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Effects of email on learners' compositional ability: A quantitative and qualitative study

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Effects of email on learners' compositional ability: A quantitative and qualitative study

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Content EFFECTS OF EMAIL ON LEARNERS’ COMPOSITIONAL ABILITY:
A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE STUDY
Copyright 2002
by
JOHN THEOPHANY ELKHOLY
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(EDUCATION)
December 2002
John Theophany Elkholy
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UMI Number: 3093953
UMI
UMI Microform 3093953
Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, w ritten by
under the direction o f h. Dissertation
Committee, and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted b y The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of re
quirements for the degree of
D O CTO R OF PHILOSOPH Y
" J r " ...........
Dean of Graduate Studies
Date . . l .?: . a . F J J
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Chairperson
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables........................................................................................... v
Abstract..................................................................................................... vi
Chapter 1 - Overview Of The Study..................................................... 1
Introduction.................................................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem.......................................... 3
Purpose of the Study................................................................... 4
Importance of the Study.............................................................. 4
Limitations, Delimitations, and Assumptions........................... 5
Definitions.................................................................................... 7
Chapter 2 - Review of the Related Literature............ ........................... 12
Introduction.................................................................................. 12
Research on How One Becomes a Good W riter....................... 12
Krashen............................................................................ 13
Vygotsky...................................................................... 14
Rogers............................................................................. 14
Bates' Email M odel.................................................................... 16
Developing Academic Discourse................... 17
Collaborative and Project W ork.................................... 19
Knowledge Building....................................................... 21
Maximizing the Knowledge and Experience of All 23
Participants................................................................
Increasing Equity of Participants................................... 24
Cross-Cultural Participation........................................... 27
Development of Reflective Writing Skills.................... 28
Overcoming Social Isolation.......................................... 31
Emotional Involvement.................................................. 33
Ready Access to Help and Support................................ 35
Feedback and Direct Student Contact with Instructor .. 37
Active and Interactive Participation ...................... 39
Freedom from Constraints of Time and Location 39
Learner Control............................................................... 41
Chapter 3 - Methodology........................................................................ 45
Introduction 45
ii
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Types of Research................................................ 45
Quantitative Methods..................................................... 46
Qualitative Methods........................................................ 47
Benefits and Weaknesses of Quantitative and
Qualitative Research.......................................... 48
Quantitative Research........................................ 48
Qualitative Research.......................................... 49
Theoretical Background.............................................................. 50
Conclusion................................................................................... 54
The Study..................................................................................... 55
Sample and Population.................................................... 55
Data Collection............................................................... 59
Variable Between Experimental and Control Groups ... 61
Problems.......................................................................... 65
Chapter 4 - The Findings.............................................................. 67
Introduction.................................................................................. 67
Findings by Research Question O ne.......................................... 67
Findings by Research Question T w o ......................................... 71
Discussion............................................................... 72
Quantitative........................................ 72
Qualitative.......................................................... 72
Development of reflective writing skills 72
Collaborative and project work, knowledge
building, maximizing the knowledge and
experience of all participants....................... 74
Ready access to help and support...................... 75
Feedback and direct student contact with
instructor..................................................................76
Cross-cultural participation................................ 77
Emotional involvement....................................... 77
Developing academic discourse......................... 78
Overcoming social isolation................................ 78
Increased equity. ............................................ 79
Active and interactive participation, freedom
from constraints of time and location,
learner control............................................... 80
Other Findings................................................................ 81
Chapter 5 - Summary, Conclusion, Implications.................................... 85
Summary...................................................................................... 85
iii
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Conclusion................................................................................... 86
Implications.................................................................................. 86
Bibliography.............................................................................................. 88
Appendices................................................................................................ 96
Appendix A — Limited Release of Information Form 96
Appendix B — Student Informational Questionnaire............... 98
Appendix C — Having an E-Group Discussion and
MakingDecisions on Em ail............................. 100
Appendix D — Email Group Discussion 2 ................................ 103
Appendix E — Pre-Test and Post-Test Questions.................... 106
Appendix F — Theme — Seven Point Rating Scale................ 108
Appendix G — Institutional Domains & Email Breakdowns ... I l l
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Subject Scores by Name and T est................................... 68
Table 2. Table of M eans................................................................. 69
Table 3. ANOVA Table................................................................. 70
Table 4. Students’ Responses to One-on-One Interviews with
Regards to Bates’ Fourteen Points................................. 72
Table 5 & 6. Institutional Domain Extensions & Email
Breakdowns...................................................................... I l l
v
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ABSTRACT
Email usage by EFL learners to increase compositional ability was studied
using both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. It was found,
using quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test methodology, that email usage was just
as beneficial as traditional methodologies to improve EFL learners’ compositional
abilities. Additionally, it was founded that EFL learners perceived increased
benefit from email usage. This was ascertained though one-on-one interviews.
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CHAPTER 1 - OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
Introduction
When a new technology is introduced, educators rush to experiment to find
how best to incorporate it into their methodology. This is done with all good
intentions, but whether a certain methodology or procedure is beneficial to an
educational process is fundamentally a pedagogical question. It becomes a
problem if educators rush to apply new technologies without the knowledge or
research to justify doing so.
Just because a method works in one field of education (e.g., science
education) does not mean it will necessarily work in another field (e.g., literature).
The method, must therefore, be proven to work in each specific field.
Email is one such technology that has spread quickly throughout the world.
This study looks at whether email communication as discussion is generally
beneficial to college English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' composing
ability. This study has two parts: a quantitative portion using quasi-experimental
methodology, and a qualitative portion using interviews to determine the benefits
of email communication as perceived by the students.
Classroom computer use is required by many schools and universities,
many times without proper pedagogical documentation. English as a Second
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Language and EFL programs in particular require computer and, specifically, email
use in and peripheral to classroom work. Learning and using computer technology
may benefit students' learning and advancement, but without proper documentation
it cannot be proven for certain. Conversely, computer technology use can be
detrimental if not used with proper knowledge. Again, without studies that
precisely address the relationships, educators do not know whether the tools and/or
methods chosen bring about the desired outcome.
Email is a medium that is needed in the first and second worlds just to
remain competitive, and it is becoming more of a necessity in the third world.
Most, if not all, universities in the United States and many worldwide give students
email accounts as part of their enrollment package. Students are expected to be
familiar with and use email in their everyday lives to communicate with their
instructors, access homework assignments, and/or participate in group assignments.
The question is Does it enhance students' compositional ability? There are
reasons to believe it might do so.
Stephen Krashen's theories of language acquisition and literacy rest on the
premise that reading fosters better reading and writing. Therefore, the only way a
writer becomes a better writer is to read more and write more (Carrell, 1987; Johns,
1991). Krashen also states that the best way for a person to become a good reader
is to read extensively because when one reads something understandable and
likeable (comprehensible input), it enhances her/his ability to read and inherently
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aids with writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical development
(Krashen, 1992).
This may be true, but the above statements assume that the input is
grammatically correct. By its very nature, email is not necessarily always
grammatically correct, even coming from a native language speaker, much less a
second language learner. It follows that reading and writing email may or may not
be beneficial to EFL students' writing ability.
Statement of the Problem
The literature on correlations between email and EFL acquisition is
extensive, yet none of it specifically addresses the correlation between email
discussions and EFL students' compositional ability. This study attempts to address
that question in two ways—quantitatively and qualitatively.
Educators know that students who use email are introduced to a technology
that is beneficial to their future, but does that translate into a benefit to EFL
students' compositional ability? This topic has been addressed sparsely in the
literature.
Additionally, although some studies have addressed the students' own
perceptions of email communications, none has focused on their perceptions of
email interaction in a discussion group with respect to their resulting compositional
ability.
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Purpose of the study
Since no one has focused so far on the above, this study answers those
questions by evaluating students' writings both prior to and after email
communication to determine if there was a benefit or detriment to their
compositional abilities. Additionally, the students' perceptions of email
interactions are studied by recording and analyzing their own feelings.
The questions this study attempts to answer are the following:
■ Does email interaction (discussion) enhance college EFL learners' composing
ability?
■ What perceived benefit of email interaction (discussion) do college EFL
learners have?
■ Are the perceptions of these students similar to Bates’ (1995) list of criteria of
benefits to students using email?
Importance of the Study
This study ultimately addresses an area about which the literature has so far
been silent. It fills that gap by giving educators some tangible documentation as to
whether email interaction benefits EFL students' compositional ability.
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It also either confirms or refutes a list of email communication benefits that
have been posited by researcher and researchers whose points are discussed in
detail below.
Educators can thereby see whether entering EFL college students actually
perceive email the way other students have perceived it. If these students do
perceive email as researchers have posited, then educators will be able to develop
lessons and programs using email specifically to foeus on desired outcomes. If, on
the other hand, it is found that the students do not perceive email as the literature
supposes, then educators have to look elsewhere and use other methodologies to
accomplish specific goals with respect to these particular students.
This study has added importance because it is generalizable in the ESL
arena. As described in detail later in this chapter, in most universities in large U.S.
cities, ESL should actually be labeled EFL because the ESL students more closely
resemble EFL students abroad. Since this study was conducted in an EFL setting,
the outcome can therefore be generalized to the ESL setting in the United States.
Limitations, Delimitations, and Assumptions
This study had four limitations that could not be remedied.
1. No two classes were taught by the same instructor. The researcher
attempted to find a single instructor to teach two composition classes, one with the
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use of email discussions and the other without the use of email discussions. This
was not an option once the actual setup of the study was undertaken.
