International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) – Vol. 8, No. 3, 2014 PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… The Effect of Using Computer-Mediated Communication on English Language Learners' Socio-Cultural Competence http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v8i3.3910 Ahmad Mousa Bataineh Al-alBayt University, Mafraq, Jordan Abstract—This experimental study investigates the effect of using web-cam chat on the FL Learners' socio-cultural competence by answering the following question: What is the effect of using web-Cam chat on the socio-cultural com- petence of tenth grade students? And which socio-cultural aspects of language did the experimental group students develop more as results of using CMC. The sample of study consisted of 43 tenth grade students at A L -Sabila Private School for Boys, in the second semester of the scholastic year2010/2011. Section (A) consisted of (20) students. It was chosen as an experimental group, while section (B) consisted of (23) students. It was decided as a control group. Data were collected within sixteen weeks. The pre-test and the post-test were of two parts: A written part and oral dia- logues that test the FL students' ability to interact culturally appropriately in communicative settings. Scores were tabu- lated and prepared for statistic a l analysis. To treat the raw scores statistically, T.test, One - Way ANOVA and Scheffe were used. The results o f t h e s t u d y have showed there is a statistically significant difference in the arithmetic mean in the achievement test for the experimental group. It means that the experimental group performed better than the control group. Then, the result of the study revealed that using web-cam chat alongside the traditional method has great effect on the socio-cultural competence of the FL learners. The researcher has recommended making many studies on the effect of CMC on other competencies of language. Index Terms—Culture, Socio-Cultural Competence, Web- Cam, CMC, Skype, Facebook, Web-Cam Chat. I. INTRODUCTION Teaching English as a foreign language has recently been receiving a remarkable emphasis owing to the devel- opments taking place in all aspects of life. New t h eo ries, publications, a n d new teaching meth ods are always introduced to elevate the level of achievement of learners. Precisely, various educational research projects have called attention to the uniqueness of culture and its insepa- rability from language (Ryan, 1996). Moreover, full un- derstanding of the several kinds of meaning that are en- coded in the grammar and vocabulary of language comes only with a full understanding of the culture, or cultures, in which it operates. Al-Ali (1999) argued that when in- teracting with other cultures, many, if not most situations are unfamiliar. Thus, the same behavior may be considered proper in one culture, but odd or rude in another. Valdes (1986) insisted on the view that language, thought, and culture are three parts of the whole and can- not operate independently regardless of which one must influence the other two. She justifies the lack of acceptance of artificial lan- guages such as Esperanto by the isolation of language from culture. In fact, whether one begins or ends with language, thought or culture, the other two are woven in; they are not all the same thing, but none can survive with- out the others. The real point behind the rejoining language and culture in teaching is an emphasis on communication (Anwel 2010). To him a communicative focus may amount to nothing more sophisticated than the desire that learners be able to use the foreign language. To communicate effec- tively, the linguistic competence is not enough, but one aspect; others are related to discourse, pragmatic, strate- gic, prosodic and sociolinguistic competence. Moreover, students should understand which variant forms are ap- propriate within which context. This cannot be achieved without using instructional technology such as CMC (computer-mediated communication). This concept (communicative competence) extends the idea of linguistic competence which Chomsky popularized to include not only knowledge of rules which enables a speaker to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sentences in the language, but also the rules that determine appropriate use of the language in living situations, Brum- fit (1980). It includes knowledge of sociolinguistic rules, or the appropriateness of an utterance, in addition to knowledge of grammatical rules. It involves three types of knowledge-grammar, signification, and use (Johnson 1988. This knowledge could not be gained without having an authentic environment at which the FL learners have good opportunities of interacting with native speakers of the target language. Students may know the rules of language us- age, with- out being able to use the language effectively, since struc- tures and vocabulary are important but not enough to have communication. When we communicate, we use the lan- guage to accomplish some functions such as arguing, persuading or promising. Moreover, we carry out those f unction s within a social con text. This can be achieved by using CMC that help students of another language to use words and expressions more skillfully and authentically. For example, superstitions are usually regarded as a part of a language community's culture. For example, owls are looked upon as a sign of good luck, while, in other cul- tures, they are felt as omens of bad fate and disaster. 44 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… Moreover, some utterances in a culture are not found in another. For example, there are different words for differ- ent kinds of snow in the Eskimo language another point of difference is that there are different ways of looking at things, one language may have a grammatical form which does not exist in another language (Rivers, 1988). Many writers and researchers as (River, 1964; Hymes; 196; Brown, 1985; Shaw, 1987; Kramsc, 1994) assert that Culture should be taught as an integral part of language teaching. This can be done with the help of instructional technologies such as CMC. To pursue the same line of argument of stressing the importance of culture in language teaching, it is preferable to state the ideas of more experts and researchers in this field. Valdes (1990) argued that it is unavoidable to teach culture when teaching language. She adds that the focus of a lesson may be on syntactic or phonetics features, but the content is cultural. According to Chastain (1988), learning culture is as universal and natural as learning a language. A functional knowledge of both is necessary to enable the learner to interact and communicate with other people in one's cul- tural environment. Another fundamental reason for introducing culture in a foreign language class is its constructive role in improving students' language skills. In this aspect, Watson (1977) stated that reading is an interaction between the writer and the reader which cannot be gained without an insight into the culture of the target language. In this regard, Fries (1968 Cited in Abdurauf, 1988) points out that in reading a foreign language text, three levels of meaning are ex- tracted: Lexical meaning, structural meaning, and socio cultural meaning. Structural or lexical meanings are found in a dictionary or a grammar textbook. However, the so- cio-cultural meaning is the most difficult for a second language student to find out for it involves the values, beliefs, and attitudes of the speech community. This can be facilitated with the help of