The effect of international communication via chat translator systems on prejudice reduction

2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23653168
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Social psychology
• Research Institution: Ochanomizu University
• Principal Investigator: SAKAMOTO Akira お茶の水女子大学, 大学院・人間文化創成科学研究科, 教授 (00205759)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MORIYAMA Shin お茶の水女子大学, 大学院・人間文化創成科学研究科, 教授 (10343170)
• Research Collaborator: OKUYAMA Yoko 同徳女子大学校, 人文大学日本語科, 副教授 ; ISHII Naomi 同徳女子大学校, 人文大学日本語科, 専任講師
• Project Period (FY): 2011
• Keywords: 国際交流 / 偏見低減 / 韓国 / 翻訳チャット / 異文化理解 / 情報リテラシー

Research Abstract

In study 1, we developed a training program for improving the online international communication skills and literacy of chat translator system users. In study 2, in order to investigate the effect of the program, we conducted the experiment where 41 pairs of Japanese and South Korean female students participated. Each Japanese student was made communicate with the Korean student paired with her via a chat translator system. As the result, the students who had been trained with the program(i. e., training group) regarded the communication as significantly easier than those who had not been trained(i. e., control group). Moreover, the students of training group increased their feeling of closeness to the students from their counterpart country through the communication, while such increase was not found as to the control group.