2. The two classes that were used as the experimental and control groups
were not in the same academic subject. The researcher wished to find two
composition classes to use as the experimental and control, but it was difficult to
find instructors who were not using email in their classes because the university
used for the research requires instructors to use email interaction between the
students and the instructors as well as among the students themselves.
3. Students in the two groups were not placed there by the researcher so
that there would be two classes with equivalent populations (i.e., 3 students in each
class who had computer experience, 2 students who had 6 years of English
language study, and 3 students who had 4 years of English language study in each
class; the proficiency level of the students in each class was not matched, etc.).
This was not a possibility because of an inability to find instructors for the study
and because the students chose the classes they enrolled in based on their
schedules.
4. Although the instructors were aware that they were to administer the pre
test within one week of the beginning of the semester, the control group instructor
administered the pre-test one month after the beginning of the semester.
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Definitions
The definition of new technology terms is crucial. The first term that needs
defining is email. Email is an abbreviation of electronic-mail1 . There are various
email definitions. Tao (1996, pp. 3-4) defines email succinctly by including fax
and telex (traditional mail transmitted electronically); and email (communication
through computers, which can include graphics as well as text); chats (real time
communication between two or more people in synchronous time). Synchronous
time means that the messages are delivered as they are written and therefore seen
by both or all parties simultaneously.
The definition of email used here requires that it be self-contained (i.e., a
stand-alone unit of information): by itself, the email is understandable to the
recipient, as opposed to the chat format which is more like a conversation with
interruptions and clarifications throughout.
Email is a technology that first appeared in the world some 30 years ago as
a means of communication among politicians, military personnel, and academicians
in the event of natural disaster, war, or other such communication-destroying
phenomena. This form of correspondence takes place almost instantaneously in
contrast to regular mail (sometimes called snail mail), which can take days or even
weeks to arrive at its destination, especially if crossing national borders.
1 The term electronic mail has been abbreviated in many ways: email, e-mail, Email,
E-mail, etc. I use the first of these (email) throughout this paper, unless of course it
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The format of email varies slightly with the program one uses to write it.
For the most part however, email is formatted on the order of a business
memorandum with a field (place) for the sender's email address; a field for the
recipient's address; a subject field (a place to put a brief description of what the
email might be about); and a date and time field. Finally, the body of the email
contains the actual communication or message.
Once a person has written an online or offline email, the person then logs on
to the Internet and clicks the send button, whereupon the email is sent. Online
refers to being physically hooked up or interacting with the Internet (also called the
World Wide Web [www]) through a service provider of some type and, typically, a
hard-wired telephone line. This last medium might be changing in the near future
with increased use of cellular and mobile communications. Offline refers to use of
a computer and/or terminal that does not interact with the Internet at that moment.
With time limitations, cost, and/or restricted availability of online time, Internet
users may elect to compose their emails offline and then connect when it is
convenient to send the messages.
Emails reach individuals accurately throughout the world via unique email
addresses. An address has at least three parts—the user identification (I.D.), host,
and domain names. The user I.D. is the name one chooses or that is chosen for the
individual by the Internet service provider. It usually consists of the person's last
appears at the beginning of a sentence, where it naturally appears as Email, following
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name, but it can be a combination of first and last names, first initial and last name,
or even letters and numbers unidentified with the individual in any way
whatsoever.
The host name is the name of the host, or Internet provider, such as use (the
university that the author of this dissertation attends); Hotmail, Yahoo, and other
Internet hosts that offer people free email addresses and facilitate access to that
email throughout the world; and a domain, which represents the type of
organization the host is by addition of a suffix.
Common domain address suffixes for different types of organizations are
com (commercial), edu (educational), gov (government), int (international), mil
(military), net (networking), and org (non-profit organizations).
An Internet address is set up with the user name first, followed by the
symbol @ (called at), then the host name, followed by a period (called dot), and
finally the domain suffix. An example is the author's own email
address—elkholy@usc.edu. Elkholy is the user I.D., use is the host name, and edu
is the host's institution type, or domain. An example of another type of email
address held by the author is JohnE1965@hotmail.com. The user I.D. is not a
name at all, but a group of words and numbers that the author uses. The host name
is hotmail and domain is com (commercial organization). Sometimes there are
other groups of letters and/or numbers after the domain, such as eg, uk, ca, us.
conventions of English usage.
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These all happen to be country or state determiners. Eg stands for Egypt, uk for
United Kingdom, ca for California, and us for United States. There is debate as to
what these extra groups of letters and numbers are called. Some people are content
to consider them domain names, while others insist on referring to them as country
codes; others yet refer to them as "additionals." Here anything grouped after the
host is the domain.
Another term that needs defining is EFL, which is an acronym for English
as a Foreign Language. The difference between EFL and ESL (English as a
Second Language) is important but not too important a distinction for the purposes
of this paper because, as seen later, the population used (and increasingly this type
of population worldwide) is much closer to ESL learners of English than EFL
learners of English.
The difference is that EFL learners of English live in a society where
English is not the primary language of communication. They learn English in a
setting where another language is used predominantly at home and in society, and
where English is used in class and/or other limited domains. ESL learners of
English live in a society where English is the language that is used for a
predominant portion of the average day.
ESL has been mislabeled in the United States: for the most part it is not
ESL learning, but EFL learning. That is to say, in many cases ESL learners should
actually be labeled EFL learners, and therefore the pedagogical differences should
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be applied because in many large metropolitan areas ESL learners do not use
English except while "in the classroom."
This is true of many immigrant groups and foreign university students who
study in a community with large numbers of compatriots. Los Angeles presents an
example of this phenomenon. Many ESL learners stop at the local grocery store on
their way home from school, pick up a newspaper on the comer, buy an ice cream
cone from a street merchant, listen to their walkman tuned to the number one radio
station in Los Angeles (a foreign language station), all the while conversing in their
native language, and then turn on the television to one of seven foreign language
stations (all on broadcast television, not cable or satellite, where the number is
multiplied).
These ESL students are not in the environment of ESL learners of a
language, but in an EFL environment. The pedagogical methodology employed
should be altered to suit their particular needs instead of wrongly assuming that
since they are living in the United States, they are emersed in the supposed
dominant culture of the United States—English. For this reason the terms EFL and
ESL are synonymous for the purpose of this paper and to facilitate generalizing the
findings.
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CHAPTER 2 - REVIEW OF THE RELATED
LITERATURE
Introduction
New methods and methodologies are introduced each year to help teachers
teach and students achieve. One of the technologies that seems likely to help
students achieve their potential is email.
The following section focuses on how email might be helpful to EFL
college students to improve their composing ability by (1) briefly reviewing work
on what makes a writer a good, or better, writer and (2) reviewing Bates' (1995)
model of email benefits and research that suggest that email has improved student
achievement.
Research on How One Becomes a Good Writer
Society pretty much agrees on what a good writer is. In the United States, a
good writer in English communicates his or her thoughts to the reader in a clear,
concise, and well-organized manner following rules of grammar and syntax. How
one becomes a good writer is somewhat nebulous, but the theories of Stephen
Krashen (1992), Lev Vygotsky (1990), and Carl Rogers (Dembo, 1994) are integral
to this endeavor in the opinion of this researcher. The following sections focus on
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each of the above theories and how they are bound with the use of email to enhance
composition.
Krashen
Stephen Krashen's argument that reading fosters better reading and writing
is referred to above (1992). Krashen states that the best way for a person to
become a good reader is to read extensively because when one reads something
understandable and likeable (comprehensible input), it enhances her/his ability to
read and inherently aids with writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical
development.
Leki, however, suggests that for second language learners it is too difficult
to readjust for pleasure (Janopolous, 1986; Leki, 1993).
So the question becomes: how can teachers get students to read more?
Krashen feels that the type of reading that is most beneficial and effective is
reading done by a person because she or he wants to (free voluntary reading), not
because there is an assignment, a paper, or book report to be turned in, nor an
obligation to finish what is being read (Krashen, 1992).
Email seems to be a good candidate for this kind of reading. Email allows
students the opportunity to read more in the target language. With no book report
or assignment due, it may give them a reason to read, which will provide them with
more comprehensible input, which will in turn increase their reading ability and
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eventually their writing ability. It should be noted, however, that email messages
may not be grammatically correct or even correctly spelled.
Vvsotskv
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, suggested that a person
who has the ability to do one thing on his or her own can do more with the help of a
more knowledgeable other (Dembo, 1994; Vygotsky, 1987). He called the gap
between the two the Zone of Proximal Development. He experimented with
children and found that they can do some tasks by themselves but, with the
assistance of an adult or more experienced other, they can do more complicated
tasks (van der Veer and Valsiner, 1991).
This process of is called scaffolding. That is, when a more knowledgeable
peer aids someone until that person is able to do it consciously on her or his own
(Vygotsky, 1986). This is a function of email that can be accomplished by either
more proficient peers or the individual teacher. Email correspondence between the
teacher and students increase the amount of i+1 the student receives, thereby
exposing him or her to correct text and increasing the amount of positive input.
Rosers
Psychologist Carl Rogers based his theories of learning on a humanistic
model. His ideas can be placed in five categories: (1) desire to learn, (2)
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significant learning, (3) learning without threat, (4) self-initiated learning, and (5)
learning and change.
Rogers believes that human beings have a natural desire to learn and that
that desire is produced when the students perceive that what is being learned is
meaningful and relevant to their own needs, and if it is self-initiated by involving
both the feelings and mind of the learner. Additionally, learning is best acquired
when it is free from threat (Dembo 1994). His theories fall under the general
heading of person-centered education.
