analysis indicate that the students engaged in many types of organizational, social, cognitive, and professional contextualizing.