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English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction faces many challenges in Asia because of many cultural and environmental factors, such as the lack of interactive speaking environments, emphasis placed on test scores, and foreign language anxiety. The purpose of this research is to conduct an EFL instructional course by integrating Facebook (asynchronous online discussion) and Skype (synchronous online discussion) as platforms through which students perform role-playing based learning activities and to observe the effects of the course on the challenges mentioned above. The study consists of 42 participants who are enrolled in an English conversation course in a business college in Taiwan. This study conducted a learning performance analysis, correlation analysis, and qualitative content analysis of the learning process. The results indicate that the learners improved their speaking and writing skills through the learning tools and role-playing activities. The content analysis also demonstrated that learners could improve their speaking and writing skills via peer-to-peer and self-correction behaviors. We also provide several recommendations for EFL educators and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cyberbullying is a growing public health concern threatening the well-being of adolescents in both developed and developing countries. In Taiwan, qualitative research exploring the experiences and perceptions of cyberbullying among Taiwanese young people is lacking.Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with a convenience sample of high school students (aged 16 to 18) from five schools in Taipei, Taiwan, without prior knowledge of their cyberbullying experiences. In total, 48 participants were interviewed.Results: We found that the experience of cyberbullying is common, frequently occurs anonymously and publicly on unofficial school Facebook pages created by students themselves, and manifests in multiple ways, such as name-calling, uploading photos, and/or excluding victims from online groups of friends. Exclusion, which may be a type of cyberbullying unique to the Asian context, causes a sense of isolation, helplessness, or hopelessness, even producing mental health effects in the victims because people place the utmost importance on interpersonal harmony due to the Confucian values in collectivistic Asian societies. In addition, our study revealed reasons for cyberbullying that also potentially reflect the collectivistic values of Asian societies. These reasons included fun, discrimination, jealousy, revenge, and punishment of peers who broke school or social rules/norms, for example, by cheating others or being promiscuous.Conclusions: Our findings reveal the pressing need for the Taiwanese school system to develop cyberbullying prevention programmes considering the nature and sociocultural characteristics of cyberbullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]