CMC. Brown (1990) suggested in his theory of language meaning that the meanings of a great number of words of a language are based on some kind of value judgment- which a particular community has practiced within its cultural environment. He pointed out that the full meaning of a word is the result of the total experience, which an individual has of that word in the cultural environment in which he grows up. The whole society will have the same meaning because they share similar experiences from which the meaning of a given word has resulted. Since experiences from which words derive their meaning differ from one community to another. It follows that one-to-one equivalencies can rarely be established among words and expressions i n any two given languages. This argument stresses the view that creating natural environment via a u d i o visual technologies such as CMC is a must to acquire language efficiently and effectively. More importantly, it is necessary to say that language and culture are just like bone and flesh in a human being. Bone is to form the general structure and flesh to give life and beauty to that structure. Cultural background knowledge positively affects foreign language teaching and language learning in EFL/ESL situations. This could not be achieved without the help of instructional technol- ogies. It needs authentic exposure that can be achieved via language teaching technology i.e. CMC. Foreign language learners should acquire a language with all of its competencies such as the socio-cultural competence through formal and informal instruction. This can be achieved by having multimedia applications in general and CMC in particular. Such contemporary tech- nologies introduce an authentic type of English with all of its regional and social varieties, because formal instruction and giving rules alone is not enough. Additionally, writers such as (Valdes 1986; Brow 1986) insisted on the idea that language should be taught in its socio cultural context since they are deeply interrelated and inseparable. Learning language within its socio- cul- tural context reduces the changes of resorting to L1 to fill the gap of insufficiencies whenever the learner faces a difficulty, and thus, the learning of L2 will be more suc- cessful. Furthermore, by having more exposure to the target language, learners can have more opportunities to take part in the social and target cultural context. By using web-cam chat, learners can introduce their families, coun- tries, and culture. Moreover, by using micro- phones and web cameras, learners can participate in online communi- cations t h a t almost resemble to traditional face- to-face conversations, although interaction cannot be as immedi- ate as a real-life communications due to transmission time. Nevertheless, through audio and video communications, learners are able to obtain both verbal (e.g. intonation) and non-verbal e.g. Facial expression cues that are essential factors to develop social competency (Solanki and Phil, 2012). Moreover, many specialists in education and linguistics (Rivers, 1964; Hymes, 1964; Brown, 1985; Shaw, 1987; Kramsch, 1994) asserted that culture should be highly regarded in language teaching. Like others, Jorstad, Paige, Colby, Klein and Paulson (cited in Secilta, 1997) reported that teaching culture is scarcely practiced in foreign and second language educa- tion. Accordingly, students may face difficulties in com- prehending reading and literary texts because they lack cultural awareness of the target language. (Anderson & Lynch cited in Yagang, 1993; Abdur Rauf, 1988; Mckay, 1987; Johnson, 1981). According to Chastain (1988), learning culture is a uni- versal and natural learning language. A functional knowledge of both is necessary to enable the learner to interact and communicate with other people in one's cul- tural environment. However, Chastain adds, culture is so complex that a student cannot absorb all values and habits of the target language people. What the students are in- volved in is to become familiar with those aspects that are most important in understanding the people and their way of life with the help of language teaching technologies such as CMC. Additionally, CMC has been found to facilitate the de- velopment of language skills, (Irom, 2011), for example, used CMC to teach reading and writing and found that CMC is a workable technology, which strengthened his participants' language skills and competences. Web-cam chat is an important way to learn the native language speakers' culture since it has been proved to be an effective tool for language learning in recent years its use in language classroom has gained popularity. In sev- eral studies, web-cam chat has been found to strengthen students' competences. Therefore, using web- cam chat in iJIM ‒ Volume 8, Issue 3, 2014 45 PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… classrooms is an important way for teaching English with- in its culture. Researches on Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) proposed the integration of CMC into EFL learn- ing can provide learners more authentic input and more opportunities to participate in the target socio-cultural contexts. Moreover, motivation, social equality, and iden- tity can also be encouraged through the use of CMC inside and outside of the classroom (Tamo, 2009). Furthermore, using CMC brings life into the language classroom and turns it into a small foreign world. In addi- tion, it is not only supplementary materials to provide the students with genuine information about a particular cul- tural group, but they are in fact essential medium for con- ceiving and acquiring culture. More importantly, CMC creates a real atmosphere of the foreign language country in the classroom, and helps the teacher to give his voice some rest for a while with the advantage of allowing the student to become used to na- tive speakers of the language taught (Abdul Hadi, 2007). Finally, the socio-cultural aspect of language is its soul. Accordingly, foreign language teachers, supervisors, cur- ricula designers, textbook writers, and methodologists should look for effective techniques that give student a chance to acquire the socio-cultural aspect of language efficiently and effectively. Therefore, this study will focus on investigating the effect of web-cam chat on EFL learn- er's socio-cultural competence. II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Along experience of working as a foreign language teacher, supervisor, curricula designers, examiner, text- books writer, methodologist, and instructor at BA MA and PhD levels has shown that many students face difficulties in handling language efficiently and effectively whenever they are put in real life or like-life situations based on the authentic culture of the target language. This problem might lead to problems in communication because language is a body and its culture is the soul. More importantly, being linguistically competent does not guarantee successful communication. This problem might be due the fact that English is at most taught traditionally and artificially without using any technology that gives the student a chance to acquire authentic English in real life situations. What is more, our EFL students study English for twelve years but they cannot communicate effectively in English because the students may not have real opportuni- ties to practice the language. In addition, our EFL classes' environments are at most not well-prepared for interaction. Accordingly, this study investigates the effect of using CMC (web-cam chat) on developing the socio-cultural competence of university EFL learners that unquestionably leads to more success and progress in their communication. III. