Exploring Influence of Cultural Constructs and Social Network on Cross-Cultural Learning

摘要

In this study, we designed an online cross-cultural learning activity for participants from different countries, representing various cultures and speaking diverse languages. The participants interacted and exchanged culture-related information with each other in their native languages. We employed a speech-enabled language translation technology to support participant interaction and information exchange in order to facilitate their cross-cultural learning. We analyzed a social network of participants of cross-cultural learning activity and measured their perceptions related to cultural constructs. Finally, we investigated the relationship between cross-cultural learning and social network characteristics and between cross-cultural learning and cultural constructs. According to our results, first, cross-cultural learning of participants was facilitated in terms of declarative and procedural knowledge of foreign traditions and related culture. Second, Group Ⅱ had better social network characteristics compared to Group I. Third, our results revealed that there is no relationship exist between cross-cultural learning and cultural constructs. We make several implications based on our results in this paper.