Abstract
Cross-cultural communication has become increasingly prevalent in organizations and education systems. Such communication often takes place in a distributed fashion, and many studies have examined the impact of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on distributed cross-cultural groups. For example the literature points to cultural factors that could cause communication failures, such as individualism vs. collectivism, high context vs. low context, and power distance. We contend that language proficiency, a basic and fundamental difference between people from English speaking countries and other countries, is often neglected by researchers. Therefore, we have begun a detailed investigation of cross-cultural group chat. We chose text chat as a target technology because previous studies reported it as non-native speakers' preferred choice for CMC. Our study revealed that language proficiency played a pivotal role in cross-cultural group chat. When people conversed at different levels of proficiency, turn taking was severely disrupted, causing confusion and neglect of discussion points. We also found that some native speakers hold back ideas to accommodate the non-fluency of non-native speakers, slowing down the group process and outcomes. Working from these findings, we discuss possible designs that could assist both non-native and native speakers in cross-cultural group chat.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | GROUP'12 - Proceedings of the ACM 2012 International Conference on Support Group Work |
| Pages | 145-154 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 4 2012 |
| Event | 2012 17th ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work, GROUP 2012 - Sanibel Island, FL, United States Duration: Oct 27 2012 → Oct 31 2012 |
Publication series
| Name | GROUP'12 - Proceedings of the ACM 2012 International Conference on Support Group Work |
|---|
Other
| Other | 2012 17th ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work, GROUP 2012 |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| City | Sanibel Island, FL |
| Period | 10/27/12 → 10/31/12 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Computer Networks and Communications
Cite this
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At a different tempo : What goes wrong in online cross-cultural group chat? / Li, Na; Rosson, Mary Beth.
GROUP'12 - Proceedings of the ACM 2012 International Conference on Support Group Work. 2012. p. 145-154 (GROUP'12 - Proceedings of the ACM 2012 International Conference on Support Group Work).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
TY - GEN
T1 - At a different tempo
T2 - What goes wrong in online cross-cultural group chat?
AU - Li, Na
AU - Rosson, Mary Beth
PY - 2012/12/4
Y1 - 2012/12/4
N2 - Cross-cultural communication has become increasingly prevalent in organizations and education systems. Such communication often takes place in a distributed fashion, and many studies have examined the impact of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on distributed cross-cultural groups. For example the literature points to cultural factors that could cause communication failures, such as individualism vs. collectivism, high context vs. low context, and power distance. We contend that language proficiency, a basic and fundamental difference between people from English speaking countries and other countries, is often neglected by researchers. Therefore, we have begun a detailed investigation of cross-cultural group chat. We chose text chat as a target technology because previous studies reported it as non-native speakers' preferred choice for CMC. Our study revealed that language proficiency played a pivotal role in cross-cultural group chat. When people conversed at different levels of proficiency, turn taking was severely disrupted, causing confusion and neglect of discussion points. We also found that some native speakers hold back ideas to accommodate the non-fluency of non-native speakers, slowing down the group process and outcomes. Working from these findings, we discuss possible designs that could assist both non-native and native speakers in cross-cultural group chat.
AB - Cross-cultural communication has become increasingly prevalent in organizations and education systems. Such communication often takes place in a distributed fashion, and many studies have examined the impact of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on distributed cross-cultural groups. For example the literature points to cultural factors that could cause communication failures, such as individualism vs. collectivism, high context vs. low context, and power distance. We contend that language proficiency, a basic and fundamental difference between people from English speaking countries and other countries, is often neglected by researchers. Therefore, we have begun a detailed investigation of cross-cultural group chat. We chose text chat as a target technology because previous studies reported it as non-native speakers' preferred choice for CMC. Our study revealed that language proficiency played a pivotal role in cross-cultural group chat. When people conversed at different levels of proficiency, turn taking was severely disrupted, causing confusion and neglect of discussion points. We also found that some native speakers hold back ideas to accommodate the non-fluency of non-native speakers, slowing down the group process and outcomes. Working from these findings, we discuss possible designs that could assist both non-native and native speakers in cross-cultural group chat.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84870279521&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2389176.2389200
DO - 10.1145/2389176.2389200
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84870279521
SN - 9781450314862
T3 - GROUP'12 - Proceedings of the ACM 2012 International Conference on Support Group Work
SP - 145
EP - 154
BT - GROUP'12 - Proceedings of the ACM 2012 International Conference on Support Group Work
ER -