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communication learning. Thus, it made sense that three students with different ideas about Internet developed different communicative genres while producing their messages on the blog.
Besides, parents’ influence on learners’ Internet use was also obvious. Although all of the three students were first exposed to the Internet activities or multimedia applications at home, Daphne’s motivation and performance for intercultural
communication was better than the other two students. The key difference might have been parental mediation. Some studies (Chan & Shen, 2004；Lee & Chae, 2007；Yen et al., 2007) indicated that the more effective family guidance parents offered, the more frequently the children would be involved in online communication for
educational purposes. Teresa and Brian did not get much parental guidance when they considered Internet the tool only for specific information or entertainment information.
As for Daphne, she obviously gained more support of using the Internet as
communication tools from her mother. She paid attention to Daphne’s learning and also played a critical role in assisting her to get involved in intercultural
communication with her English teachers on the Internet. It illustrates that family guidance for children’s Internet use can improve their web-based intercultural communication development.
Social support and facilitation and intercultural communication competences
In the intercultural project, it is important for the three students to get sufficient support as they learnt how to communicate with and people on the blogs and to get involved in the blog community. Without proper feedback and guidance, they easily had negative feelings in the early phase of intercultural communication. For example, although the three students were eager to interact with the international partners, then they gradually lost their motivation for the intercultural communication or felt tense as they had difficulties talking with the international partners on the blog. Brian‧ 國
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distanced himself from the intercultural communication when he thought the interaction did not meet his expectation. The activities of mainly sharing cultural knowledge without asking questions could not trigger his motivation for continuing the conversation. Daphne had a mixed feeling of insecure because she was not sure whether she could freely express her thinking on the blog. Teresa felt frustrated because she had difficulties actively expressing herself on the blog.
Their disconnection, insecurity, and frustration rooted in not only their
unfamiliarity about how to keep a long-term interaction with people on the Internet but also the role conflict. According to L’Ecuyer (1990), a particular area of tension (both negative, as frustration, and positive, as challenge) emerged with the conflicting interaction between learners’ beliefs and the everyday roles of learners. In the
teacher-centered classroom, the three students used to be passive learners. They did not have much chance to express their ideas or respond to others’ thoughts and completely followed the step-by-step guides from their instructor. However, in the blog community built on relationships and frequent personal experience sharing, every member was asked to actively speak out their own feelings or opinions and decided what they wanted to learn from the international partners by asking questions.
The new learning environment which emphasized interactivity and autonomous learning made the students feel the pressure of change their roles in the learning process and challenged their beliefs about learning.
Therefore, the three students considered that getting support and facilitation from other people or multimedia resources could help them fit in the blog
environment and also benefited the development of their intercultural communication competences. Daphne was more willing to express her ideas actively as she got the international partners, the instructor and other local students’ support. Brian enjoyed being both an informant and a questioner who was willing to share and paid more
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attention to others’ opinions as his contribution was highly appreciated by the instructor and other local students on “Research Diary.” Teresa felt less frustrated as she could imitate others’ blog posts or comments to learn social practices in the blog community and even participated in group discussion as the role of “supporter.”
Besides, she actively shared her personal experience with the aid of different Internet multimedia applications because she thought it was fun and convenient to present her life and another side of her with the photographic support.
Another important facilitation that improved the three students’ intercultural thinking was the use of first language in the intercultural discussion group of local students. On the blog “Research Diary,” the students used their first language to discuss their feeling about the critical incidents that happened in their interaction with international partners. Without being bound by limited linguistic abilities, the students expressed their views fully and in detail. An increase in intercultural awareness was achieved. According Table 5.2, the students’ instances that reflected an ability to change perspective on “Research Diary” was more than their instances on “A day at my school” where they used target language to discuss with international partners.
The result shows that the peer discussion could facilitate the three students’
intercultural awareness by thinking cultural issues from different perspective. The students were more aware that they could think an issue from different perspectives as the instructor raised questions in L1 to elicit students’ critical thinking. It was also easier to create an interactive atmosphere in the blog environment because the
students were more willing to read other members’ posts and showed their agreement or questions to their points. Daphne became truly interactive with other students as she thought it was interesting to read their onions about cultural issues. Teresa played as a “supporter” who actively participated in group discussion by giving others
positive feedback. Brian easily expressed his opinions with cultural prejudice when he
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interacted with international partners. However, after he read other members’ posts of sharing thinking from the international partners’ perspective on “Research Diary,” he started to reflect on the cultural issues more objectively and, moreover, he tended to help other teammates to produce more intercultural thoughts by asking them questions.
This result supported the studies that have used the students’ L1 as an influential cognitive tool for the transmission of intercultural knowledge (Bauer, deBenedette, Furstenberg, Levet, & Waryn, 2006; Ducate & Lomicka, 2005; ODowd, 2006). From a sociocultural perspective, Anton, DiCamilla, and Lantolf (2003) also pointed out that “ if learners can use the L2 as primary means of social communication, the fact that they need to rely on their L1 for mental regulation should not be a cause of concern” (p. 278).
Therefore, the three students’ experience shows that with the support and
facilitation of the blog community members, multimedia resources and the use of first language, learners can have more motivation and confidence to develop different intercultural competences. Moreover, they will also reinforce their self-identity as they realize what roles they can play to achieve a return of more social resources such as intercultural knowledge or communication skill acquisition, and social recognition from the blog community. Bourdieu, Passeron (1977), and Norton Peirce (1995), stated that if learners understood that they would acquire a wider range of symbolic and material resources, such as knowledge, abilities, social recognition or other advantages which helped them successfully fit in a group, they would invest in second language and the identity of an other (by position the other) in order to reinforce and assert their self-identity.