將本論文比較出生於1980年至1997年之東西方社會年輕人的社會價值與態度。 這群年輕人通稱為「千禧世代」。在新千禧長大的他們被視為歷史上平均受教育最多的一群人， 世界的未來也剛好在他們手上。因此，深入瞭解千禧世代的個人態度與行為模式相當重要。本論文與過往研究不同之處在於比較此世代在東方與西方社會中的區別。 本論文聚焦在個人學歷對 其社會價值及態度的影響，並進一步衡量當地不同文化帶來的效果。 / This research compares socials values and attitudes of individuals born in East Asian and Western societies after 1980 to 1997. The aforementioned time frame encompasses a generation that has been labeled Millennial, for it accounts for individuals who came of age in the beginning of the new millennium. It is considered the biggest and best educated generation in history and is the leader of the tomorrow’s economy; hence, it has become an increasingly important topic for research and discussion in order to understand its particular characteristics. This research study differentiates itself from those existent, in that it focuses on comparing Millennials from different geographic origins and cultural zones —East Asian and Western countries. It identifies and analyzes the effect of educational attainment on individuals’ attitudes toward the self and their role in society considering the particular features of their geographic zones of origin. The study shed light on the effect of education and origin on Millennials’ attitudes toward issues of social interest such as: abortion, homosexuality, divorce, sex before marriage and women emancipation; having East Asians, a more conservative approach than Westerns have. Furthermore, contrary to what it was expected, it was observed higher levels of self-centered attitude among East Asians when compared to their counterpart in the West.

本論文主要在探索間接請求語的回應策略，針對以英語為外語的台灣高中生做討論。共有120位受試者，分為3組，即以英語為母語的(Native American)高中生，以中文為母語的（Native Chinese）高中生，及以英語為外語的(Learning English as a Foreign Language)高中生。每組均有40位受試者，且男女數目相同。主要的實驗工具是「完成對話問卷」(DCT)，設計上有12個真實生活的情境，並以請求語的種類(傳統間接請求、非傳統間接請求)作為變因。所有回應策略被分成四類。策略(一)僅有是否、(S1 yes/ no alone)、策略(二)是否加上資訊或動作(S2 yes/ no plus information or action)、策略(三)資訊或動作(S3 information or action)及策略(四)其他(S4 others)。本研究量化方面以卡方檢定來辨別三組間是否有顯著差異，並輔以質性研究作為進一步的分析以求更全盤瞭解各策略的使用。 結果發現，普遍來說，台灣高中生在語用能力上仍顯不足。第二點、三組受試者在回應間接請求語上有不同的表現。以英文為母語的受試者偏好使用策略(二)是否加上資訊或動作(S2 yes/ no plus information or action)，而以英語為外語的高中生和以中文為母語的高中生卻都較偏愛使用策略(三)資訊或動作(S3 information or action)。第三點、以英文為外語的高中生在英語的使用上雖然有受到外語文化的影響，但其母語(即中文)對於其第二語言的使用影響更深遠。此外，三組受試者對於不同形式(CID, NCID)的間接請求語，在回應上採用不同的策略。再者，本研究顯示社會文化在請求語及其回應上扮演著重要的角色，在某個文化中被接受的語言使用可能在另一個文化中是不恰當的。最後，根據本文的探討，提出一些在英語學習與教學及日後研究的應用與建議。 / This study aims to explore and discuss the strategy use of EFL senior high school students in Taiwan when they respond to indirect requests. One hundred and twenty senior high school students participated in this study. They were divided into 3 groups--- native Americans (NA), native Chinese (NC), and EFL (English as a Foreign Language). There were 40 participants in each group, and the number of males and females were the same. The main instrument in this study was Discourse Completion Task (DCT), designed with 12 real life situations. One variable in the DCT was the different types of indirect requests--- Conventional Indirect (CID) and Non-conventional Indirect (NCID). The participants’ responses were divided into four exclusive categories, namely, S1 (yes/ no alone), S2 (yes/ no plus information or action), S3 (information or action) and S4 (others). To provide the quantitative results, Chi-square was employed to test the presence of statistically significant difference existing across the three groups. In addition, qualitative analysis was conducted to fully understand the employment of each strategy. The result showed that high school students in Taiwan generally had deficient pragmatic competence. Second, the three participant groups performed differently when responding to indirect requests. It was found that the NA group tended to select Yes/ no plus information or action (S2) whereas the NC and EFL groups preferred to employ Information or action (S3). Third, the performance of the EFL group heavily followed their L1’s cultural norms, although some of their behavior was influenced by the culture of their target language. In addition, participants among three groups tended to use different respondent strategies when encountering different indirect requests, namely, CID and NCID. Furthermore, this study also found that cultural norms play a crucial role in responses to requests. The influence of cultural norms should never be neglected because an acceptable behavior in one culture may be very inappropriate in another. At last, according to the findings, this study hoped to give some suggestions and implications for English learning and teaching as well as the future research.

This study tried to have an exploratory study about the cross-cultural effect of the content of the message board by examining the sitcom programs both broadcasted in Japan and Taiwan. The theory of Individualism versus Collectivism from Hofstede is used as a basis of this study. Moreover, the other factors such as country of origin and viewers’ profile have specific effects toward our findings as well. The content analysis was applied to analyze the data collected from the message board. The practical research relates to the objective of customers and the segmentation of products by analyzing the data of a company. There are important implications of cross-cultural customers and marketing practices according to this research. The future research is expected by examining other aspects of relative issues.