The role of cultural diversity in e-based language learning. A comparative study of Bulgarian and Lithuanian learners of German as a foreign language using an online learning platform

The study reported on in this paper focusses on the impact of cultural
factors in media-based language acquisition. The study sets out to investigate the
role of learners‟ cultural dispositions during the use of media-based programs in
language learning. More specifically, the study aimed at finding out to what extent
the cultural disposition of learners outweighs the learners‟ individual preferences
in a media-based (online) language course. The analysis of input data produced
strong differences between the two learning cultures at the outset of the study.
Lithuanian learners were found to be more passive, more rule oriented, more
reliant on their mother tongue as a means of instruction and less tolerant vis-à-vis
ambiguity when they entered the experiment. They also turned out to reject open
(less teacher-guided) forms of communicative learning requiring active
participation and, instead, preferred language teaching to be (passively)
entertaining. Bulgarian learners by contrast were more tolerant vis-à-vis ambiguity
and more goal-oriented with respect to learning the foreign language for academic
success abroad. They also turned out to be more focussed on and appreciative of
the technical aspects of the program and thus were eager to explore new
approaches to media-based learning. However, over the course of the study both
groups of participants developed an unexpected ability to adapt to the electronic
media even though the program seemed to counteract their cultural-specific
preferences. The study shows that both groups of learners improved significantly
over the course of the experiment with respect to language skills and that
acceptance of the program was high in both groups despite the initial resistance
and despite the fact that the program requires a well developed level of
independence. Despite the fact that a tendency to act according to cultural
dispositions can be shown those influences were not found to be statistically
significant.