Email fulfills all the above requirements. It allows students to learn new
technologies, take control of their own learning, and discuss what they feel is
relevant to themselves. Furthermore, because the students interact with their peers
over an extended period of time, the threatening aspect of communication is
reduced and, because the student-teacher instructions are not face to face, the
student's fear of the teacher is diminished. Finally, since there is student-teacher
interaction that addresses each student's individual needs, the education becomes as
close to person-centered as possible.
Although Krashen’s,Vygotsky’s and Roger’s theories were developed
without email in mind, email can play a major role in achieving the desired
outcomes.
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Bates' Email Model
Tony Bates (1995) has developed a list of fourteen reasons why an
instructor or program might use email to enhance language instruction and/or
acquisition. Most, if not all, researchers in the field studying email and instruction
have either cited Bates or used one or more of his ideas:
♦ Developing academic discourse
♦ Collaborative and project work
♦ Knowledge building
♦ Maximizing the knowledge and experience of all participants
♦ Increasing equity of participants
♦ Cross-cultural participation
♦ Development of reflective writing skills
♦ Overcoming social isolation
♦ Emotional involvement
♦ Ready access to help and support
♦ Feedback and direct student contact with instructor
♦ Active and interactive participation
♦ Freedom from constraints of time and location
♦ Learner control
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Bates' categories are helpful to one who is just starting to search for ways in
which email can enhance education. Before going into further detail on each
category, however it is important to state that these different categories do not stand
alone: they interact, and can and should be seen as helping and enhancing each
other. As an example, developing academic discourse involves student-teacher as
well as peer interactions, while it also fosters social, personal, and academic-
cognitive knowledge. A student who is developing academic discourse by
emailing fellow students is learning how people communicate in English (social
knowledge), getting to know the person he or she is communicating with (personal
knowledge), and learning about academic/cognitive aspects of the class through
assignments that must be accomplished through email interaction. Thus, it can be
seen that none of the following categories stands alone, but all are fully interactive
in nature.
Develovins Academic Discourse
Academic discourse takes time to master. In normal class sessions,
however, which last approximately two hours, half that time might be taken up by
the instructor with important points about the book or chapter. This portion of the
class is teacher-centered. In the other half of the time, the students might discuss
what they have read. This portion is student-centered.
What has been found is that in a typical two-hour class (actually 100
minutes—50 minutes of instruction, a 10-minute break, then another 50 minutes of
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instruction) only 25 minutes is spent on student-centered tasks which might
enhance academic discourse. If the students are placed in groups of four where
each person speaks equally (which never happens), each student would engage in
personal academic discourse for only six and one-quarter minutes. By using
computers in the classroom, it is possible for an instructor to increase one-on-one
interaction with students tenfold (Kennedy ,1989).
Email is an excellent way to increase the amount of time that each student
spends interacting with peers and enhancing discourse. Lee (1997) found that her
students felt that "sharfing]... with others was much more fun and meaningful...
than having information presented by the teacher" (p. 421). Furthermore, Rankin
(1997) observed that
online interaction within the academic setting creates a
class wide "innovation-focused-discourse" that in turn produces
a medium for change within the educational system. Both the
instructor and the students are active participants in creating and
maintaining an online discourse that augments classroom
discussions in such a way that the students realize their own
communicative abilities in the target language (pp. 544-545).
Chun's (1994) research suggests that academic discourse could be improved
through the Internet because it
provides excellent opportunities for foreign language learners to
develop ... discourse skills and interactive competence...for
improving writing. [He also argues] learners must not only be
able to read and follow the threads of ongoing, multi-participant
discussions, but they must initiate and communicate real
messages as well as expand on topics begun by others (p. 28).
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Skillen (1995) found that students "negotiate meaning with their peers.
They ask questions. They seek answers and construct solutions. ... [T]hey are
acquiring valuable metacognitive knowledge" (p. 13). Additionally, Sullivan
(1993) found that students in a conferencing environment pursued information
instead of didn’t just responding or making comments. Email “allows greater in-
depth analysis of the material and discussion where learning might take place”
(Spooner & Yancey, 1996, p. 256) as opposed to the time limitation of the
classroom.
Collaborative and Project Work
In the real world, most professions require employees to produce products,
plans, and ideas through group or collaborative work. In some ESL classrooms, a
component of group collaboration is employed, but students complain that they
have no time to meet outside of class to develop group projects or collaborate on
assignments.
Email alleviates this concern because of its asynchronicity. The students
can decide on a specific time to be online on their personal computers and begin
emailing each other within a designated time period, which eliminates the need to
find a place to meet, the travel time to get to that place, and/or the preparation time
needed to travel to meet (Hocks & Bascelli, 1995, p. 52).
Another option for the students is to send questions, directions, and
comments to each other at any hour of the day or night, at their convenience. Each
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student is responsible for his or her own portion and can get feedback via email on
the results. Face-to-face meetings might never take place, but a viable product
could be produced. The potential for dedicated students is that more virtual
meeting time takes place than actual meeting time because of the elimination of
time (preparation and travel) and space limitations.
Gray (1995) found that her students felt that "the telecommunications
project was a wonderful means for learning new skills and working with a variety
of people" (p. 27). She goes on to state that "it provides the essential atmosphere
and support to express and expand [their] creative abilities and group work skills"
(p. 27). Lee (1997) concluded that because her students were personally in charge
of "selecting, planning, organizing, analyzing, and summarizing... information from
the internet...[they developed] cognitive skills and promoted learner-centered
activities" (p. 421) which were only enhanced because they collaborated. Markee
(1994) studied the use of email by ESL/EFL instructors who collaborated in
program design. She found that email "is very useful as a tool for identifying the
issues which are of concern to teachers and which need to be discussed.. .during
staff meetings" (p. 388). She feels that email is beneficial in outlining the topics to
be discussed prior to the face-to-face meetings as an "advanced organizer."
Collaboration is used throughout business, education, and the working
world. Email can enhance any forum by allowing more time to prepare and/or
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more opportunities to "meet" when collaborators are in different geographic
locations.
Knowledge buildins
The concept of knowledge building is actually twofold in nature. (1) The
students can email questions they have about assignments to each other and
respond with answers or guidance, or (2) the students might be given an assignment
in which goal is for them to become more familiar with email and the computer,
which is a technology that is both beneficial and ultimately required for all
educated people wherever they are in the world.
Email forces students to communicate about a specific assignment. The
communication allows knowledge building to proceed when the students email
each other, on their own time, without fear that the instructor is looking over their
shoulder to correct and/or analyze or criticize their work. Knowledge building
gives the students the opportunity to go to a student with whom they are
comfortable to ask questions about the assignments. Some students are afraid to
ask the instructor questions that they think are silly or that they perceive to be
stupid; hence they do not advance, whereas the students can communicate with
someone they are comfortable with (i.e., peers) and hopefully get the correct
answer.
Computers also
help students to consider their own higher level strategies and
they promote the active decontextualization of knowledge....
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They facilitate an internal dialogue when there is no other
partner with whom to exchange ideas.... [Email exchange]
encourages students to think more deeply not only about the
task at hand but also about their own thinking and learning
process." (Skillen, 1995, p. 14)
Students can be given assignments throughout the semester that, if
followed, would increase their knowledge of technology and allow them to utilize
email capacity more thoroughly. The end goal of the semester is to make the
students not only fluent in email communication, but also able to use attachments
(homework, voice, etc.), formatting (italics, bold, center space, different color
fonts, etc.), spell check, filters, and address books, as well as select specific
settings.
Students "need more in-depth information about commonly used products.
... such as ... Windows" (Bailey, 1996, p. 86). By being exposed to these email
products, students may explore their own capabilities and use the ones that they
have learned more fully (Tao, 1996, p. 13). Oliva and Pollastrini (1995) found that
their students "felt the skills they had learned in their Italian class were marketable
and would be useful in future jobs, as well as in other courses" (p. 557). Waltz
(1998) states that the students will acquire skills from the web that they will use
even after they leave school, whether they speak their target language again.
Students understand that the knowledge of how to access information through the
web is a skill that they will apply in many of their courses in the future (Avots,
1994). In addition, Gray (1995) found that students felt that their project were "a
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wonderful means for learning new skills" (p. 27). Havice (1995) found that
computer use "will prove to be invaluable in the future" (p. 26). Email is,
therefore, an excellent tool to build knowledge of many kinds.
Maximizing the Knowledge and Experience o f All Participants
When one person reads an article or story, that person brings a unique fund
of knowledge (Moll, 1995) or schema to the reading. Also, when a teacher lectures
on a story or a subject, the students receive only one point of view (the teacher's),
but if email is employed, the students can be given an assignment to formulate
ideas regarding their interpretation of the reading and then send it either to a small
group within the class or the whole class. This allows the students to walk in
different pairs of shoes that may or may not be as comfortable as their own, but will
broaden their perspective.
This capability can be and is used in classrooms all over the world, but the
fact that a student can formulate his or her idea slowly and methodically at home,
in the library, or at a cyber cafe is more beneficial than to have students try to come
up with ideas of their own. Additionally, some students are worried about their
ideas or feel intimidated while telling other students their ideas because of the
reactions they perceive. Feelings about their perceptions of a novel, article, or
chapter are transformed as the perceptions are being shared, so as better to
accommodate the group (Lee, 1997). With email, the perception can be put on the
table per se, without modification by others. An unedited message can therefore be
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produced for true sharing of personal experience that will benefit the other people
in the group, more so than an edited message in an ongoing dialogue.
