Facilitating online cross-cultural learning project with speech-enabled language translation technology

Abstract

An online cross-cultural learning project was implemented in this study. High school students from China and Uzbekistan participated in the project and an online learning environment was created. The participants communicated and exchanged culture-related information with each other to learn culture and traditions of their partners. To address the language gap (i.e. the participants had no language in common), speech-enabled language translation technology was employed: when a student spoke in her native language, the technology translated speech content into her partner’s native language. We explored whether the cross-cultural learning project supported by speech-enabled language translation technology could facilitate cross-cultural understanding of the participants. In addition, the participants’ perceptions of the technology were investigated. The results demonstrated that cross-cultural learning took place and the participants had positive perceptions of the technology. We suggest, based on our results, that educators and researchers may consider our approach for their future online cross-cultural learning projects.