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mistakes. The other factor helps learners to reduce their language stress and anxiety is that online discourse community allows the re-negotiation of power relationship and the characteristic of vertical social relations such as age and social status is relatively de-emphasized, (Matsuda, 2002). From the examples of the interaction with the Italian teacher on the base of friendship, and the peer learning between the students, it shows that horizontal social relationship based on shared authority on the blog can encourage learners to overcome the anxiety of communicating in a foreign language.
Learning English becoming more interesting and practical
In addition to learning English with less stress, the three students also had much fun and gained the sense of achievement as they got involved in authentic and
meaningful interactions with international partners and local students via Internet.
Daphne thought although memorizing English words and grammatical rules were still important, the desire of making friends with the international partners on the blog motivated her to practice English and to be responsible for her English learning. After overcoming the anxiety in intercultural communication, Teresa gradually gained the confidence of communicating on the internet as she was more familiar with how to interact with international partners and other local students. Brian thought that the intercultural project brought him a meaningful English learning experience because he learnt how to introduce Taiwan and his school life to the international partners
through sharing interesting websites, videos, and slideshows. He also thought the process of discussing cultural issues with local students gave him a great chance to practice how to be engaged in a group discussion in English.
These three students considered that the intercultural communication experience had positive effect on their attitude toward English learning. They were motivated to learn English in order to introduce the details of their culture and life to the real audience, which was rarely available to them in the English classroom where western
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culture was main learning focus. These students’ intercultural experience shows that involving learners in real online interactions can prompt their communicative skills because they no longer just passively learn grammatical rules but the pragmatic competence, the capacity to incorporate cultural knowledge into language use and choose appropriate language in different sociocultural contexts (Bachman, 1990；
Braine, 2004；Hymes, 1972；Kasper,1997).
Another feature of blog platform that the students felt helpful for their English learning was the tight integration of multimedia applications into online
communication. According to Hauck and Hample (2005), students learning a language with audiographic support report affective as well as cognitive gains. The three students viewed the animation, video and slideshow applications as the
important tools for vividly presenting their life or as environment capable of carrying considerable humor, which were difficult to achieve by text-based messages. Daphne thought making multimedia works was a great help for her to explain as many details as she could about her school life. Teresa thought learning English was interesting as she could present her life with the aid of multimedia applications. The sound and photographic support increased Teresa’s confidence and motivation of disclosing herself in English as she could create a new image of her through her multimedia works. Brian liked to share his school life by adding with funny pictures in his
slideshows or videos. The three students hoped their multimedia works of introducing their life could get the international partners’ attention and social acceptance. For the students, the multimedia environment was not considered a cold medium (de los Arcos& Arnedillo Sa’ nchez, 2006) but an environment which motivated, excited, and engaged them in learning English with multimodal resources for the purpose of constructing new identities and being accepted in the Internet community (Ajayi, 2008).
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In the final interviews with the three students, they all indicated that this intercultural project triggered their desire of going on using English as the communication medium on the Internet. Daphne thought that she was willing to continue learning English through Internet communication in the future. Teresa had confidence to communicate with her cousin on MSN in English. Based on the researcher’s observation, Brian still came back to visit the intercultural blogs when the project was finished and shared the websites or his ideas of introducing the beauty of Taiwan. From feeling insecure or unwilling to express their thoughts in English to continuing to use English to share their ideas after the project, the three students gradually develop the concept that the process of learning how to communicate in English on the Internet could help them not only explore the world but also connect with people from different social backgrounds.
To sum up, as the three students explored in a new English learning environment, it was important for them to reduce anxiety and get sufficient support. Although the three students with different learning styles and experience had different challenges to deal with as they learnt how to communicate with people with various culture
backgrounds in English on the blogs, they all felt anxious about face-to-face contact.
Therefore, the asynchronous English communication in the blog environment made the student think English learning was less inhibiting and threatening as they could take time to ask for assistance or think what they could respond to others. Without worrying about losing face and time limitation, the students were more willing to take the risk of expressing their thoughts. Besides, the process of visualizing life
experience through the integration of language, images, and sounds had positive impact on the students’ English expression abilities. Thus, the result shows that in the blog environment, the advantage of stress-free communication and easy access resources for maintaining social connection with others can facilitate learners’
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motivation for learning intercultural communication competences in English.
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
The present study investigated three Taiwanese elementary school students’
intercultural communicative learning in the weblog environment and their attitude changes on English acquisition. Derived from the challenges and successes that these students experienced in the intercultural project, this chapter will first summarize the findings of the study and then focus on the pedagogical implications as well as limitation and recommendations for further practice.