Challenges and strategies in online intercultural exchange: Perspectives from Chinese EFL students

This study explores the challenges and strategies involved in intercultural communication during an online intercultural exchange, drawing on the experiences of Chinese university students. Sixteen Chinese students participated in an online intercultural exchange project with Japanese university students. Using digital platforms such as WeChat and Zoom, they discussed global issues they considered significant such as climate change, and they had the freedom to decide on the number of meetings and discussions to hold over the project’s five-week period. This study draws on qualitative content analysis of the weekly reflective journal entries the Chinese participants submitted. The analysis identifies three key challenges the participants faced in intercultural communication: language barriers, divergent communication styles, and imbalanced group dynamics. However, the findings also reveal that the participants used various strategies to navigate such challenges, including multimodal communication, accommodation strategies, and rapport-building techniques. The study highlights the importance of developing language learners’ communication strategies to effectively navigate intercultural communication, where linguistic, pragmatic, and social dimensions intersect. It also emphasizes the need to incorporate these communication strategies into ELT classrooms and discusses some pedagogic implications.