Li and Hart (1996) found that the Web provides a great resource for
instructors to disseminate instructional materials so that they can work together to
develop materials more efficiently. Schwartz (1995) believes that for language
learning to occur, one needs authentic communication and that the Internet can
achieve this goal efficiently and effectively. Additionally, Cononelos and Oliva
(1993) observed that "networks can bring students and native speakers together to
share information, negotiate meaning, and develop strategies for successful,
authentic communication" (p. 532). Concomitantly, Oliva and Pollastrini (1995)
found that students in an Italian class perceived that their exposure to authentic
language was made possible through the Internet. Finally, Bailey (1996) observed
that students learn technology and culture not only by interacting with others via
email but also by completing assignments regarding language and culture in the
target language. Thus, communication via the Internet can increase the flow of
information from one participant to another and from the databases on the World
Wide Web to the students through guided assignments.
Increasing Equity o f Particivants
We know that there are students who do not speak at all in class, and we as
teachers feel like we are pulling teeth just to get them to say something. The
depersonalization and anonymity of email (Fey, 1994; Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire,
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1984), however, have contributed to increased use of uninhibited speech and have
empowered the traditionally silent voices of women (Grosz-Gluckman, 1997, p.
17), minorities, and those traditionally silenced in classroom interactions.
In any setting where one's language ability is lacking, one's anxiety level
naturally increases when speaking to a person of authority. Email allows the
student who feels intimidated to formulate questions at his or her convenience
without interruption; without concern about taking up the instructor's time trying to
formulate an utterance and/or have work corrected prior to sending out the email
(either by a spell check or by someone else—which increases the internal
metacognitive interaction the student might not have in a stress-filled, face-to-face
dialogue with the instructor).
As stated above, email decreases the stress level and increases
metacognitive activity, which hopefully empowers the student who receives a
response from the instructor conveying the feeling that his or her question was not
stupid or trivial, but of value. This is especially important to women. Women
from other cultures (and from our own culture as well) have been socialized, to
varying degrees, to be second-class citizens (Freire, 1993). Therefore, in a class
filled with men, the women may not feel that it is their place to ask questions,
interact, or challenge. With email, however, the ability to speak without seeing the
other person is empowering to women. Email is akin to air: when one goes to a
deserted beach and yells out at the water, the air takes the voice, but nothing is
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brought back. The speaker is allowed to make any statement without fear of
reprisal. Reprisal can come from those who receive the email but, with some
ground rules in place (etiquette and non-allowance of negative emails), students
who respond are constructive and supportive. Women will see that their ideas are
of value and, essentially, that they will be treated as equals, thereby increasing their
self-esteem and empowering them.
Chavez (1997) supports the above when she states that her students
enjoyed [the program] because it enabled them to express their
opinions in a safe environment, without fear o f 'verbal'
retribution. All students commented that they enjoyed the
freedom of having time to stop and think before documenting
their thoughts for everyone to see. (p. 30)
Additionally,
timid students were not overwhelmed by their initial fear nor
were they inhibited, expressing their opinions openly in this
forum. What started out as a discussion on race ended as an
observation of gender communication styles, with students
highlighting that such an academic environment helps them
formulate [their ideas in a safe manner], (p. 30)
Kelm (1997) found that
one of the greatest advantages of [computer communication] is
the increased participation from all members of a class.
...[Email is the] great equalizer. Every language class has a
few students who are perhaps more shy than the others or more
self-conscious about the mistakes they make in front of others.
There are times, despite the fact that their grammar is correct,
when some students become frustrated with the pressure of
keeping up with the pace of everyone else's oral comments.
During [computer interaction] sessions, these students can read
comments at their own pace, type their responses at their
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leisure, and wait to send messages only when they are
completely satisfied with what they written, (pp. 443-444)
Additionally, Sullivan (1993) found that students were more empowered in
the computer-assisted classroom than in the traditional classroom. Finally, Dahl
(1994) added that students are more empowered when they master technology.
Student empowerment is a key to helping them achieve success. Email has shown
its ability to empower students by increasing their equity.
Cross Cultural Participation
Lee (1997) believes that email can be used as a bridge between cultures.
One way is to place people from different cultural backgrounds in groups where
there is an increased chance that they might interact. In Appendix A, entitled
"Email Resources," there are web addresses that students and educators can use to
set up pen pals from all over the world and produce situations for students to
interact with other people. This exercise can bring in other ideas and experiences
that the student may not have had a chance to experience firsthand. The personal
relationship that might be formed is extremely beneficial to a student by decreasing
the anxiety level, increasing interpersonal interest, and creating an environment in
which the student forgets the learning process in favor of simple communication.
As stated above, Cononelos and Oliva (1993) found that use of computer
communication programs is beneficial to language learners:
It facilitates the teaching of culture by providing immediate,
ongoing contact with native L2 speakers interested in writing
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about issues related to their own society. The feedback gained
from native speakers who ... share with the student a common
area of interest, is especially important for the improvement of
composition skills, (p. 531)
Lee (1997) reported her findings from a course she taught, in which she had
students research cultural aspects of Spanish. She found that her students believe
"that the opportunities to listen to similar topics from different presentations helped
them better understand specific aspects of Hispanic culture" (p. 420).
Real dialogues can be produced through email communication between FL
classes and native speakers in the target language. Rankin (1997) stated that
"students can engage in discussions with native speakers—other students,
journalists, musicians, businessmen, and artists as well—and learn more about the
culture and current events in the target language" (p. 544). Davis and Ye-Ling
(1994/95) found that through electronic exchanges, students found a growing
awareness of themselves, their target language, and the native speakers they were
chatting with whether in the same room or miles apart.
Development o f Reflective Writine Skills
According to Krashen (1992), students usually do not think much (use their
monitor) when they speak, but when they write, their monitor does increase. This
increase in monitoring causes the students to scrutinize their writing prior to
sending it. They do not want to look foolish or ignorant before their peers, so they
review their writing at a much deeper level than if it is just going to the instructor.
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This may sound counter-intuitive, but students know that the instructor does
not expect their writing to be excellent, but their peers have little idea of the level
where each one is, so to produce email documents with numerous errors would
cause students to lose face in front of their peers. This fear of discovery forces the
students to use their monitor[s] to make sure their missals are as good as they can
get them or to seek out a more knowledgeable person so they can focus on errors.
“This metacognitive exercise helps the student to internalize the monitoring
ideations more quickly than if the email were sent just to the instructor” (Hocks &
Bascelli, 1995, p. 53). And "unlike the traditional term paper that is turned in and
forgotten,... students always want to refine and re-refine [their emails]" (Avots,
1994, p. 26). Swaffar (1992) observed that when students write to each other, they
assess their ideas cognitively, rhetorically, and morphsyntactically. Martin (1994)
found that through computer activities, students are guided through the writing
process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Schwartz (1995)
states that students believe that they spend more time thinking in the foreign
language and using that language when they interact using computers. Oliva and
Pollastrini (1995) found that "41 of our 71 students (57.8%) expressed notable
improvement in writing skills" when using the computer (p. 555). Additionally,
Chavez (1997) observed that "students were motivated to correct their grammar
errors if these errors impeded communication with their peers" while
communicating through the computer (p. 31). Hansen-Nelson (1994) noted that
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students were "particularly aware of the structural units of the words... [while] also
developing an awareness of parts of speech [which] contributed to the development
of literacy because of the language arts skills that were involved" (p. 41). Kelm
(1992) states that students who filled out a questionnaire at the end of a term
reported that computer communications
helped them put larger chunks of language together [using]
'more complex sentence structure[s],' 'putting words and phrases
together much better than before,' and 'practicing sentence
structure.' As a result, there was a general consensus that their
confidence in using the second language had increased, (p. 450)
Sullivan (1993) found that computer transcripts showed that students
develop writing and critical thinking skills, become more sensitive to written
language, and develop strong written discourse strategies through interacting,
collaborating, and negotiating meaning electronically. Davis and Ye-Ling
(1994/95) found that through online conferencing, their students felt that they were
improving their fluency when they had conferences online. Havice (1995) reported
that students who were involved with story writing on the computer used critical
thinking and learning processes because they had to analyze, evaluate, synthesize,
and communicate their ideas. Skillen (1995) reports that computer collaborative
writing journals "provide a forum for information exchange about both the content
of the multimedia reports and the processes and strategies used by others" (p. 15).
It is evident that in its many forms computer communication aids development o f
reflective writing skills.
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Overcomine Social Isolation
Students can overcome isolation in a number of ways, two of which are of
special interest here. (1) Those students who are shy or quiet in class may feel less
inhibited by not seeing those who are reading their correspondence; therefore, they
may be more inclined to write. (2) Students who become more advanced can find
chat rooms and/or pen pals who are more like themselves. If they are interested in
swimming, stamp collecting, music, mathematics, politics, etc., they can find places
worldwide on the Internet where they can talk freely and express their ideas
without fear of censure by their peers.
The advancement of the students' abilities is exponential. Some students
become so advanced they surpass the instructor in ways of interacting with people
in a virtual environment. The interactions become non-learning experiences for the
students, but not non-acquisition environments. As stated above, when a student
does not realize that the activity is a learning one, that student's anxiety level
decreases, enabling more learning to take place. The email interactions that the
students may find in chat rooms, email meeting boards, or even list-serves or dating
services increase the amount of communication that the student has.
Many ESL students state that they speak English for a limited amount of
time. They usually have roommates who speak the same language; they shop at
stores that cater to people who speak their language; they watch television and
listen to radio programs in their language, among others. This means that their life
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is socially isolated from the dominant culture of the region they are in. They speak
English approximately five hours a week - the time that they attend class.
