Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract/Objectives

The course is structured into three main parts aimed at fostering cross-cultural understanding and language learning between students from Lanya Junior High School in Taiwan and St. Mark's High School in Swaziland. 1. **Promoting International Friendship**: Through icebreaker activities and group discussions, students engage in easing national and language barriers, progressing from introductions to conducting self-introductions in English, setting a foundation for friendship. 2. **Deepening Multicultural Awareness**: Thematic presentations allow students to share insights about their cultures, including traditions, food, and daily life, using visuals to enhance understanding of geographical and social differences. 3. **Bidirectional Language Learning**: The course culminates in students practicing English while also learning local greetings. They showcase their learning by creating videos expressing gratitude to each other’s countries, thus demonstrating respect for their respective languages and cultures.

Results/Contributions （500 words）

The course content includes the following three parts:

1.Promoting International Friendship and Immersive Interactive Experiences: Through icebreaker games and breakout discussions, students from Lanya Junior High School in Taiwan and St. Mark's High School in Swaziland are guided to break down national and language barriers in a relaxed atmosphere. This allows students from both countries to move from initial greetings to conducting English self-introductions in pairs or small groups, establishing a foundation for cross-cultural friendship.

2.Deepening Multicultural Awareness and Lifestyle Dialogue: Through thematic presentations (covering national backgrounds, school systems, cuisine, and festivals), students from both countries showcase their cultural characteristics while also gaining an understanding of each other’s daily life differences. Utilizing visual images and videos, both sides gain concrete knowledge of geographical locations, climates, and school routines, facilitating a profound exchange of cross-national cultural knowledge.

3.Implementing Bidirectional Language Learning and Practical Expression Applications: The activity ultimately achieves a bidirectional language practice. With the bridge we built and the guidance provided, at the end of the course, students are not only able to deliver professional themed presentations and engage in impromptu Q&A sessions in English, but they also learn each other’s local greetings (e.g., siSwati and Chinese). By recording friendly short videos saying "Thank you, Taiwan" and "Thank you, Swaziland," they concretely demonstrate respect for each other’s language and culture as well as the results of their learning.


Keywords

immersive interactionmulticulturalism cultural exchange

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