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using CMC (web-cam chat) on the socio-cultural com- petence of university EFL learners. A. Significance of the study • According to the researcher's best knowledge; it could be the first study that examines the effect of us- ing web-cam chat on the socio-cultural competence of EFL learners. • The findings of the study might be officially adopted by the ministry of education and the ministry of higher education to use CMC chat in teaching Eng- lish. • By using CMC, students may get rid of their fear and shyness w h en the y meet people in their classes. In addition, teachers may use other techniques in their teaching, which may help them to get rid of their dai- ly routine of teaching through using modern technol- ogy. • Curricula designers may benefit from this study. They may select different types of wed-sites chatting rooms for developing other competences of language Such as the pragmatic and the aesthetics competenc- es. B. Questions of the study This study aimed to answer the following questions: 1. Are there any significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the socio-cultural aspects of language due to the method of teaching (CMC vs. Regular com- municative method)? 2. Which socio-cultural aspects of English language (educational, social, political economic, literary, ge- ographical, historical, non- verbal, and prosodic as- pects) did the experimental group students acquire more because of using CMC? C. Value of the study The importance of this study also stems from making English teachers, supervisors, and syllabus designers con- scious of the place of culture in teaching and learning a foreign language since it reveals the effectiveness of CMC in teaching the socio-cultural aspects of English. D. Definitions of terms Culture: It is socially acquired knowledge i.e. the knowledge that someone has by virtue of his/her being a member of a particular society. This indicates that there is no doubt that one's knowledge of his/her native language is culturally transmitted; it is acquired, though not neces- sarily learned, by virtue of one's membership of a particu- lar society. It includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, words, laws, customs, ideas, habits, and values. Another im- portant point, which adds more understanding of culture, is its relation with its companion term society. They are usually used interchangeably as synonyms. 'Culture' concerns members of a given society, whereas society' refers to the system of interrelationship, which connects together the individuals who share a common culture (Taylor, 1958). Socio-cultural content: It is any information that refers to social, non-verbal, geographical, historical, literal, and educational references of a particular language community (Brooks, 1968). Computer-mediated communication (CMC): A com- municative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more electronic devices while language learning. Web-cam: It is a real time camera that can be applied to access real time images on the World Wide Web. This camera can be connected to a computer using a cable or it 46 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… can be wireless. It is widely used for Skype and other video calling software. E. Hypotheses of the study Ho1: There are no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental and con- trol groups due to method of teaching (web-cam chat vs. Regular communicative method) on the socio-cultural competence of university EFL learners at p. <0.05. Ho2: There are no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group's mastery of each socio-cultural aspect of language (ed- ucational, social, political, economic, literary, geograph- ical, historical, non-verbal and prosodic aspects) .at p. < 0.0 IV. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This section presents a survey of related literature and writings of recognized experts, both of which have significant bearing or relation to the problem under in- vestigation. They are listed from the most recent to the oldest. Pin-Shsiang & Shih-Min, (2010) suggested that stu- dents are less likely to communicate with others whom they do not know. Unfamiliarity weakened the flow of interaction among all participants. As a result, instructors need t o begin intercultural CMC with friendship building activities and exercises first, followed only later by the curriculum-based learning assignments. When the partici- pating students become friends first, they will then be less likely to communicate only within their cultural group. Inter-group climate does play an important role in cross- cultural asynchronous CMC project. Unfamiliarity among participants will constantly influence the flow of interac- tion, feedback giving, and will decrease motivation for participants from different cultural group. However, teachers have the ability to shape the intergroup climate into a setting in which students feel safe and comfortable in sharing ideas outside their cultural groups. More importantly, Jiang (2010) suggested that the inte- gration of CMC into EFL learning can provide learners with more authentic input and more opportunities to par- ticipate in the target sociocultural contexts. Both linguistic and pragmatic knowledge can be promoted. Moreover, motivation, learner autonomy, social equality, and identity can also be encouraged through the use of CMC inside and outside of the classroom. He also suggested that the integration or Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) into EFL learning can increase both input (expo- sure) and output (use) of the target language that is needed for learners to promote both their linguistic and socio- cultural competence. Like others, Irom (2010) argued that CMC provides au- thentic socio-cultural exposures of the foreign language to students. One of the exposures complaints by EFL speak- ers/writers is that they lack natural communicative compe- tence and that their English is bookish. Current multime- dia computer and internet technology, as a part of CMC, enables students to get exposed to native English speakers' or writers' environment. It is assumed that this exposure will help students to produce native-like communication. In addition, success in the implementation of web-cam chat in EFL settings may become more possible due to the nature of CMC, which enables students as well as teacher to enjoy authentic learning materials. By the same token, Nowrozi (2011) suggested CMC tools such as internet telephony, audio and video confer- encing, voice mail or voice discussion board can all be used to promote learners' speaking socio-cultural compe- tence that leads to more proficiency. By engaging learners in tasks of recording speech and sending files to other learners, communicative speaking skill can be a goal to achieve. Additionally, Blake (2000) claimed that EFL learners do not need to passively listen to audiotapes alone after class through the use of the Internet and the use of CMC tools. They can easily participate in interactions by post- ing and more replying messages on discussion boards, writing and replying emails to their key pals, or joining online chat rooms anytime when they feel comfortable or have free time. Learning becomes a 24-hour process. This new way of learning that engages learners in authentic social interactions can greatly expose learners to the TL and practice what they have learned in the classroom. Furthermore, Warschauer (1997) stated that by bringing CMC into language learning and teaching, the interaction pattern can be changed. Proponents of CMC suggest that teachers can encourage greater amount of interactions by using CMC tools both inside and outside of the classroom. Like others, Herron (1999) conducted a study to inves- tigate whether students enrolled in French course learn culture embedded in a video-based second language pro- gram. To measure the effectiveness of teaching culture through video, a pre-test and post-test are administered. The findings showed significant gains in overall cultural knowledge. Thus, using video to teach culture is benefi- cial. In addition, Gibson (1998) conducted a study to inves- tigate the effect of using multimedia on the students' abil- ity to observe cultural differences between their culture [Spanish] and the target culture [American]. Furthermore, her study attempts to assess how multimedia affects the quality of the students' writing in terms of content. The findings showed that the culture discussion group per- formed well in their writing. They were able to make comparisons using information from both cultures. Likewise, Ryan (1996) emphasized the responsibility of FL specialists for teaching cultural aspects explicitly. She stated that the focus on communication and interaction that characterizes foreign language instruction today de- mands that foreign language teachers be skilled method- ologists and possess a high level of language and cultural proficiency, this can be achieved with the help of instruc- tional technologies. More importantly, Karmish (1994) argued with the ad- vent of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) tech- nology, ways of communication and learning have been efficiently changed. By using CMC rooms, video or audio tools such as e-mails, chat rooms, discussion conference users worldwide can easily achieve communication syn- chronously or asynchronously, without boundaries of time and space. It is, therefore proposed that CMC can be used to compensate the deficiency of interaction both inside and outside of EFL class- rooms. By the same token, Walther (1992) argued that CMC has become a widely used framework for explaining and predicting differences between text-based CMC and of- fline communication. iJIM ‒ Volume 8, Issue 3, 2014 47 PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… The theory seeks to explain how, with time, CMC users are able to accrue impressions of and relations with others online, and these relations achieve the level of develop- ment that is expected through offline communication. Like others, Brooks (1968) emphasizes the importance of the teachers' role in making cultural aspects explicit while teaching literature. She adds that teachers should do anything possible to bring materials alive by utilizing pictures, films, and any other resources. Many studies were conducted on the effect of CMC and multimedia applications on developing the foreign lan- guage skills, language components, and mechanics. This study is different from them in that it investigates webcam chat as a technique and its effect on students' socio- cultural competence. Additionally, it is clear from the previous studies that CMC has its own impact on the students' comprehension of the target culture. Furthermore, it motivates students to learn the language. It also develops their intercultural competence and leads them to understand their own cul- ture as well. V. METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES A. Population of the study The population of this study consists of all students enrolled in the 10th grade in Jordan in Amman First Direc- torate of Education in the scholastic year 2010/2011. B. Sample of the study One school was chosen by using cluster random sam- pling from the total number of the secondary schools in Amman First Directorate of Education. The total number of 10th grade learners in that school was 76 students, grouped in two sections. Three of them are repeaters and native speakers of language other than Arabic. They are excluded from the sample. Thirty learners were chosen for the pilot study. The remaining 4 3 students represent the actual sample of the study. Section (A) consisted of (23) students. It was chosen as a control group. It was taught traditionally, section (B) consisted of (20) students. It was chosen as an experi- mental group. It was taught via using CMC. Section (C) consisted of 30 students. It was decided for the pilot study. VI. INSTRUMENT OF THE STUDY The researcher used a pre-test and post-test technique. All sections (A, B, C) were taught by the same teacher. Classes were taught on the same days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). All students have never visited a country from the English language community. Section (A) that was assigned as an experimental group was taught via web-cam chat where they were exposed to authentic English in authentic real life situations where students can interact with native speakers of English with- in their cultural world. Additionally, having web-cam chat, students are in- volved in communicative oral activities to internalize what they have watched through CMC. Moreover, Students of section (A) were free to make web-cam chats outside their English classes at home. While, section (B) that was chosen as a control group were taught traditionally without using any technology. The pre-test and the post-test were scored in the same manner. They were interviews in the pre-test and post-test by native speakers of the English on topics that are related to the culture of the English language community. The average score given by the examiners for each examinee was taken. A. Procedures To assess the effect of using CMC on the socio-cultural competence of the FL learners of the tenth grade, FL stu- dents in both sections took a multiple-choice test and an interview at the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2010-2011 to determine their actual socio- cultural knowledge before starting the experiment. After sixteen weeks, an identical posttest was administered. The teacher informed the students that neither the pre-test nor the post-test would count to their final grades in the class. The pre/posttest was contracted based on the cultural information contained in the textbook. The test examines the learners' ability to function in a native community of English; communicate in a cultural context, social pat- terns, and situations (e.g., education, government, trans- portation, history, geography, national products, literature, and fine arts). The following steps were adopted: 1. Identifying the English socio-cultural elements de- pending on the available sources and previous litera- ture. 2. Assessing the effect of CMC on students’ socio- cultural by administering a battery of tests. By the end of the experiment, students of both groups were put individually in cultural situations to which they were asked to react in English in a culturally appro- priate manner. The test was taken at the end of exper- iment. Students were met individually where they were interviewed by native speakers of English. 