With email correspondence, the amount of English speaking interaction
increases. With more English input, the brain increases its use of English in
thinking, interacting, etc., thus causing the internalization and acquisition of
English at a higher rate.
Healy-Beauvois (1992) found that one of her "most reluctant" student was
able to "expose himself to the possibility of] ridicule of others" through email
because he felt "free to say what he wanted without risk [and therefore] he
managed to say quite a lot" (p. 462). Forbes and Ryba (1994) concur that one of
their subjects, a shy boy who tended to be a loner, improved in his ability to work
toward a written outcome. Chun (1994) found that the data "quantitative and
qualitative.. .is that the students interact directly with each other, as opposed to
interacting mainly with the teacher" (p. 28). Rankin (1997) stated it best:
When discussions are held in the classroom, [a] small number
of students usually dominate the conversation, while more
reticent students remain unheard. The Internet provides FL
instructors, as well as teachers of English as a foreign language,
a practical solution to this problem. The popular online 'chat
room1 can be easily incorporated into course syllabi as a regular
homework assignm ent to encourage all students to
communicate their own ideas in the target language, (p. 543)
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Emotional Involvement
Students can become emotionally involved in two principal ways. (1) They
can begin to talk to each other on a one-on-one basis to get to know each other
better (as seen in the section above). This initial communication can be an
addendum to their assignment, but may begin a friendship, which may make the
students want to continue their correspondence. (2) When a student sends out a
request in regard to an assignment and gets a response, that student now feels more
a part of the community (the class) and therefore becomes more involved with it.
Hopefully she or he does the assignments more readily and rapidly rather than risk
letting down the other students.
As noted in the previous section, once a student becomes emotionally
involved with either the other students in the class or with someone outside the
class, the interactions that transpire cause the student to forget the learning
environment, thereby forgetting about the pretext of the communication and
focusing more on the content rather than the structure. Initially this may decrease
accuracy of the interaction, but eventually, with increased input, natural language
interaction and increased time on the task of English, the student's English language
ability improves (Zolten, 1997, p. 6). Once students begin to collaborate, they start
to construct a sphere of shared knowledge which will involve them more
emotionally with each other (Davis & Ye-Ling, 1994/95). Hansen N elson (1994)
found that her students "were eager, enthusiastic, and enthralled" at working
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together on a group literacy project that incorporated computer communications (p.
41). Schwartz (1995) reported from his study of Computer-Assisted Language
Learning (CALL) that when students feel the computer materials and activities are
beneficial, they are more likely to use them as well as the target language and that
the students who fostered relationships with their peers believed that they would
continue their communication with each other after the end of the class. Lee (1997)
found that "students seem to have realized that learning culture as part of language
acquisition can be more enjoyable than anticipated," therefore making it more
likely that they would continue the language learning in spite of the fact that they
"found writing and speaking assignments difficult and challenging" (p. 420).
In Montoya's (1992) study of rural and inner-city youth who communicated
and collaborated on a foreign language (Spanish) project, she found that the
students were surprised to find that they had similar problems within their
communities and "were pleased to be [each others'] confidants" (p. 19). Weisberg
(1992) found that a computer writing project was so popular that the students
actually voted to continue writing until the end of the year because they felt it was
more enjoyable and creative for them. Healy-Beauvois (1992) gives as an example
Portuguese professor, Dr. Orlando Kelm, who found that his Brazilian Portuguese
language learners often spent their lunch time gathering around a computer
terminal to send electronic mail messages to computer users in the Brazilian town
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with whom they were electronically linked. Finally, Greenia, G (1992) sums up by
stating that
being personally invested in the content lends even a formal text
an urgency (or at least an obligation) to get the message across
clearly. Under those circumstances, writers willingly consult
reference grammars, and use them as they probably should,
principally for editing purposes. Designating grammar manuals
as reference tools rather than primary texts actually enhances
retention of the grammar employed by the language learners, (p.
34)
Ready Access to Help and Support
Sometimes it is difficult to ask for help. The researcher has found it easier
for both his students and himself to ask for help via email. The depersonalization
makes it easier: it is not so embarrassing as asking for help face to face because
one is not speaking to someone but typing words on a screen. It is impersonal and,
therefore, less threatening.
There are many sites with email addresses that cater to the needs of less
capable people for online support. Someone who does not know how something
works feels much freer using email to ask a support person to explain it. The
support person does not know the inquirer, the inquirer does not know the support
person, and so the inquirer does not feel embarrassed to reveal ignorance of the
subject. An assignment the researcher gave his students serves as an example. He
asked them to search for something specific, but gave them email addresses of
people to ask for help rather than web site addresses. A student who could get the
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information independently would not need to use this support, but if help was
necessary, the support email was at the student's fingertips.
Sullivan (1993) found that students pursued information instead of merely
responding to prompts in their computer-assisted learning forum. Additionally,
these students collaborated by critiquing each other's papers. They did this in a
non-confrontational manner that enhanced the learning experience. Chun and
Brandi (1992) found that their students enjoyed the fact that "instant feedback on
grammatical errors and on-line references support the teaching of linguistic
competence, a component which should not be ignored in regard to the
development of communicative language proficiency" (p. 263). Li and Hart (1996)
commented that one excellent ESL learner resource is the ESL Help Center on the
Web. Students can ask questions and get answers in a timely manner from a
knowledgable other. Oliva and Pollastrini (1995) found that the students felt that it
was "very helpful...to have our [correspondents] in Italy" because "the advanced
students coached the beginning-level students, which provided a strong source of
motivation and created the opportunity for extensive [language] interactions" (p.
556). Lee (1997) found that "students eagerly explore resources found on the
Internet...[to gather] current information resources around the world...in order to
gain C2 awareness and understanding" (p. 410).
Schwartz (1995) continues by stating that there are many rich databases of
reference materials that foreign language learners can utilize that encourage
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creative interactions. Bailey (1996) found that "the Internet has paved the way for
data searches, retrieval of foreign language text, and email pen pals, so that students
are now actively engaged in using technology for the purpose of improving
language skills" (p. 83).
Feedback and Direct Student Contact with Instructor
Students can be taught to give peer feedback in class and then required to
have their papers peer-evaluated prior to turning them in to the instructor. This
causes the student to review the paper more thoroughly prior to sending it to
colleagues because, as mentioned earlier, he or she does not want to lose face in
front of peers. Also, the student who sends an email to an instructor can expect a
response within 24 hours and avoid the cumbersome process of setting an
appointment or trying to see the instructor during office hours. Furthermore, as
noted above, the depersonalization of email makes it easier for a student to talk
with an instructor without becoming nervous or shy. Face-to-face interaction,
especially between teacher and student, can be intimidating for students and often
inhibits dissent. The students.. .learned to air opposing viewpoints freely at the
computer, because computers are non-confrontational.
An instructor can require an email message from each student every other
day, week, etc., about any subject the student wishes to address. This enables the
instructor to respond with grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and usage corrections.
Hoffman (1995/96) states that one of the greatest benefits of using computers is the
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opportunity to provide immediate and meaningful feedback. Chun and Brandi
(1992) found that
two types of capabilities make the computer an innovative
medium with which to teach language...the ability to provide
immediate feedback, which includes... the flexibility to respond
to individual learners' needs [which] provide definite
advantages over traditional workbooks and homework
assignments for which delayed feedback is unavoidable, (p.
255)
This Vygotskian idea of learning interaction between a more knowledgeable
person and a less knowledgeable learner works well in the email format. The
computer has afforded "greater opportunities for interaction between the learner
and the instructor" (Glisan, Dudt & Howe, 1998, p. 58). The activities can be set
up as a conjunction of two classes (ESL and native English speaker, English class)
where the ESL students interact with a few native language speakers for a time in
order to form personal relationships and then continue with one or two students for
the rest of the semester (and hopefully beyond that) to forget that they are learning.
As Rankin (1997) states, "clear and comfortable communication among the
students and the instructor is necessary to create an efficient learning environment
in which all types of questions and issues can be addressed [which approach can
help the instructor to] chart the most common syntactic errors made by the students
online and more efficiently target classroom instruction" (p. 544).
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Active and Interactive Participation
Students begin to look forward to turning on the computer or checking their
email to see if, or from whom, they have gotten any messages. It becomes fun and
exciting for the student who does not even realize that the practice of checking
email develops computer expertise and, more importantly, increases reading and
writing experience, which is the goal. As suggested above, let the student forget
the learning process, in other words, trick the student into learning without
realizing he or she is learning. Students have become so involved with learning,
moreover, as to send addresses of new ESL resources found to Li and Hart (1996).
Chavez (1997) found that in an interactive foreign language forum, "any linguistic
breakdown that led to using English was immediately reinforced negatively by the
other class participants" (p. 30).
Freedom From Constraints o f Time and Location
Email is, again, asynchronous. It is not like a telephone conversation, for
which two speakers must be present for the conversation to take place; it is more
like an answering machine, in that one can leave a message to another, then wait
for a response. The advantage of email over an answering machine is that the
answering machine is in a sense synchronous. When the beep sounds, the caller
must think quickly of something to say in the allotted time period, in most cases
with no chance to review or delete the message.
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With email, students can write, review, edit, have someone else review, etc.,
until they are ready to send them. After the message is sent, with most email
systems, it cannot be retracted. (Some do offer that option, but only if the recipient
has not yet accessed the email.)
Discussing Computer-Assisted Classroom Discussion (CACD), Chun
(1994) stated that "a decided advantage.. .is that learners are under neither time
pressure to respond nor the psychological pressure of making a mistake or looking
foolish" (p28). Concomitantly, Sullivan (1993) expands that because of the
inherent asynchronicity of email, ESL students who might need more time to
develop complete responses were able to do so and interact better.
