Record Detail

In this study, 21 university students, who represented thirteen nationalities,
participated in an online cross-cultural learning activity. The participants were engaged in
interactions and exchanges carried out on Facebook® and Skype® platforms, and their
multilingual communications were supported by speech-to-text recognition (STR) and
computer-aided translation (CAT) systems. The participants spoke in their native languages,
and the STR system generated texts from their voice input. The CAT system then
simultaneously translated the STR-texts into English. The aim of this study was to examine
the accuracy rates of STR and CAT processes for different languages during intercultural
communication. We also explored issues associated with these processes and how they
were addressed in the study context. In addition, an attempt was made to determine
whether or not our learning activity as supported by STR and CAT technologies facilitated
cross-cultural learning. Our results showed that the lowest STR accuracy rate was for
Belizean English whereas the highest STR accuracy rate was for French and Hindi. The
lowest CAT accuracy rate was for Mongolian and Filipino, and the highest was for
Spanish, Russian, and French. Seven issues associated with the STR process and ten issues
associated with the CAT process were identified. The participants employed ten workarounds
to address the STR-related issues and thirteen workarounds to address the CATrelated
issues. We refer to a workaround as a method used by the participants to overcome
a limitation related to either STR or CAT. Finally, our results demonstrated that crosscultural
learning took place; the participants understood and could explain foreign traditions
to others and could also compare foreign traditions with their own. Based on our
results, we made several suggestions and provided implications for the teaching and
research community.