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- E-Mail Keypals for Language Fluency by Thomas N. Robb of Kyoto Sangyo University. Excellent article for English teachers' reference. First appeared in Foreign Language Notes (Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey), Vol 38, No. 3, pp 8-10, Fall 1996 and the author has been updating it ever since.
- Email Discussion Lists for ESL students
- Email Manners
- International E-mail Projects in ESL Curriculum - What Works, What Doesn't? (George Jor and Linda Mak, 1994)
- International Student Discussion Lists (SL-LISTS) Guidelines for Teachers - by Thomas Robb
- Pitfalls and Tips
- SL-Lists: International EFL/ESL Email Student Discussion Lists
E-mail Penpal Queries
- Do you want to practise writing in an authentic and interesting way?
- Are you interested in communicating with students overseas?
- Do you want to learn more about college life and the culture in the USA, Canada or Japan?
Read the articles in the soc.penpals newsgroup and select one you want to e-mail with.
Email Discussion Lists for ESL
students
The following lists have been active since February 1994 for students to subscribe to as an alternative to the 'traditional' one-on-one e-mail penpal activity.
MUSIC-SL : Student ESL Discussion List
on Music
MOVIE-SL : Student ESL Discussion List on the Cinema
TRAVL-SL : Student ESL Discussion List on Travel
ENVIR-SL : Student ESL Discussion List on the
Environment
RIGHT-SL : Student ESL Discussion List on Human Rights
SPORT-SL : Student ESL Discussion List on Sports
EVENT-SL : Student ESL Discussion List on Current Events
CHAT-SL : Student ESL General Discussion List
Further information can be obtained from the TESL-L archives by sending a message to
LISTSERV@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU or
LISTSERV@CUNYVM.BITNET
saying GET STUDLIST ANNOUNCE TESL-L F=MAIL
Lloyd Holliday, La Trobe University,
Australia
Thomas Robb, Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan
E-Mail Manners and "Netiquette"
(Suggested by please send comments or updates to Tharon
Howard at tharon@hubcap.clemson.edu or
THARON@CLEMSON)
The following is a list of some conventions and strategies new users can use to avoid unpleasant experiences when they communicate in the "virtual world." Note that the following "10 Commandments" betray some of my own, personal theories about how "electronic audiences" read, but I have also borrowed heavily from John Quarterman's book _The Matrix_, [Bedford,MS: Digital Press, 1990, pp. 34-40].
- Keep your messages short.
- DO try to respond to other people's messages; DON'T BE A "LURKER."
- Stick to one subject.
- Use clear subject headings.
- Read ALL your mail before responding to a message.
- Offer a brief context for messages to which you respond.
- Be sure to "sign" your messages, but avoid long signature files which take up more than two or three lines.
- Always remember that you're communicating at least one other human being. Don't say or reveal something you're likely to regret later.
- Avoid redistributing others' messages without the authors' consent and/or quoting or citing materials (including private e-mail messages and software) without acknowledging the author(s).
- Humor and irony don't work well in e-mail messages and are misinterpreted more often than not.
- Other conventions to convey
emphasis include:
_underlining_, s p a c i n g, UPPERCASE, and a*s*t*e*r*i*s*k*s.
Limit the use of these conventions to occasions to convey emphasis.
Don't write your whole message in uppercase.
Tips and Pitfalls - by George Jor & Linda Mak (1994)
E-mail is a useful research tool for collecting information and for your research paper writing. Preliminary experiments suggest benefits for learning such as:
- developing a generalist outlook and extending global horizons
- decreasing misunderstanding of people of different ethnicity
- boosting confidence in using English to write to communicate
- helping you think faster & respond with a sense of immediacy
- training you to organize and present your ideas in clearer ways
- enabling you to make friends with students in other countries.
However, e-mail penpalling has its pitfalls. Here are some tips on how
to deal with them:
Pitfalls
- No response (lurkers= non-contributors) (flaming=verbal attack)
- Delayed response
- How often?
- How long?
- No commitment
- Writing problems
- Loss of information
Tips on how to deal with them
- Keep your message short. Give simple, frequent prompts and courteous, acknowledge of messages.
- Let your pen-pal know your schedule (e.g. exams, holidays)
- Check mail at least 1-2 times a week
- One to two screenfuls. Never too long.
- Challenge to take responsibility.
- Use peer group influence.
- Some language tips: No need to write in complete sentences. Check spelling/information errors.Proofreading is essential.
- Back up addresses on paper. Loss of disk, etc.
SOME EXAMPLES OF E-MAIL ICONS:
:-) = smile >-( = anger :-( = frown B-) = masked smile (wearing
sunglasses) :-0 = oh, noooooo! (-_-) = secret
smile ;-) = wink :-] = small
smile :-* = kiss :-)))))))))))))))) = emphatic
smile
International
E-mail Projects in ESL Curriculum - What Works, What
Doesn't?
