Abstract
Relatively few research studies have been conducted to investigate students' uses of reading strategies in cross-cultural online discussion forums. Therefore, the current study investigated Taiwanese university EFL students' use of online reading strategies during their comprehension process of reading online written responses from students of other cultures, and to explore the impact of reading strategy training in facilitating reading comprehension during the students' cross-cultural communication experience. Findings from the research indicate that EFL university students' use of metacognitive strategies showed a significant increase as they took part in cross-cultural discussion and reading strategy training. Post-test scores of the high-intermediate GEPT reading test also improved to a significant level. In addition, students ranked summary writing as the most effective reading strategy training in assisting them to complete cross-cultural discussion postings, while the most frequently used strategy for the project was using reference materials (e.g. online dictionaries). In terms of the design and overall online task, participating students had a supportive and positive attitude. Major difficulties and challenges students encountered stemmed from English writing, searching, locating, summarizing and communicating with others online. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.
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