英語逐漸成為連結世界公民的共同語言。因此，越來越多的世界公民開始意識到英語的重要性並開始學習英語，這些英語學習者可稱為視英語為第二語言學習者或是外語學習者。而在台灣的英語教育和學習環境並不友善，台灣的英語教育主要是以考試為導向，英語閱讀和寫作為英語課堂訓練之主要目標，台灣的英語學習者缺乏口說訓練，因此經常在使用英語口語表達和偷工時會遇到困難。雖然已經有許多文獻提及有效的英語口說教學法，但鮮少研究探討英語結合科技與跨國遠距教學計畫相關議題。
此跨國遠距溝通計畫是透過線上交流平台LiveOn，提供英語為外語學習者一個能使用英語及與其他國家的英語為外語學習者進行英語對話的溝通管道。此研究主旨在於探討英語為外語學習者在參與此計畫前後之自我認知之口說能力之應用成效。研究計畫共有19位非英語系之大一學生參與為期六週的研究並有13位自願擔任晤談受訪者。此研究的資料數據由量化數據(如：問卷)和質化數據(如：晤談和簡答題)所組成。第一週和第六週為研究數據搜集，在第二週至第五週進行為期四周的連線，研究參與者分為小組與日本參與者進行跨國遠距溝通，參與者每週要與日本參與者進行遠距溝通，每次連線為50分鐘。
量化數據結果顯示，參與者在參與計畫前後之對於整體的自我認知之整體能力並沒有顯著性的進步。為了探討參與者是否在某項口說溝通能力有所進步，問卷內容被逐條分析，結果顯示只有其中只有英語口說用字遣詞的多元程度之技巧有顯著性進步。而質化數據結果顯示，此計畫幫助學習者了解其自我英語口說能力之程度、增進學習者英語口說之學習動機和增進學習者使用英語溝通的意願。此外，研究參與者在使用英語進行跨國遠距溝通時，時常遇到溝通上的困難，其困難有：無法用英語順利表達自我想法、日本參與者無法理解參與者的想法和參與者無法理解日本參與者想表達的意思。為了讓對話能夠流暢的進行，參與者想出了若干種解決辦法，如查電子辭典、請求同伴翻譯、換句話說、請日本參與者重新闡述其想法、使用LiveOn平台所提供之打字功能、白板功能和網頁和檔案分享功能。即使量化數據結果顯示此計畫對於參與者的整體英語口說能力並沒有太大的顯著效果，但質化數據卻結果闡釋，此跨國遠距溝通計畫對於參與者的英語口說能力和技巧還是有某方面的幫助。

