Sloan-C - Publications - Journal: JALN - Vol7:1 - The Diigo Meta page

• 27 Jun 08
  

  Michele Gill

  High/Low Context review of cultural influences on cmc (computer mediated communication)

  Culture Issues M8 FST

  • Ethnicity, rather than nationality indicates cultural background. Defined as
    “…people who have culture, language, history and traditions in common …” [32], ethnicity occupies the key role in cultural and
    educational behavior. Educational systems are culturally specific [33]. Ethnic group (cultural) differences are reflected in
    learning styles which are based on the modal behaviors of societal learned
    values [34]. These are influenced by both communication
    behavior [35, 36, 37] and education systems [38, 39, 40]. Participant cultures – their learned rules of
    behavior in a group setting – are therefore important to the development of
    learning interaction and learning achievement. Specifically, one of a number of
    generally accepted cultural variables differentiates along a continuum between
    low context and high context cultures [41].
• 26 Jun 08
  

  Christy Tucker

  Small-scale study of cultural differences in an asynchronous learning environment, focusing on high and low context cultures. Includes a comparison of student perceptions of online learning based on their cultural background. High and low context learners both saw advantages to online learning, but their reasons differ.

  diversity e-learning highered asynchronous research context communication

  • Because computer mediated communications is language (specifically, written
    word) dependant, it is subject to the constraints of low/high context
    cultural patterns [46]. As indicated earlier, the
    role of language is to carry meaning, and interpretation is an integral
    part of culture. Language is one means of establishing context among participants
    of a particular culture group. In low context cultures, language must
    be specific and well defined, to provide the contextual definition in
    which to interpret the communication. On the other hand, in a high context
    culture language may be vague, lacking the specificity of the low context
    culture, as the environment within which communication takes place clarifies
    the specific meaning of language [36, 41].
    Thus language plays a key role in the communication process. A key issue
    determining the success of computer mediated communication is the encoding/decoding
    by which that communication is done. Given that computer-mediated communication
    is a textual (electronic) rather than a visual (face-to-face) medium,
    meaning must be carried by the language itself rather than relying on
    the environmental context as the means of communication and/or interpretation.
    Given this relationship, because the language of communication is English,
    low context communication is presumed, thus perhaps disadvantaging those
    whose cultural background relies on high context communication.
  • Interestingly,
    low context participants concentrate on the participation environment,
    while high context participants concentrate on their individual work/effort
    and/or skills in the discussion.
  • 1 more annotations...
  • • Noticeably
      however, the responses indicate that cultural background directly influences
      the priority of perceived benefits received and challenges posed from
      the same asynchronous communication network. The perceptions are based
      on learning patterns which are developed as part of a participants’
      ethnic/cultural development, and are potentially challenged by participation
      in an asynchronous communication network, which of itself is implicitly
      culturally based. Further, high context participants in an asynchronously
      delivered seminar, while assured of higher quality participation through
      an offline ability to infer meaning through low context communications,
      are at least initially more likely to be disadvantaged by technology differences
      as well as the communications norms implicit in their cultural background.

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