Developing Relational Empathy in Virtual Ethnographic Intercultural Teaching  

虚拟民族志跨文化教学中对关系共情能力的培养研究

作　　者：Yingli Zhou Carolyn Calloway-Thomas Gaowei Li Xueyao Zhang 周英莉;卡罗琳·卡洛维-托马斯;李高慰;张雪遥(中国矿业大学(北京);印第安纳大学布卢鲁明顿校区;香港大学,中国香港;中国传媒大学)

机构地区：[1]China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing [2]Indiana University Bloomington [3]The University of Hong Kong [4]Communication University of China

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics》2025年第1期136-153,156,共19页中国应用语言学(英文)

基　　金：国家社科基金重大项目“美国族裔文学中的文化共同体思想研究”(项目编号:21&ZD281);北京市高等教育协会面上项目“虚拟民族志跨文化外语教学模式研究”(项目编号:MS2022243);中国矿业大学(北京)校级重点项目“讲好中国故事的国际化课程改革研究”(项目编号:J24ZD14)阶段性成果。

摘　　要：Conceptualizations of empathy have been most fully developed in a variety of fields in recent years.Many approaches to empathy dwell on the cognitive,affective,and behavioral aspects,the intra-psychic processes that cause one to feel emotions more like those of another,rather than the interpersonal functions of empathy,which may be influenced by the variables during the communication process.Therefore,this study designed and implemented a virtual ethnographic intercultural project between Chinese and American university students with WeChat as the main social medium.The whole process included three phases:exploring the unique cultural experiences of Chinese and American students,seeking an empathy based on commonality and seeking a relational empathy,a form of harmonization and integration through interactive and continuous intercultural dialogues.During the process,the method of discourse-centered online ethnography(DCOE)was employed,which involved systematic observation and interaction with WeChat users.We used the collective data to analyze how relational empathy was developed through understanding cultural differences,seeking similarities,and creating a third culture by engaging students in a substantial and dynamic natural and interactive setting.The study shows that the most challenging process to nurture relational empathy is to move from Phases One and Two to Phase Three,during which,some strategies to build relational empathy need to be taught and practiced in a specific cultural setting.In conclusion,virtual ethnographic intercultural teaching is an effective approach to offer students a long-term intercultural dialogue and insight into developing shared meaning,or dynamic relational empathy with culturally different others.近年来,共情的概念在各个学科领域得到了充分发展。许多研究共情的方法聚焦认知、情感和行为等方面,即人们对他人感同身受的内在心理过程,而较少关注共情的人际功能,因为后者可能会受到交流过程中各种变量的影响。因此,本研究设计并实施了一个以微信为主要社交媒体的中美大学生虚拟民族志跨文化项目。整个过程包括三个阶段:探索中美大学生独特的文化体验和身份;寻求基于共性的共情;寻求关系共情,即通过互动和持续的跨文化对话实现和谐与融合。在这一过程中,我们采用以话语为中心的网络民族志方法,包括系统地观察和接触微信用户,收集数据并分析中美大学生如何通过了解文化差异、寻求相似性,以及通过参与到一个实质性的、动态的自然互动环境中来创造第三文化,从而培养关系共情能力。研究表明,最具挑战性的过程是从第一和第二阶段到第三阶段的过渡,在最后这一阶段中,教师需要在特定的文化环境中教授并让学生实践一些建立关系共情的语言和交际策略。总之,虚拟民族志跨文化教学可以有效地帮助学生进行长期的跨文化对话,使其深入了解与不同文化背景的人培养共同意识或动态关系共情的过程。

关 键 词：relational empathy third culture virtual ethnographic intercultural project DCOE 

分 类 号：H319.3[语言文字—英语]