3. Preparing written and oral achievement tests loaded with socio-cultural elements of the target language in order to measure the experimental group’s overall ability to act effectively in the target language. The raw scores of the examinees were invested to exam- ine the hypothesis that language and its socio-cultural content are inseparable and it can be acquired with the help of CMC. VII. VALIDATION OF THE TOOL What is important before using tool of any investi- gation is to make sure that it meets all the requirements of a good tool. It should be valid, reliable and with an acceptable degree of the difficulty. Therefore, the test used to investigate the effect of using CMC on the socio-cultural competence of EFL Jordanian students should meet all the above-mentioned criteria. To make sure that the test meets all the above- m e n t i o n e d criteria, the following steps have been followed: A. Validity In order to ensure face validity of the test, the re- searcher has consulted a number of experts in ELT. They gave some suggestions, which were taken into consider- ation. 48 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… B. Face validity In order to ensure face validity of the test, it was given to referees of specialists who were well-known for their long experience in the field of teaching EFL. According to their suggestions on the items concerning the distribution of scores among the socio-cultural aspects of language, the researcher revised and adopted the scale of research on socio-cultural that ranges from 0 to 100 according to the suggestions of the referees. VIII. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE All data were collected during the second half of the second semester of the academic year 2010/2011. The re-searcher gathered the necessary data to answer the question of the study by applying the pretest and posttest on the groups of the study. A. Data analysis procedure An independent – sample T – test was carried out to measure the gain scores of both groups on the pretest and then in the posttest. In addition, to eliminate any possible difference be- tween the two groups, a One-Way Analysis of Covariance measured the gain scores of the subjects. IX. RELIABILITY OF THE TEST A reliable test is one that gives the same or almost the same results consistently on different occasions when given under identical conditions (Hamash, 1989). One of the techniques that can be used to find out test reliabil- ity is the test-retest method. Thus, to establish their lia- bility of the tests, the test-retest technique w as used. A random sample of 30 students was selected from the same secondary school from which the actual sample was drawn. They took the test. Two weeks later, the pilot group took the same test. In both administrations favorable and identical conditions were secured concern- ing the place, time, and clarification of each test item and discipline. By using Pearson's formula, the pilot admin- istration of the test have shown that, the correlation coef- ficient between students’ ranks on both testing occasions were computed and found to be 93%. According to Pearson's formula, the reliability coefficient of a test would be acceptable if it is not less than (0.50). Thus, the test can be described as being highly reliable they gained scores of the participants in the two tests were analyzed and compared using basic statistical descriptive tools, that is, calculation of the means and standard deviations. The results helped the researcher to: 1. Make sure of the clarity of the tested skills and their items. 2. Determine the suitable level of difficulty of the items. 3. Identify the discriminatory power of the test items. 4. Estimate the tempting power of distracters. 5. Determine the reliability of the test. 6. Determine the average time needed to answer the test items. For pre-testing the participants, the two norms and cri- terion referenced tests were given to the sample of the pilot study. The instructions concerning what the partici- pants have to do during the test are explained by the re- searcher to avoid misunderstanding. They were requested to read the test items carefully and to answer them by completing the items, encircling the letter of the most appropriate choice. As a result of administrating the test to the sample of the pilot study, it was found that the items of both parts of the test had an acceptable level of difficulty. They took the test twice in two different times within a week. They were scored by two different teachers. Means and standard deviation for the two tests are presented in Table I. The result did not differ. Test performance did not in- crease from test one to test two. TABLE I. T1 T2 0.37 (0.25) 0.40 (0.26) X. VARIABLES OF THE STUDY The independent variables of this study were: Teach- ing method, this included: a. Teaching the socio-cultural aspects by using web-cam chat and b. Teaching the socio-cultural aspects by using regular communicative method. The dependent variables were students' scores of both (experimental and control) in the socio-cultural aspects of language. XI. INSTRUCTIONAL TREATMENT The researcher used CMC (web-cam chat) in a labora- tory. These audio-visual chat were on different authentic socio-cultural aspects of language. XII. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS The statistical Package for Social sciences (SPSS) software was used to conduct the required statistical anal- ysis of the objectives of the study. The means, standard deviation, T-test, One-Way ANOVA and Scheffe were conducted for all the variables of the study. XIII. FINAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE TEXT After making sure that the test possesses all the re- quirements of a valid and reliable test, it was adminis- tered to the sample of this study through taking the fol- lowing measure: 1. To avoid any ambiguity or misunderstanding the written part of the test was neatly typed and clear in- struments were given to the subjects. 2. The first hours of the day were chosen so that the students were active and relaxed. 3. Part one was administrated at beginning of the first week during the first two lectures in the morning. The oral part was administrated at the end of the same week. The researcher maintained the same con- ditions of the clarity of instructions, the time of ad- ministration and discipline in the administration of both parts. To meet the requirements of the study and to verify the hypotheses, the researcher analyzed and interpreted the results obtained from the administration of the two parts of the test and found the following results. iJIM ‒ Volume 8, Issue 3, 2014 49 PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… XIV. RESULTS OF THE STUDY The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using CMC on the socio-cultural competence of EFL learners. Written and oral tests were given to the experi- mental and control groups at the beginning of second semester of the academic year 2010/2011. Descriptive statistical methods (means, standard deviation, and per- centage) were used to find the difference between the two groups. A. Basic pre-test findings To determine the difference in the means of the scores between the two groups a pre-test was conducted. This pre-test exam was done at the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2010/2011 to know the actual level of students before starting the experiment. The test included different aspects of the English lan- guage community culture. According to the results, it was clear that students' knowledge in both groups was low. This indicates that the two groups were equivalent, before using web-cam chat. In other words, it was found that the difference between the scores of both groups on the pre-test was not statistically significant. In order to explore the differences between the control group and experimental group on the pre-assessment (Equivalent testing), t-test was applied, as shown in table I. Table II also shows the absence of statistically signifi- cant differences at the