Tom Axtell and Julie Lafontaine
(the authors)
On February 23, Julie Lafontaine launched an email exchange project
at the Seminaire de Sherbrooke. She was assisted in the design
and implementation of the project by Tom Axtell. They are both
doing graduate studies in English as a Second Language at Bishop's
University. This paper describes a new language learning activity
and relates this to their theory of language learning.
The purpose of this project is one of motivation. The learners
of the class all had difficulties and maybe even failures throughout
the years with their ESL. An activity was required that would
provide for a positive experience in the L2. In the words of their
instructor,
"I want to break the isolation between second language learners
and native speakers of the second language. I want the English
to become alive and personally meaningful for each of my students.
The reading and writing skills are secondary but nonetheless important.
"
The project uses new technologies to bring L2 learners together.
It demonstrates a model of peer tutoring for second language learners
on the Internet. Tom Axtell had already seen how compelling e-mail
and chat in English had been for Inuktitut speaking children at
a community access centre in Arctic Québec. He was interested
to see how immersed learners could become in email communication
while still in a classroom setting.
Julie arranged an email exchange between her FFL/ESL college students
in Quebec and an EFL/FSL class in the US. This report describes
the how the class got their first message on-line. Additional
reports will document the project as it progresses to internet
relay chat and if resources permit, real-time Internet telephony
(audio conferencing).
As we did not have e-mail addresses of each of the USA students,
the first message was mailed to the US teacher. The students would
be paired by the US teacher, in the manner chosen by the class.
To maximize the experience in each other's second language, the
language of communication exchanges will alternate. Quebec students
will first write about themselves in English. The US students
will reply in English, so that the Quebec students have a chance
to read the native speaker's message. Quebec students then reply
in French; the US students reply in French, and so on. If each
person only wrote in their second language, the exchange would
be missing the input from the native language speaker that the
students need most. Students were informed that their exchanges
will be monitored and handed in as an assignment.
The questions we will be asking ourselves as the project develops
include:
This class is the lowest level of the three offered at the private
college. When the e-mail correspondence project was announced
one student remarked, "C'est une bonne idee". The instructor
was glad to hear the comment from this particular student, one
of the least motivated of all. This student refuses to speak the
L2 and is occasionally disruptive to the class. She hoped that
the email project might improve this student's attitude toward
learning English.
Tom Axtell explained how the Internet sends messages and asked
the class about their current communications activities. Only
two students had email at home. One used email rarely, and the
other spent about an hour per week with email. One had tried chat.
None wrote letters it seemed, but they all used the telephone
to communicate frequently. The class moved to the computer lab.
The students had basic computer skills so getting on the Net and
finding the site to register for email (Hotmail.com) went quickly.
There was no hesitation in following the registration process,
which was in English. No time was spent in selecting a personal
email address. There were corrections required in registering
for the email account which they solved with some help from one
another and the instructors.
Some students were blocked in the final step of registering because
they did not read the instructions on the screen properly. We
encouraged them to read what's on the screen before giving them
the answer. Students are used to asking for help rather then trying
to figure out the problem by themselves by taking the time to
read the instructions. Since the students will be using the email
on their own outside of class time, they will have to rely a little
more on themselves.
The writing of their message was much more exciting for the students
than registering for the email account. They were obviously thrilled
by the idea that a real someone (English speaker) would actually
read and reply to their message. They spent 15-30 minutes writing
their introductory message. They had fun and were eager to correct
their writing with the help of the instructors and co-students.
In the remaining few minutes of class time they wrote each other
messages. They enjoyed this even more, seeing the words of their
co-students. However, without specific instructions to do otherwise,
they had switched to French.
The e-mail exchange appears to be from the first experience, fun
and interesting. Students seemed to enjoy the exercise and all
the skills and technology were in place for lots of communication
with English first language speakers on the Internet. The two
students who had e-mail at home worked just as hard, or even harder
than the others, suggesting that this exercise will be interesting
for the students long term.
Our email project's main objective is to motivate the students
to develop a positive attitude towards the L2 and its culture.
The Net provided isolated 2nd language learners with a communicative
experience in which they are actively and personally involved
in an authentic interaction with L2 native speakers. Students
are probably motivated to use and learn the L2 by the possibilities
for inter-personal relations, in this case with peers in another
country. Through the Net-mediated activity students will learn
about the culture of the L2 and thus they might develop a more
positive attitude towards the L2. The text-based medium of email
and chat is believed to be non-threatening for learners. This
medium lowers their affective filters (Krashen, 1984).
We feel acquisition of language in this setting is best related
to an interactionist's perspective (M. H. Long, 1990). The theories
operating in this activity are the ones referring to the affective
domain, motivation, sociocultural factors (attitudes) and, on
another level the ones dealing with the characteristics of the
language involved in the interaction.
The email correspondence certainly provides students with comprehensible
input which is necessary for L2 learning. We also believe that
this activity will have a positive influence on the students'
self-confidence in their L2 skills which they greatly need. The
messages that they send are clear enough to be understood and
they will receive a reply (positive evidence) to each specific
message they send. It's been observed by Icy Lee in her review
of peer studies that "students like to let their peers read
their drafts because their comments were more encouraging than
those of the teachers". The literature on peer learning supports
this aspect of the learning we expect to observe.
Most important we believe that the activity will enhance intrinsic
motivation. A friendly relationship is likely to develop naturally
between correspondents making them want to pursue the exchange
for their own interest rather than for only obtaining grades.
What happened?
Things went according to plan for the first day. There was
tremendous enthusiasm among students as they succeeded in obtaining
their first e-mail account. Then there was a flurry of messaging
between the students. They needed to be reminded that this was
an English lesson as most wrote their first message in French.
A week past before the next session and short messages went out
to the overseas e-pals. Not everyone wrote back and the length
of time between sending and receiving a reply was too long. Interest
for the exchange fell off. Next time, we'll make sure that the
students have more than one e-pal and that the students circulate
e-mail among themselves first.