Abstract:

Most researchers noted the fall of the Berlin Wall as the start of the age of globalization, while still some added the birth of the world wide web as the avenue for globalization, which in both cases have fostered the development of a more diverse culture and multi-language global society. In addition, with the recent heightened volume of student mobility, cross-cultural flexibility of students has become a topic of much interest. In response, this case study details an empirical analysis of the cross-cultural flexibility of the Applied Foreign Language (AFL) department’s students of the Lunghwa University of Science and Technology (LHU). A survey was administered to 100 randomly selected AFL students coming from the regular classes, night classes, and the weekend classes group. Descriptive and correlation data analyses were accomplished using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Results show that the students’ exposure to a cross-cultural accepting environment has greatly enhanced their cross-cultural flexibility with regards to accepting new friends and culture. In addition, results also show that students who have traveled abroad or have plans to study abroad, tends to have a high sense of cross-cultural perception. While, the presence of foreign classmates and friends have both significantly increased the students’ cross-cultural flexibility. Implications suggest that EFL students in Taiwan should be exposed to more cross-cultural opportunities, in order to enhance their competitiveness.

Keywords:

Cross-cultural flexibility, cross-cultural perception, cross-cultural acceptance, EFL.