Finally, Healy-Beauvois (1992) found that one of her students had more
"time to phrase and rephrase a question or a response, without fear of interruption
or failure, [and] time to think before answering without the pressure of the fast-
paced oral exercise" (p. 462).
One additional aspect of the idea of freedom from location remains to be
discussed in this paper. Email is extremely beneficial for international students
who are not, for the most part, well-endowed financially.
Email can give them the opportunity to communicate with peers in both
their home country and the English-speaking world without excessive charges for
telephone conversations. Email can convey a lot of information in a very short
time (the time it takes to download mail from the Internet), whereas a telephone
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conversation has to take into account not only time differences but also greeting
conventions, and the amount of time one must take to explain something that can
be explained much more quickly in an email, chart, or graph. Oliva and
Pollastrini (1995) found that the Internet allows students freedom to communicate
because they don’t need to be in the same place to communicate and that user-
friendly interfaces available give people the possibility for distance education by
removing the barriers of time and distance.
Learner Control
Learners control how much and how fast they learn. They slow down and
ask for help for difficult problems, and accelerate their pace and move ahead
independently with easy tasks. Learners ask for help directly from peers,
instructors, and online and other more distance sources, as active participants in
their own education.
Often those who fall behind or are overwhelmed cannot catch up with their
classmates, become depressed and withdrawn, and learn less. If instruction is
student-based, however, rather than teacher-based, students are held responsible for
completing learning tasks but left to set their own respective speeds, with each
student receiving credit as he or she meets learning requirements.
Email facilitates this endeavor because, being asynchronous, students can
ask questions of others more knowledgeable than themselves as the questions arise.
How many students have found themselves at a crossroads at 4:00 a.m. with no one
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to call for help and then forgotten the problem when help was available? Email
alleviates this problem by allowing students to take control of situations by
emailing more knowledgeable contacts about questions while they are fresh in their
minds, knowing the answer will be forthcoming no later than the next day.
Chun (1994) points out that computer discussions "provide learners with the
opportunity to generate and initiate different kinds of discourse, which.. .plays a
greater role in managing the[ir] discourse" and being "directly and actively
involved in the management of the discourse or interaction" (p. 18). Chavez (1997)
found that "students are comfortable when they are in control of their work and
enjoy sending messages to one another" by email (p. 30). Cononelos and Oliva
(1993) observe that, "as different needs arise, teachers and students can themselves
create new newsgroups and determine how they will be used" (p. 531).
Bailey (1996) discovered that teachers have found it to be an "excellent
opportunity for [foreign language] students to create their own lessons with the aid
of modem technology" by "choosing topics.. .rooted in the potential interests of the
learner" (p. 83). Lee (1997) states that "selecting, planning, organizing, analyzing,
and summarizing cultural information from the Internet involved the use of
cognitive skills and promoted learner-centered activities" (p. 421). Forbes and
Ryba (1994) found that students were empowered by taking more responsibility for
their learning because of their Internet use than they would have in a regular
classroom.
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One of Weisberg's (1992) students observed that empowerment comes from
being the master of her own learning. Computers allow students to go at their own
pace (Hoffman, 1995/96). Computers give students the ability to be in control of
learning by pacing themselves, not being bored, and directing learning individually,
which allows for more individualized, learner-centered education.
One of the questions that instructors of English as a Second Language
courses ask is the following: What methods should be used to enhance the language
acquisition of literate adult college students? Many researchers believe that
increased language interaction is needed. Others believe the most important aspect
of language learning is stress level, making a decrease in stress of paramount
concern. Perhaps a combination of both is needed, and one way to advance both is
to incorporate email into language acquisition classes. Email reduces anxiety and
lowers the affective filter; it is an asynchronous form of communication; and it is
not time- and space-specific.
As we have seen above, computer communication, and specifically email,
enhances the language learning curriculum by
providing] excellent opportunities for foreign language learners
to develop...discourse skills and interactive competence....For
improving writing, learners must not only be able to read and
follow the threads of ongoing, multi-participant discussions, but
they must initiate and communicate real messages as well as
expand on topics begun by others. (Chun, 1994, p. 28)
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Electronic forums highten self-esteem by encouraging collaborative
learning, social interaction, and invention (Sullivan, 1993). And email makes it
almost impossible for a student to dominate a class discussion as could happen in
oral classrooms (ibid.). Finally, when students collaborate to share knowledge,
they experience many new educational behaviors such as more independent
reading, researching, brainstorming/sharing, discussing, critical thinking, problem
solving, writing, cooperation and pro-social behavior. Students are more able to do
more for themselves such as looking things up or researching a topic; students
come to the realization of how things work (Dahl, 1994). In short, we see student
empowerment.
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CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Two types of methodology available to researchers are quantitative and
qualitative methodologies. A major problem that arises for the researcher in
developing a research design is: What research technique would be the most
effective for a particular study? The following section focuses on the two
methodologies that were chosen and the rationale for this specific research design.
Types of Research
Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are available to researchers.
A major problem that arises in designing a research technique is the most effective
one for a particular study.
Most educators choose teaching as a profession in order to help students.
How do educators know whether the methodology employed is beneficial?
Educators try to answer this question through research. Both quantitative and
qualitative research techniques and data were employed and assessed in pursuit of
the answer, and those techniques are compared below, resulting in a description of
which is more beneficial for assessing composition and/or the composing process.
First, however, it is important to explain that the term composing process is
the cycle which the student goes through in writing a composition, from the
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student's thoughts about the task to actions observed or perhaps even monitored by
others.
Quantitative Methods
Quantitative methods of research emphasize measurement and
quantification, statistical analysis of that quantitative data, and the use of
mathematical models as Linn points out (Johnson, 1992). What this complex
definition means is that anything that can be categorized can be quantified, or given
particular weight according to one of a number of scales.
Four essential types of measurement can be quantified—nominal, ordinal,
interval, and ratio—and they are illustrated below. If something cannot be
measured by one of these scales, then it cannot be measured quantitatively. In each
scale, every category is mutually exclusive of the other: a male cannot be a female,
a junior cannot be a senior, two miles cannot be four.
1. Nominal scale. A human being can be categorized as either a male or
female (Minium, King, & Bear, 1993).
2. Ordinal scale. A sophomore is lower in rank than a junior, who is ranked
lower than a senior.
3. Interval (timet scale. The distinction between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. is
the same as the difference between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., because
temporal weights are constant, while the same cannot be said of ordinal
weights, which are not necessarily quantitatively constant, e.g., the
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differences weighed in two sets of school ranks are not always equal. A
junior may have completed half a school year, and a sophomore only two
days of the school year, while a senior may have three weeks left until
graduation. Additionally, one junior may have completed two days of the
school year and a junior who has five weeks left until the school year ends
are both ranked as juniors.
4. Ratio scale. No starting point, or absolute beginning, distinguishes the
interval scale from the ratio scale. One could argue that there is a starting
point in the interval scale, but the distinction is that with time, there is no
beginning point. Time flows and the point that we choose to begin our
measurement is arbitrary. There will always be time previous to it, but this
is not true of the ratio scale. Weight and distance are prime examples of the
ratio scale. One weight or distance is quantitatively greater or less than
another. The scale can be taken to zero, but there is no negative
measurement of weight or distance.
Qualitative Methods
"[Quantitative research.. .means any kind of research that produces
findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of
quantification" (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, p. 12).
The data in this case is different from quantitative research in that it cannot
be placed in one of the four categories described in the previous section. Strauss
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and Corbin describe three major characteristics of qualitative research: data;
written and verbal reports; and analytic or interpretive procedures. Data are usually
observable, broken down into what the researcher can observe firsthand or through
secondhand materials, e.g., interviews, documents, art, law, events, groups, and
locations (Mason, 1996). Written and verbal reports include secondhand accounts
from researchers' published or presented documents—journal articles, books, or
presentations at conferences.
Benefits and Weaknesses o f Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Quantitative research. The major benefit of quantitative research is the
very fact that it gives an answer that is for the most part repeatable by others, so
that the answer is always consistent and not liable to misinterpretation. The
researcher likes to use what he calls the test analogy: when a student takes a
mathematics test, the answer to a question is usually a specific number, whereas the
answer to a philosophy question is not clear cut, nor can it be quantified. The same
problem holds true for research: the benefit and weakness of each form of research
is dependent on the question posed. In educational research, both quantitative and
qualitative forms are valid, but in specific types of educational research, one may
be more valid than the other.
Quantitative research is excellent in the following scenario. After taking a
specific mathematics course, has a student increased his score on a specific
mathematics assessment, such as the mathematics portion of the SAT? This
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question is perfectly suited for quantitative research because any change in the
student's score from before a particular course was taken to afterward can be
quantified numerically. The same cannot be said, however, for the procedure we
must use to find out what or how the student reacted to the course in question or,
more specifically, what part(s) of the course the student believed were beneficial.
How can one quantify this? This is one of the main drawbacks of quantitative
research in education, and particularly with respect to this researcher's specific
question (which will be discussed later).
Qualitative research. The main benefit derived from qualitative research is
the ability to answer questions that cannot be answered quantifiably. It is best
when dealing with things that cannot be specifically observed. How does one
quantify a student's feelings about a group, class, procedure, etc.? It seems that the
only way to get that answer is by asking the student. This cannot be done using
quantitative research, especially if the researcher does not know the specific range
of feelings that the student may have.