George C.K. Jor and Linda
Mak
Proceedings of Tel-Ed '94 Conference
Keywords: e-mail, international, ESL, curriculum,
writing
Two international e-mail projects involving about 250 students from 11 universities in fall, 1993 and spring, 1994 will be described, compared and evaluated as part of an English writing course. Students' feedback and writing will be analyzed and teachers' experience collated to see what works and what doesn't.
The Hong Kong Connection
With the rapid expansion of telecommunications in the classrooms around the world, more teachers than ever are trying to capitalize on the potential of international networks to teach writing and to help students use English as a language of wider communication. This is a report on two pilot projects involving the use of e-mail in an ESL curriculum team-taught by two writing instructors in Hong Kong.
We shall describe and evaluate two e-mail projects. The first, Penpal93, was a pen-pal project conducted in autumn 1993. Four universities were involved: Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Temple University in Japan, University of British Columbia in Canada, and City University at New York.
The second is an ongoing email writing project, EM94, which was started in spring 1994 involving nine teachers from eight universities: CUHK, Helsinki University of Technology and six American universities. A third project is being planned for fall 1994.
Comparison of Penpal93 and EM94
Both projects, Penpal93 and EM94, are part of an English course at CUHK - Thinking Through Writing. The overall objective is to help first year college students to get the most out of their university education from a language perspective. Students learn to write academic essays and research papers.
Penpal93 paired up 10 Hong Kong students with 30 students from three other universities. There was no specific task - except a 500-word essay with an appendix of samples of e-mail conversation. The theme was "College Life - a comparison between Japan, Canada and Hong Kong." The project gave Hong Kong students a chance to communicate with students abroad and aroused their interest in cultural understanding. However, there were problems. We shall discuss the methods used and the problems encountered.
EM94 involved 250 students (39 from Hong Kong) of 30 different nationalities. Unlike the first project, there were formal writing tasks and e-mail discussion groups for students and teachers. The project was bigger and more structured than Penpal 93. There were 39 topics and discussion groups. Students were required to submit an article on their experience of the project and a research paper. We have been analyzing students' writings and teachers' feedback. The results are collated as a fact-finding exercise on what opens windows for ESL learners and what doesn't.
Summary of preliminary
findings What works What
doesn't 1. A good mailing list system
1. No definite mailing
list 2. Adequate access to
resources 2. Inadequate computer
access 3. Radically different term
dates 4. Good matches of classes in
terms of objectives and levels 4. Mismatch of goals and
levels 5. Advance planning
5. Failure to plan
properly 6. Formal writing tasks with
a given list of topics 6. Informal writing tasks.
Too many topics, Too big lists. 7. Teachers' forum &
collaboration 7. Little or no
collaboration 8. Inadequate instruction on
9. Integration of email into
the ESL curriculum 9. E-mail excluded from the
ESL curriculum 10. Willingness to embrace
new technology and to grow 10. Fear of new
technology 11. Students' "ownership" of
the project as writers, respondents, researchers,
negotiators & judges 11. No personal
responsibility 12. Writing for a real
audience 12. Inadequate
response 13. Real competition and
co-operation 13. Too many
assignments 14. Optimum group size: 6 -
10 14. Group size too
big/small 15. No real purpose; no need
to use e-mail to communicate
3. Adequate time to learn, use and reflect on the e-mail writing process
8. Adequate email instruction email skills
15. Excitement about e-mail as a medium they will use increasingly
in college and in the workplace.
Lines of further research
- How does the use of e-mail influence the methodology, classroom management, roles and learning styles in the writing classroom?
- What are the implications for ESL curriculum and online education?
- How effective are these international e-mail projects in teaching writing?
- How do we evaluate such kinds of virtual classrooms?
References
Hartman, K. et. al. (1991). Patterns
of Social Interaction and Learning to Write: Some Effects of
Network Technologies. Journal of Written Communication. 8
(1), Jan. 1991, 79-113.
Hawisher, G. & Moran, C. (1993). Electronic Mail and the
Writing Instructor. College English. 55 (6), 627-643.
Hiltz, S. (1990). Evaluating the Virtual Classroom. In
Harasim, L. (Ed). Online Education: Perspectives on a New
Environment. New York: Praeger.
Marbito, M. (1990). Electronic Mail as a Vehicle for Peer
Interaction, Written Communication, 8 (4), Oct. 1991,
509-532.
Reil, M. & Levin, J.A. (1990). Cooperative Learning
across Classrooms in Electronic Learning Circles.
Instructional Science, 19, 445-366.
Warchauer, M. (1994). What works? A summary of TESLCA-L
discussion.
Vilmi, R. (1994). Global Communication Through Email: An
Ongoing Experiment at Helsinki University of Technology.
(Electronic publication available on WWW at
http://www.hut.fi/jkorpela/ ruth.html).
Copyright © Computer-Mediated
Communication for Teaching and Learning in the Chinese
Context (CMC),
The Chinese University of
Hong Kong.
URL:
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~cmc/eltmatters/elt.htm
Created by George
C.K.Jor on January 25, 1999.
Contact e-mail: george-jor@cuhk.edu.hk