level of significance. (a=0.05) for the socio-cultural aspects of language (social, political, economic, Literary, aesthetic, non-verbal, prosodic, edu- cational and historical) for pre-assessment due to group, where all the values of (t) are statistically insignificant for the socio-cultural aspects of language due to group. This indicates that there w as equivalence between the t wo groups for each variable. B. Discussion of results according to the questions of the study Question 1: Are there any significant differences be- tween the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in socio-cultural aspect of language due to the method of teaching (CMC vs. regular communicative method)? To assess changes in overall cultural knowledge by us- ing CMC and a traditional method, and by using proper statistical means, the researcher found out that there is a significant difference in the socio-cultural competence of both groups in the post-test in favor of the experimental group, therefore the first hypothesis which reads “CMC has no great effect on the socio-cultural competence of FL learners” is rejected. Table II shows that the difference between the scores of both groups in the pretest is not statistically significant, since there is no statistically significant difference be- tween the control and experimental groups in the pretest. Therefore, it could be concluded that the two groups were equivalent. Table III shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the performances of the two groups. This difference indicates that using web-cam chat in Eng- lish language teaching to 10th grade students has positive effect on the socio-cultural competence of the learners, where the mean score for the experimental group is 85.77 while for the control group is 67. TABLE II. MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS ON THE PRE-TEST Group N Mean Std. Devtion DF T value Sig. Control Group 24 64.54 16.11 45 0.068 0.657 Experimental Group 23 64.84 14.28 TABLE III. MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS ON THE POST PRE-TESTS Group N Mean Std. Deviation DF T value Sig. Control Group 23 67.9 15.23 45 4.057 0.000 Experimental Group 20 85.77 14.96 TABLE IV. MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GRO U P STUDENTS' ON THE PRE AND POST TESTS. Group Mean Std T value d.f Sig. Pre 64.84 14.28 4.853 22 0.000 Post 85.77 14.96 TABLE V. MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE TWO GROUPS IN THE PRE AND POST TESTS. Group N Mean Std. De- viation T value Df Sig Pre test Control 23 64.54 16.11 0.068 45 0.657 Experimental 20 64.84 14.28 Post test Control 23 67.9 15.23 4.057 45 0.000 Experimental 20 85.77 14.96 It is evident that the experimental group performed much better on the post-test than on the pre-test as shown in Table IV. This difference in the mean scores on the pre-test and the post-test was statistically tested by using t-test which showed a significant difference be- tween the mean scores of the experimental group on the pre-test and the post-test as a result of the effect of using CMC on students’ socio-cultural competence. To find out the amount of progress that each group had achieved during the period of the study, mean scores and standard deviations of the two groups were calculated as shown in Table V. Table V shows the amount of progress each group had achieved. The experimental group got an increase of (11.20) scores in their mean score on the post-test com- pared with their mean score on the pre-test. On the other hand, the control group got an increase of (1.60) scores only in their mean score on the post-test compared with their mean score on the pre-test. In addition, the results indicate that there is a statistical impact of the web-cam chat on socio-cultural competence, in which the experi- mental group got higher scores than the control group. Question 2: Which socio-cultural aspects did the ex- perimental group students acquire more as a result of using CMC? These aspects include: a. Social aspects of language including: customs, traditions, values, ways of behavior, and habits. 50 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… b. Non-verbal aspects of language including: ges- tures, postures, and eye contacts. c. Literary aspect of language including: irony, smile, personification, metaphorical expressions, idiomatic expressions and sayings. d. Political and economic aspects of language in- cluding: political system, current currency. e. Educational aspects. f. Historical aspects. To answer this question (One-Way ANOVA and Scheffe) were applied to the socio-cultural aspects of language (social, political, economic, literary, aesthetic, non- verbal, prosodic, educational and historical) for pre/post assessment. Table VI shows that: There were significant differ- ences in the experimental groups' mastery of the socio- cultural aspects of language (social, political, economic, literary, aesthetic, non-verbal, prosodic, educational, and historical). The lowest progress was in their mastery of the literary and non-verbal aspects. Accordingly, the second hypothesis of the study which reads “There are no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group's mastery of each so- cio-cultural aspect of language (educational, social, political, economic, literary, geographical, historical, non-verbal and prosodic aspects)” .at p. < 0.0" is rejected. According to the results, it was clear that scores of ex- perimental group were better than those of control group, and the level of the experimental group on the socio- cultural aspects of language has improved after exposure to the authentic materials over sixteen weeks, while there was no improvement in the level of the control group. Therefore, CMC has a positive effect on the socio- cul- tural aspects of language. TABLE VI. THE PRE-POST-TEST RESULTS OF BOTH GROUPS' STUDENTS IN THE SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE. Aspects of Language Test Experimental group Control group Mean Std. Deviation T Sig.(p) Mean Std. Deviation T Sig.(p) Social out of 25% Pre 11.23 9.87 -18.93 0.00 11.51 4.79 -0.59 0.55 Post 21.20 2.90 12.20 2.73 Political and econom- ic out of 15% Pre 10.55 2.48 -10.78 0.00 11.12 1.36 0.15 0.87 Post 13.93 1.42 12.10 1.58 Literary and aesthetic out of 15% Pre 10.60 1.12 -11.94 0.00 8.80 1.00 0.19 0.85 Post 12.68 1.02 9.60 1.20 Non-verbal and Prosodic out of 15% Pre 9.55 1.83 -13.02 0.00 9.40 1.01 -1.26 0.21 Post 11.33 1.61 9.69 1.00 Educational out of 10% Pre 6.20 1.04 -10.80 0.00 6.11 1.02 -0.20 0.43 Post 8.31 2.70 6.55 1.01 Pre 6.71 1.76 6.60 1.00 Post 8.23 1.02 6.65 1.01 Pre 7.11 1.05 7.12 1.21 Post 9.20 2.73 7.40 1.28 TABLE VII. THE BOTH GROUPS STUDENTS' RESULTS IN EACH SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECT OF LANGUAGE ON THE POST TEST. Aspects of Language Group Mean Std. Deviation T value DF Sig.(p) Social out of 25% Experimental 21.20 2.90 4.115 77 0.000 Control 11.20 2.73 Political and economic out of 15% Experimental 13.93 1.42 4.930 77 0.000 Control 12.10 1.58 Literary and aesthetic out of 15% Experimental 12.68 1.02 7.284 77 0.000 Control 9.60 1.20 Non-verbal and prosodic out of 15% Experimental 11.33 1.61 4.002 77 0.000 Control 9.69 2.00 Historical out of 10% Experimental 8.23 1.50 4.121 77 0.000 Control 6.65 2.11 Educational out of 10% Experimental 8.31 1.33 4.321 77 0.000 Control 6.55 1.67 Geographical out of 10% Experimental 9.20 1.11 5.280 77 0.000 Control 7.40 1.33 Main score out of 100% Experimental 85.77 Control 67.9 iJIM ‒ Volume 8, Issue 3, 2014 51 PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… Table VII shows that: 1. There were significant differences in students' socio- cultural competence due to the use of CMC on social aspects, where t-value reached (4.115), at (a 0.000) level. This indicates that there were significant dif- ferences due to CMC in favor of the experimental group (mean 23.20), where the means for the control group reached (20.59). 