Research suggests that project-based CALL may enhance ESL learners' motivation, improve their learning performance and initiate their active roles in learning (e.g. Debski, 2000: Levy, 1997; Warschauer, 1996). This paper addresses the question of whether such CALL projects can achieve similar effects in a Chinese EFL context. A study of a cross-cultural collaborative online writing project conducted in the fall semester of 1999 forms the basis of discussion. 20 Chinese students at Suzhou University and 28 American students at the Southern Polytechnic State University of Georgia participated in the project. Suupported by the qualitative data, the writer concludes that CALL projects do have potential in motivating Chinese EFL learners and bringing about positive learning effects, but the key still lies in how they are manged and supported by learners, teachers, and administrators at all levels.
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