Creating Classroom-Based Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning in EFL

Approaches to intercultural teaching and learning have widely recommended integrating intercultural components into courses, with the idea of fostering students' understanding of other cultures. To enrich the literature on intercultural language education and to make a contribution to the development of effective ways of promoting language and culture learning, this study integrated experiential learning into an English as a foreign language (EFL) class of 33 non-English majors. This was achieved by inviting international student guest speakers to promote language and culture learning. The effects of this experiential learning were then examined using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The qualitative and quantitative data in this study demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach for intercultural experiential learning. It also emphasized the importance of a reflective awareness of language use and cultural elements in intercultural settings. Evidence of students' progress in the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) was found. Based on these results, suggestions for teaching and future research are also provided.

關鍵字

experiential learning ； intercultural communicative competence ； EFL

並列摘要

全球化時代下，如何在學習者通常來自於單一的語言文化背景的英語課程中強調學習跨文化溝通能力是許多英語教學者的一大挑戰。研究者從國際化角度思索，利用國際化校園環境資源，邀請校內國際學生到英語課演講與本地生互動交流，並探討跨文化溝通能力學習成效與課程設計滿意度調查。課程教學模式主要以三構面為核心基礎：(1)文化議題探討(2)認識他國文化(3)瞭解台灣文化並與他國文化比較。透過多元的跨文化活動設計，以增進學生跨文化學習經驗。研究方法採用量化和質性研究法。研究資料來源分為三部分：(1)跨文化學習問卷(2)學生的反思報告(3)課程設計滿意度問卷。結果顯示課程設計打破以往書上學習單一英語系國家文化的現況，將文化學習轉化為認識、尊重跨文化的差異性，著實增進語言與文化的學習，在認識世界國際文化的同時，也懂得如何描述在地文化及自我反思，作為將來交流的基礎。根據研究過程及結果，作者也提出教學設計相關建議供參考。

並列關鍵字

經驗學習；跨文化溝通能力；英語教學

參考文獻

Alptekin, C.(2002).Towards intercultural communicative competence in ELT.ELT Journal.56,57-64.

Google Scholar

Alred, G.,Byram, M.(2002).Becoming an intercultural mediator: A longitudinal study of residence abroad.Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.23,339-352.