2. There were significant differences due to CMC in students' mastery of the political aspects of language, where t. Value reached (4.390), a t (a 0.000) level. This indicates that there were significant differences due to CMC in favor of the experimental group (mean 14.93), where the means for the control group reached (13.26). 3. There were significant differences due to CMC in students' mastery of the literary aspects of language, where t. Value reached (7.284), a t (a 0.000) level. This indicates that there were significant differences due to CMC in favor of the experimental group (mean 7.68), where the means for the control group reached (5.85). 4. There were significant differences due to CMC in students' mastery of the non-verbal aspects of lan- guage, where t. Value reached (4.002), at (a 0.000) level. This indicates that there were significant dif- ferences du e to CMC in favor of the experimental group (mean 11.33), where the means for the control group reached (9.69). According to these results, it was clear that the scores of experimental group were better than those of control group, and the level of the experimental group on the socio-cultural aspects of language has improved after expo- sure to the authentic materials over sixteen weeks, while there was no improvement in the level of the control group. In addition, students' achievements in social, politi- cal, and economic aspects were better than the non- verbal and literary aspect s. In other words, students' grades in social, political, and economic aspects were better than the non-verbal and literary aspects. Therefore, the second hypothesis which reads. “There are no statistically signifi- cant differences between the mean scores of the experi- mental group's mastery of each socio-cultural aspect of language (educational, social, political, economic, literary, geographical, historical, non-verbal a n d prosodic as- pects) at p. < 0.0" is rejected.” Diagram (1) Shows that their performance was the best regarding the social, educational, economic, historical, and geographical aspects, where as their performances regarding the literary, prosodic and literary, and non- verbal aspects were the worst. Diagram (1) shows the means of the experimental group's performances in each socio-cultural aspect of language. XV. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS This study attempted to test the hypothesis, “CMC have a positive effect on the socio-cultural competence of the FL learners”. The results of the study have shown that there are no significant differences between the socio- cultural competence of the experimental and control group on the pre-test. This indicates that the two groups are equivalent in this respect. However, on the post-test, the results have shown there is significant difference in favor of the experimental group. According to the results of present study that university EFL learners of English have improved and developed their socio-cultural competence over sixteen weeks expo- sure to CMC that include many and different socio- cultural aspects of English language. Their scores in the post-test were statistically significant. This result con- firmed the hypothesis of the study. The students who study English language through CMC are more socio- culturally competent than students who studied English language traditionally. The results showed that the experimental group achieved better that the control group, thus, using CMC can be regarded as an effective technique to improve the FL socio-cultural competence. It was clear also that stu- dents' knowledge of the social, political, and economic aspects is better than the non-verbal and literary aspects. This finding might be due to the fact that majority of stu- dents were interested in social and political and economic aspects rather than non-verbal, prosodic and literary as- pects, and they found them easier than the non- verbal and literary aspects. These findings go with the results of many studies that discuss the importance of using different types of technol- ogy in teaching the socio-cultural aspects of language, such as Hendon, (1980); Brooks, (1989); Herron, (1999); Canning, (2001); Rammal, (2006); Wilcox, (2009); Al- birini, (2009) and Bataineh, (2009). All of these studies highlighted the importance of teach- ing English within its culture by using different types of technologies. However, what distinguishes this study from other studies is that it defined some socio-cultural aspects of language that FL students can acquire more efficiently and effectively than others. This was clear in table VI which shows that students' knowledge in social, political, and economic aspects is better than their knowledge in the non-verbal and literary aspects. This indicated that the majority of students are interested in the social, political, and economic aspects rather than non-verbal and literary aspects, since they might find it easier than non-verbal and literary aspects. The results also show that students are good at social information; they are interested so much in the social information rather than anything else. This refers to the students' grades in social aspects of language were better than political and economic, non-verbal and literary aspects of language. The findings of the present study indicated the 10th grade students of English have developed their cultural knowledge over four months of a semester through web- cam chats. At the beginning of the semester, students took a pretest on the socio-cultural competence which they 52 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… acquired through CMC during the semester. At the end of the study, they took the same test (post-test) and scored statistically significantly higher. This result confirms the hypothesis of the study which reads '”web-cam chat has a positive effect on the socio-cultural competence of the learners''. XVI. CONCLUSION It has often been stated through this study that language is deeply embedded in culture. The term culture used in this study is the total ways of shared life of a nation, which the persons trains himself/herself from his/her early childhood. The child grows up in a social community, learns from others all ways of behavior, values, attitudes, reactions, unspoken assumptions and so forth. He/she starts expressing them as he/she masters them in the social group and in art and literature he/she produces, in his/her social relationships and loneliness, in his/her happiness and sadness, in his\her revulsions and pleasures. These accumulated patterns of behavior function in relation to each other to construct the cultural system of a particular nation, despite the variations within the group which ex- presses individual preferences or orientation of some sub- group. These cultural patterns are so integrated with lan- guage that any attempt to separate them will never suc- ceed. The researcher's experience in curricula revealed that textbook writers in Jordan did not seriously take the au- thentic socio -cultural elements of the foreign language into consideration, in the sense that, there are a number of passages that deal with subjects that do not reflect any authentic socio-cultural reference. Additionally, these socio-cultural aspects are at most ignored, because