Back to the point made in the introduction regarding the composing
process, one cannot really know what processes occur in a student's brain with
regard to the composing process without asking probing questions of that student.
Even then, unless the questions are thoughtful and thought-provoking, the process
may still be obscured from both the interviewer and the student.
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Qualitative research leads to a deeper and broader understanding where
there is no specific universal answer. Answers are obtained from interviews,
consulting past research as well as numerous other data sources, and then
organizing all findings into the best apparent answer to the question. If a researcher
asks what one plus one is, the answer is two; no one disputes that answer. With
qualitative research, however, the answer a researcher may come up with, although
it is fully researched and documented, may be and often is disputed.
Although this is the major problem, as I see it, it is this that makes
qualitative research so much more exciting and challenging. When a researcher
comes up with what seems to be the correct answer to a specific question, he or she
must be prepared to be challenged. Scholarly challenge is important to the
furthering of any field of study. One proposes, another challenges, experts within
the discipline debate the point, and eventually, hopefully, after much research,
discussion, and debate, consensus is reached.
Interviewing
Theoretical Background
The methodology employed in this study is similar to Rubin and Rubin's
(1994) study. In that study, parts of three theories were employed—positivist,
interpretive, and feminist.
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The positivist framework was used because it forms the basis for Bates'
(1995) model. Bates is observing, quantitatively, one variable—email—and its
significance with respect to change in compositional ability.
Interpretive research theory was used in the qualitative portion of the study
to determine how students view the instruction they have gone through, a question
that cannot be measured with precision in a questionnaire but needs to be open-
ended and elicited from interviewees through long and sometimes multiple
interviews.
Finally, feminist theory was employed to empower subjects by giving them
the ability to initiate change in the field with their responses.
The terms students, interviewees, and subjects are used interchangeably, as
are interview, case study, and ethnography.
The first and most important point to remember when trying to differentiate
between the different research strategies is to figure out the type of research
question one is asking (Yin, 1994). The question Does email interaction benefit
composition? can be easily answered by employing quantitative research
methodology, which is why the researcher used that method for the first half of the
research. However, to answer the second question, What (if any) are the perceived
benefits o f email interactions for the ESL/EFL student? only a qualitative approach
and, more specifically, interviews (to achieve the greatest in-depth review) suffice.
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The students' ideas were considered the most important for this study.
Quantitative research does not allow the students to expand on a topic (Larsen-
Freeman & Long, 1991). During a recent dinner, a colleague of the researcher
(Ganjavi) relayed that she feels that sitting with her students and asking questions
of them regarding their writing offers extra benefits to both her and her students.
She went on to say that if a student used the wrong form of a verb (say, went
instead of was going) she could ask the student whether he or she didn't know that
there was a difference, or simply was unaware that there are two forms and the one
used was. unacceptable. Only through informal interviewing could she identify the
problem and choose which form of intervention was needed for the student's
benefit. If she relied solely on written text, she would not know which problem the
student was having, and therefore would not realize the student was misusing the
verb.
Interviewers are people and, as people, have ideas, biases, lives, etc.
(Mason, 1996). The positivist model assumes that the researcher should be
removed and should guard against interaction or influencing research (Johnson,
1992). It evokes the image of the Freudian psychologist sitting in a chair behind a
reclining patient, grunting acknowledgment every now and then. This is not the
real world. Interviewees are people, and interviewers are people. Interaction takes
place by virtue of the fact that humans are social animals. Interviewers must be
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aware of their own biases, social class, and other qualities, and how they influence
the ability to relate, or manner of relating, to the interviewee.
Interviewers must be able to relate to those they interview: the ability to
empathize with interviewees is an advantage in the interview process in that it
increases the interviewees' comfort in the interview. The interview may progress
more quickly instead of being formal and distant for a longer period, which allows
for more detail, insight, and revelations in the allotted period of time.
The interviewees' world view is important in that no one perceives anything
the same as someone else. Therefore, there is not one reality, but as many as there
are observers to an event, and this is what social science should be focussing on
(Rubin & Rubin, 1995). What is important, however, is that although we as
researchers see that each person is unique (Mason, 1996), we must remember that
researchers are looking for common threads to bind the interviewees' responses into
a construct that may answer a specific question (Wolcott, 1987).
Interviewees may also not actually have clearly formulated ideas in their
minds that can be answered in short concise sentences. Therefore, it takes the
interviewer's expertise to guide the interviewees and extract the ideas from their
minds through precise, probing questions to produce the interviewees
interpretations and understanding of what they observed which could be revealed in
the interview (Mason, 1996).
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Finally, in qualitative research, as Johnson (1992) observes, the writer
vicariously gives the reader a cognitive experience that may be more easily
processed than a quantitative record.
Conclusion
In regard to the research methodologies employed, both methodologies are
valid and useful. The consideration that must be addressed is the question being
posed. Once the question is fully understood, the choice of methodology is simple.
If the question can be answered with a quantifiable answer, then a quantitative
method should be employed. If it is not quantifiable, and more in-depth methods of
inquiry are needed to arrive at an answer, qualitative methodologies should be
used. Many times the two methodologies can and should be used to attain the
greatest available breadth and depth, and best documented result.
When it comes to research on the composition process, it seems that
although both methods are employable, the qualitative method should be used for a
better understanding of the student's unobservable mental process. Interviewing is
required to delve deeply into the minds of interviewees and enable them to answer
open-ended questions, as the interviewer can tailor the interview path to each
individual subject's answers. In-depth, one-on-one interviewing is the best form of
qualitative methodology available in this case.
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The Study
The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether email communication is
beneficial to EFL learners' composing ability, and identify what they perceive as
their benefit, if any. To this end the study was divided into quantitative and
qualitative parts. Briefly, the methodology used in the quantitative portion was a
quasi-experimental approach using a pre-test/post-test analysis with a control group
and an experimental group. The pre-test was administered near the beginning of
the semester and the post-test near the end of the semester. Both tests were in the
form of in-class essays and were evaluated after the semester ended by ESL/EFL
instructors.
The subjects' perceptions were ascertained in one-on-one interviews
administered by the researcher after the last day of class. It was concluded that
interviews would be the best method with which to delve deeply into the subjects'
thoughts and feelings. A Scan-tron© or even a fill-in-the-blank response would not
be sufficient because those questions might not elicit so broad a response as the
subjects might give orally. Interviews would give not only depth but breadth to the
answers and would not be so limiting as a handout.
Sample and Population
The sample for this study comprised first year students at the American
University, Cairo (AUC). The AUC is an English-language university that delivers
an American-style education with degrees recognized in the United States. It is the
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most prestigious and, at this writing, the most costly university in Egypt; therefore,
most of the students come from well-to-do families and are computer-literate and
well educated.
The majority of the students had attended private language schools where
the language of instruction was not Arabic, but French, German, and mostly
English (some British but mostly American English). A small minority of students
are Egyptian citizens on scholarship (most of whom scored very well on the High
School Exit Examination or Sanawayya 'Ama and could not otherwise afford to
attend the AUC). Others are African or Middle-Eastern, with some Eastern
European scholarship students as well. There is a smattering of students from the
United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand who
would not be required to attend English classes. An extremely small minority are
students from non-English-speaking Western European countries.
2 Private language schools have been in existence in Egypt for close to 100 years. They were
originally established to educate the children of the expatriate community living in Egypt during
colonial rule. The most prominent of these were Victoria College, Mere du Dieu, The American
School, and the German School. After the 1952 revolution, which brought Egypt back into the
hands of native Egyptians after over 2,000 years of foreign domination, these schools (and most
privately-owned businesses) were seized by the government in the socialization campaign to end
foreign control of business. This caused an exodus of foreign nationals. For these schools to
continue to operate and give more native Egyptian children perceived high-quality [I assume the
quality you meant was high] education, all children (whose families could afford it) were allowed to
attend these schools. As socialization took hold and salaries became govemmentalized and were
lowered, native-speech teachers returned to their home countries, leaving language education to
Egyptian nationals who had learned the respective languages as foreign languages. The reputation
of these schools continued to decline until the early 1990s, when privatization was reinstated and the
schools were allowed to recruit native speakers from abroad. With the new privatization, more and
more schools have opened their doors, charging exorbitant tuition fees ($14,000, usually in
American currency, in a country where the average yearly income is US$300).
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All but two of the subjects of the study are Egyptians. One is Lebanese, but
he emigrated to Egypt at a young age. This subject was treated as an Egyptian for
the purposes of the study because, although there are some differences between
Lebanese and Egyptian varieties of Arabic, they are not substantial for these
purposes. The other subject is from Spain and does not speak Arabic at all. She
accompanied her father to Egypt where he was employed. Email communications
established that she had no desire to be in Egypt aside from accompanying her
father, and she missed the rest of her family and, mostly, her friends. Although she
does not fit the profile of the rest of the students, it was felt that instead of
eliminating her from the study, she should be used to bring an added element to the
study, and so the students in her class, and specifically her smaller group, were
required to communicate exclusively in English in the absence of any other
common language. Additionally, the researcher sought out her feelings as a
woman, to see if she perceived the empowerment aspect of email communications.
Finally, because she is from a culture different from that of the other subjects, she
could be tested using cross-cultural aspects of Bates' (1995) model. Overall, the
addition of non-Egyptians to the test group seemed beneficial to the outcome of the
study.
There were 21 subjects in the study, divided into two EFL classes (11 in the
experimental and 10 in the control class). The classes were designed for students
whose grades were strong enough to attend the AUC but whose English language
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ability was not deemed high enough to compete efficiently with others. These
students are usually good speakers of English with some trouble composing
coherently, not unlike native-language freshman students in U.S. universities.