English has a growing importance in connecting people who have different language backgrounds. Thus, there is a soaring number of world citizens who start learning English as second or foreign language (L2/FL). More English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners are becoming aware of the needs to use English as a lingua franca (ELF) to communicate with non-native English speakers (NNESs) from different countries. However, English learning and teaching (ELT) in Taiwan is test-oriented and the English classes mainly focus on reading and writing, so the English learners could not immerse in an English-friendly environment and seldom have opportunities to communicate with people from different countries in English. Therefore, those EFL learners may encounter oral difficulties because learners may have less opportunity to train for the real-time response skills.
The cross-cultural communication program of this study aims to provide the attendees an opportunity to use English as an international language to practice their language skills, to improve their communication skills, and to share the value of cultures by discussing the various world issues with attendees from other EFL countries through a personal computer (PC) based online communication system with voice and video synchronization called LiveOn. There are nineteen participants attended in the six-week cross-cultural communication experiment and thirteen of them were volunteered as the interviewees. Due to the present study is a mix methods study, which means the research data combine with qualitative data and quantitative data. The 21 items, quantitative data, with identical 5-point Likert scales were gathered from the English-speaking self-rating questionnaire (ESSQ) and the qualitative data were collected from interviews and the open-ended questions from ESSQ. The research data were collected on the week one and the week six of the experiment and the participants conducted the cross-cultural communication with the Japanese participants in the middle of four weeks and 50 minutes communication for each joint sessions. 
The quantitative results from ESSQ showed that the participants’ communication competence did not improve significantly at .05 level after the joint sessions. However, in order to investigate the possibility of the improvement on certain English-speaking skills, the items which focus on the certain English-speaking skills were analyzed individually. The results showed that there is only one item, the usage of lexical resource, indicating the significant improvement at .05 level. According to the participants responses from interviews and the open-ended questions, the qualitative data, many participants reported that the project did help them in some extents. For instance, the project helped the participants to understand their actual communication competence, increase the learning motivation on English speaking, and become more willingness to communicate. Moreover, when the participants met difficulties while communicating with the Japanese participants; for example, the participants could not smoothly express the ideas, the Japanese participants misunderstood the Taiwanese participants’ ideas, and the Taiwanese participant did not comprehend the Japanese participants’ utterances. In order to flow the conversation, the strategies which the participants applied are looking up for the electronic dictionary, asking Taiwanese partners for translating in Mandarin, paraphrasing the ideas, asking the Japanese participants for reclarifying the ideas, and delivering the information by textbox, whiteboard, website sharing, and file sharing functions. Although the quantitative results did not elaborate the positive outcomes mostly, according to the participants responses from interviews and the open-ended questions, many participants reported that the project did help them in some extents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS	I
CHINESE ABSTRACT	III
ABSTRACT	V
TABLE OF CONTENTS	VIII
LIST OF TABLES	X
LIST OF FIGURES	XI
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION	1
1.1	Introduction	1
1.2	Purpose of the Study	5
1.3	Significance of the Study	6
1.4	Research Questions	7
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW	9
2.1	Introduction	9
2.2	English as Lingua Franca	9
2.3	Oral Difficulties of EFL Learners	13
2.4	Self-perceived Communication Competence	15
2.5	Computer-mediated Communication (CMC)	16
2.6	Cross-Cultural Communication Project	18
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY	22
3.1	Research Design	22
3.2	Research Participants	22
3.3	Research Settings	24
3.3.1	LiveOn	27
3.4 	Research Procedures	31
3.4.1	Questionnaires	33
3.4.2	Interviews	34
3.5	Data Collection and Data Analysis	35
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION	39
4.1	Introduction	39
4.2	Quantitative Results of the ESSQ of the Pre-test and the Post-test on English Language Skills and Proficiency	40
4.3	Qualitative Results of the Participants’ Self-perception on English-speaking Communication Competence before the Cross-cultural Communication Project	46
4.4	Qualitative results of the Participants’ Self-perception on English-speaking Communication Competence after the Cross-cultural Communication Project	50
4.5	The Difficulties which the Taiwanese Participants Encountered while Communicating with the Japanese Participants	58
4.6	The Extent which the Online Cross-cultural Experience Helps the Participants Improve English-speaking Communication Competence	69
4.7	Discussion	72
CHPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION	75
5.1	Introduction	75
5.2	Summary of the Study	75
5.3	Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for the Future Study	78
REFERENCES	82
APPENDICES	91
Appendix A General Background Questionnaire (GBQ)	91
Appendix B English Speaking Self-Rating Questionnaire (ESSQ)	92
Appendix C Interview Questions	96

LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 The Research schedule	31
Table 4.1 Descriptive statistics of the ESSQ     44
Table 4.2 Test statistics of Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test	44
Table 4.3 Descriptive statistics of the participants’ self-perception of the current  level of study in spoken English	46
Table 4.4 Test statistics of Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test	46
Table 4.5 Descriptive statistics of the participants’ self-perceived to the official  communication in spoken English	59
Table 4.6 Test statistics of Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test	60


 
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Kachru’s three circle model of World Englishes (Adapted from Kachru (1992))	11
Figure 3.1 Screenshot of the group discussion list	26
Figure 3.2 Screenshot of LiveOn’s homepage	28
Figure 3.3 Screenshot of the chatroom list	28
Figure 3.4 Screenshot of the chatroom	29
Figure 3.5 Screenshot of the tool bar: whiteboard and textbox	29
Figure 3.6 Screenshot of the tool bar: website sharing	29
Figure 3.7 Screenshot of the whiteboard function	30
Figure 3.8 Screenshot of the textbox function	30
Figure 3.9 Research Procedures	33
Figure 3.10 Screenshot of the QuickTime Player	35
Figure 4.1 Statistics of item 12 from ESSQ    61
Figure 4.2 Statistics of item 14 from ESSQ	 62
Figure 4.3 Statistics of item 15 from ESSQ	 62
Figure 4.4 Statistics of item 16 from ESSQ	 63

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