The EL teachers themselves are unfamil- iar of the target language culture. After investigating the effect of CMC on the socio- cultural competence of the learners, the raw scores of the participants with the help of the statistical means have shown that learners who studied English traditionally have not performed well in the tests that are basically based on the authentic socio-cultural content of the foreign lan- guage, which answers the first hypothesis of the study. This result can be regarded as true evidence that language and its culture are one (Yagang, 1993, Woo, 1995; Rayan, 1996 & Gibson, 1998). It also revealed that the authentic socio-cultural content of English should be efficiently presented in English language classes via instructional technologies. (Irving, 1988; Prodromou , 1992; David, 1997; Friedman, 1997). This finding agrees with the view of those FL experts who argued that language forms are best understood in their cultural settings, and that without the cultural context language forms are lifeless and mean- ingless since they are unnatural and unauthentic (Ba- taineh, 2002). The participants who studied English traditionally faced difficulties in comprehending authentic texts because they lacked cultural awareness of the target language (Yagang, 1993). On the basis of what has already been argued, it can be concluded that language and culture are so interre- lated that any attempt to separate them into two distinct categories will be destined never to succeed. This may amount to saying confidently that teaching a foreign lan- guage is simply teaching a new culture in accord with the statement t h at it is through their languages that nations express their concepts and values, whether mundane or spiritual. This discovery cannot be achieved without hav- ing realistic exposure to authentic English environment such realistic and authentic situations can be created with the help of CMC such as web-cam chat, though which student of the target group acquire authentic English with- in its culture from the mouth of native speakers of Eng- lish. CMC has a great effect on the socio-cultural compe- tence of the learners, in the sense that it increased their overall cultural knowledge of the English language com- munity. This competence cannot be taught without having authentic settings that can be instructed via instructional technology such as webcam chat. XVII. RECOMMENDATIONS A. Recommendations for teachers, curricula designers, and methodologists. • Many teachers are not exposed directly to the tar- get language culture, so they should make up for this lack (Stern, 1983). In addition, they can utilize man y other resources, which might supply them with necessary cultural information such as news- paper, magazines, mass media, and multi-media ap- plications. • With the spread of video equipment and audiovis- ual resources into educational institutions, the use of CMC is becoming more common. Good films and chats can serve as a valuable pedagogical aid in the classroom. • There may be a need for holding training pro- grams on using CMC to assist teachers in attaining ability to tackle cultural content while teaching lan- guage and literary texts. o The researcher recommends making many studies about using CMC and its effect on other competences of language. o The ministry of education may be called to hold training programs to assist teachers in attain- ing ability to tackle cultural content while teach- ing language. o EFL teachers should be encouraged to use differ- ent instructional technologies in the FL classes. B. Suggestions for further research • A study could be conducted to explore other EFL teachers' techniques while teaching cultural con- tent at the basic stage. • A study is recommended on examining the effect of CMC on motivating the students to learn the lan- guage. • A study is recommended to investigate teachers' atti- tudes towards teaching the authentic cultural content in EFL classroom explicitly as an integral part of language teaching through multimedia. • A study is recommended to explore the effect of using CMC techniques on increasing students' pragmatics awareness of the target language. ACKNOWLEDGMENT My full indebtedness is for my students who were very cooperative and helpful throughout this study. I iJIM ‒ Volume 8, Issue 3, 2014 53 PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… especially thank Dr. Saffa Habbeeb for this guidance in the statistical part of the study. 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[47] Woo, Ch. (1995). Rules of Speaking: ‘Analysis of conversational politeness in a ESL communication class. Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Eric Document AAC 9605779). [48] Yagang, F. (1993). Listening problems and solutions. Forum, 31 (1) 16-19. AUTHOR Ahmad M. Bataineh is an associate professor of ap- plied linguistics. He worked at Taibah University (De- partment of Languages and Translation). He has worked at Al-albayt University as a full time teacher. He also worked in the English dept. faculty of Arts at Al-Isra University in addition to being chairman of the English section at Languages Centre at the same Uni. He worked 54 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER THE EFFECT OF USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SOCIO-CULT… as a member of English curricula at the Ministry of Edu- cation from 1999-2002. He is (A member of the National Team of Curricula). He worked as a part time teacher in the English Dep., faculty of Arts at The University of Jordan, Petra Univer- sity and Amman Arab University. He worked as a mem- ber of a committee for promoting teachers working at the Ministry of Education in Jordan. He evaluated more than 80 English language books taught at Jordanian private schools, and prepared reports for the Council of Education for approving or disapproving the teaching of these books. He was a member in the Jordanian National Team for pre- paring new English curricula and text books for grades from 1-12. He participated in editing and revising English language text books taught in Jordan. He has a number of research papers in English language and literature, meth- ods of teaching English, as well as designing its curricula. He worked on the preparation of English learning plan and its adaptation by the Institute of English language in (Oregon) USA to Americanize teaching English in Jordan. He gave seminars on foreign language teaching and test- ing, and the integration of language and culture at local and international different universities. He gave seminars on machine translation, Muslim-Christian dialogues, hu- man rights and peace. He Teaches MA and PhD courses at his university and at Amman Arab University. He has supervised on PhD students at different universities. He worked as a head of the Conferences Department at AL-al Bayt University. He is works as a head of Quality Assurance Department. He has multi-experiences in curricula, teaching English as global language, teaching English as foreign language, methodology, conferences, quality assurance, Muslim- Christian dialogues, human rights and peace. He has new orientations toward s having change in foreign language classes, because he strongly believes that language is an ear and a tongue. He believes in teaching language with its culture, be- cause language can be regarded as a body and its culture is a soul. Contact: Dr. Ahmad M. Bataineh, Amman Jordan, Mo- bile: 00962796400687, e-mail: amab88@yahoo.com. Submitted 25 May 2014. Published as re-submitted by the author 08 June 2014. iJIM ‒ Volume 8, Issue 3, 2014 55