Promoting cultural learning: Effects of cultural knowledge on text chats between Japanese and Chinese participants

Abstract

Cultural learning is increasingly necessary for intercultural communication in this time of advancing globalization. Cultural knowledge of a partner country is required for positive intercultural collaboration. In this study, we consider a learning method using text chat conversations between Japanese and Chinese participants. Our experiments revealed the following results: (1) Much content about deep culture was discussed in the experiment using cultural knowledge, and the effect of cultural knowledge was expected to promote intercultural learning; (2) the effect on the culturally advanced learner (Chinese participants) in the fourth stage of Damen's learning path [1] indicates that offering cultural knowledge can be useful for advanced cultural learning. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.