Page 119 - Cyberculture and New Media

110 The Challenge of Intercultural Electronic Learning
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convey an idea or to deliver a message than to think about correct
grammatical constructions or the choice of lexical units.
To secure a qualitative online communication in ELF both
Easterners and Westerners:
· make use of intercultural English (avoiding local “Englishes”)
· do not use idiomatic or slang expressions or substitute them
with a suitable equivalent
· search for synonyms to make messages “digestable”
· apply for help: clarify, ask for additional information
· use supportive lexical units
· employ humour and laughter and their graphical equivalents -
smileys or emoticons
· ask for/give feedback: retrieve information about lexical
difficulties from their communication partners; ask their
partners if they are comfortable with their English
· are sensitive to the peculiarities of linguacultural
communication in different cultures
· are especially tolerant and empathic when communicating with cultures
of opposite context
This clearly testifies the shift of roles in online cross-cultural
communities as compared to monocultural communities: the communication
partners not only “consume” the delivered information but actively cooperate
with each other in reconstructing the meaning and creating understanding.
Seminar participants are competent and fluent English speakers.
Neither high nor low context cultures dominate the conversation with the
both groups taking turns in initiating discussions and promoting a dialogue.
The feedback is constructive, they enjoy being listened to, encouraging each
other to respond, and sharing their thoughts and knowledge. They feel safe to
express themselves, and as a result, experience some kind of a ‘we - feeling’.
The English in the seminar is academic: both parties practise a
Western (direct, without status-priorities open) way of discourse. There is no
language deficit, the spelling system presents mixed American/British forms
(tending more to English spelling) and uses international grammar. The
participants are capable of discussing complex didactical, psycholinguistical
or philosophical topics in English: their lexicon is rich and phraseological
competency is relatively high. In general, their language proficiency is good
enough for a qualitative online communication with a learning objective.
The following data reflects the communication patterns being
viewed cross-culturally (words/per message):
Westerners: n (max) = 467; n (min) = 27
Easterners: n (max) = 136; n (min) = 17