Class members were evaluated through a short composition and scored on a
scale from 0 to 5. (See Appendix F for ELI-IEP Composition Evaluation Criteria).
Students who score 3.75 or higher are not required to take an Intensive English
Program (IEP) class, being deemed able to begin university work with some, few,
or no problems. Those scoring 3.5 or below are not deemed ready for university
work and therefore are required to take one, two, or three semesters of IEP classes.
Those scoring below 2.5 are rejected from the university altogether, as they are not
expected to be able to reach the freshman level even with three IEP semesters. All
students in this research project scored between 3.0 and 3.25.
Research was originally to be conducted by one instructor, teaching two
sections of the same class. Unfortunately, no instructor fit the criterion that
semester, but two instructors teaching two different classes agreed to participate.
One was to teach her class without using computers. The other was to incorporate
computers into her curriculum, which she found comfortable, having done so in the
past.
The AUC requires IEP students to take five three-hour classes per week for
the semester. The five classes are in grammar; writing; study skills; reading and
vocabulary; and writing, reading, and vocabulary. The experimental class
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instructor taught a writing, reading, and vocabulary class to these students for one
hour per day, as did the instructor of the control class, making it irrelevant which
class was followed, as each of the students took the same five classes, thereby
receiving the same overall curriculum. The major difference between the two
groups was the use of email in the experimental section.
Data Collection
The methodology used for the quantitative portion of the research was
quasi-experimental. Data included an in-class writing sample (pre-test) given at or
near the beginning of the semester, and an in-class writing sample (post-test) given
at or near the end of the semester. The pre-test question, which was defined by the
researcher and given to the instructors to communicate to the students, was What is
the difference between public schools and private language schools?
The experimental group was given the pre-test on February 17, 2000. The
control group's pre-test was scheduled to be given that same week, but was actually
given on March 12,2000, with no reason for this discrepancy offered by the
instructor. The students were given approximately one hour to answer the
question. They had no knowledge at this point that they were subjects in a research
experiment.
The post-test was administered by both classes on the same day (May 14,
2000). It mirrored the pre-test—an in-class written assessment of student writing
skills on a given topic. The topic, of which they had no prior knowledge, was A
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large gap or difference between rich and poor people in a society can cause many
problems. What are some o f these problems? Again the students were given
approximately one hour to answer the question.
Immediately after this post-test was administered and collected, the
researcher gave a short five-minute introduction to the students, explaining that
they were subjects in an experiment, giving a brief overview of the research (e.g.,
how it would be used), and asking them to sign a release form3 . He assured the
students that all personal data (names, email addresses, etc.) would be removed
from information on the emails and oral interviews, and gave each student his
business card, which included his email, home telephone number, and mobile
number so that they could contact him if they had any further questions or
concerns.
Finally, an informational questionnaire4 was passed out so that the
researcher had means of contacting the students he wished to interview at a later
date and collect statistics in regard to this sample. Although the researcher did not
go to the control group's class at all, the release form and informational
questionnaire were passed out immediately after the post-test was administered and
collected.
Variable Between Experimental and Control Groups
3 See Appendix A for Release Form.
4 See Appendix B for Student Information Questionnaire.
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The variable between the experimental and control groups was that
although both conducted in-class discussions, the control group held those
discussions in an oral, face-to-face format, while the experimental group held them
in-class but non-verbally, through email interaction. The subjects were monitored
during these sessions so as not to produce any verbal communication.
As preparation for the discussions, the classes were given a reading
assignment to be completed at home. When they attended class the next session,
they were given a sheet5 with written instructions on how to conduct their
discussions and what the topics of discussion would be.
They were also given questions to be answered by the group as a whole and
relayed to the instructor once consensus was reached6. The students were asked to
answer a question from the reading and relay their answers to all the other students
in their group (between three and four). Then the leader (chosen by the instructor
or students in the groups themselves) culled all the emails and wrote a synopsis of
the consensus or summarized the opposing viewpoints of the group members.
Then that email was sent out to the other members of the group. Again a non
verbal discussion was carried out by the students to come to a consensus. Once
consensus was reached, a final email was sent to the instructor from the leader,
5 See Appendices C and D for the two forma.
6 See Appendix X for transcripts of these two group discussion proceedings.
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explaining the consensus reached for each answer by each group. The transcripts
of these emails can be found in Appendix X.
The data (pre-tests and post-tests) were evaluated using a 0 to 7 scale7 by
ESL/EFL instructors. Data evaluation used a double blind methodology: the
names of the students were unknown to both the evaluators and the researcher at
the time of data evaluation. After a norming session was conducted, two
instructors gave the scores they felt the data deserved. The instructors were asked
to give the data whole-numbered or half-numbered scores (0, 0.5, 1.0, etc.). After
the data was scored by two different instructors, the scores were compared. If they
were within one point of one another, the score was averaged (e.g., 2.0 and 3.0
became 2.5). If scores differed by more than one point, then another instructor
evaluated the data, after which the two scores that came closest (within one point)
were chosen as the final scores to be averaged. The evaluation process never took
more than three readings.
At this point, the students in the experimental group were asked to
participate in the qualitative portion of this research, the oral interviews.
Oral interviews were conducted within one week of completion of the
course. Their main purpose was to discover the students' perceived benefit from
email discussions, if any. Did they feel email discussions were more or less
beneficial than the oral, face-to-face discussions conducted during the semester?
•j
See Appendix F for ALI Writing Sample Evaluation Rubric.
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The researcher tried to find out if any of Bates' fourteen points were
perceived by the students. One of the main goals of the researcher, since he is a
feminist, was to determine whether the females in the class felt more empowered
during the online discussion.
The researcher contacted the students for interviews. He found little
reluctance among the students to meet, and meetings were held at the AUC at a
time convenient for the students. The first interview session was held Friday, May
26, 2000. Three interviews were scheduled, but the last had to be rescheduled
because of an emergency on the subject's part. The interviews lasted between 20
and 40 minutes each, depending on the depth of questions and comfort level of the
subject.
The subjects were first greeted by the researcher and thanked for their
willingness to be interviewed. They were told again that whatever they said would
be kept in utmost confidence, and that their names would not be used in the
dissertation. The students were also made aware that they would be audio-taped to
enable the researcher to listen more extensively to the interviews. No one seemed
to mind the recording, except for the question by one, "Do we have to be
recorded?" The researcher reassured her that it was confidential, and the reason
was that he was not a quick writer, but that if she wanted, the tape would not be
used. She laughed and agreed to be taped. Finally, the subjects were assured that
the instructor would never hear the tapes, and that she would read the dissertation
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if, and only if, it were to be published in a journal, but that if that were to be the
case, the names would still never be known to her.
The subjects were told that the questions would be asked in English, but
that they could answer in any language in which they felt comfortable, and the
researcher would translate the answers into English later on. They seemed relieved
that they would not have to use English as the only form of communication, yet all
but one responded almost exclusively in English.
The second set of interviews was held on the day the grades were released,
Sunday, May 28, 2000, again in an empty classroom at the AUC. All students were
present. Some were very happy about their grades, while one was extremely upset
that she was required to take one more semester of IEP classes instead of being
allowed into regular university classes. She asked if she could cancel her meeting
with the researcher, and was told that she could, and was asked when she would
like to reschedule it. She then asked if it was really necessary that she be
interviewed. One of the researcher's questions was regarding whether women felt
empowered by using email instead of oral discussions. Since there were only four
women in the class, he hoped she would decide to be the subject, and he relayed
this, explaining that he wanted very much to know what women felt about the
class, and that since there were only four women, it would be helpful to his
research if she would agree to be interviewed. She consented with the provision
that she be interviewed at that moment. The subject who was scheduled for that
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time agreed to wait until the hesitant student had finished, and the interview took
place. By the end of the meeting, the woman had calmed down and even begun to
laugh.
The data were collected on tape, backed up by handwritten notes. The tape
was reviewed later, and transcripts were made.
Problems
The problems faced in conducting this research were multifaceted8 . It was
assumed that there would be one instructor who would be teaching two sections of
the same class, but that was not the case. It was also assumed that there would be
instructors who did not use email in their instruction. Only one instructor out of
twenty was found to not use email in her instruction. With respect to interviewing,
although the subjects did not show any resistance to being interviewed, actually
interviewing them was difficult. Some did not arrive at the correct time or arrived
late. Others rescheduled; still others did not return calls. This may be because of
the youth of the subjects or their culture, but it caused a lot of problems and delays.
8 It is extremely difficult to do research in a third-world country. Conducting interviews is difficult
when one is trying to get to an appointment on time through traffic without knowing when rush hour
is, or trying to rely on public transport (taxis included). Having a clean copy made or printing
something out from a computer disk can be time-consuming, as can logging on to the Internet.
Trying to master when certain facilities and public and/or private offices are open, and even when
national holidays are scheduled, are challenges that one who is used to the convenience of the
Western world can find daunting. Additionally, although the university that the researcher chose is
an American university, since it is located in a third-world country, it has taken on certain
characteristics of that country. The library is open from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. School offices are
open at the whim of those who run them, which means that when one wants to meet with someone
or needs something signed or stamped in a particular office, it is often closed.
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One of the students—the Spanish woman—never spoke to the researcher
face to face. She communicated only by email after all the other interviews had
been conducted, and apologized for not responding to the initial emails with an
excuse. Subsequent emails were exchanged regarding, among other things, her
stay in Egypt. The subject of the research was not discussed.
A major problem, which may affect validity, is that the pre-test was given to
the control class one month after the experimental class was administered its pre
test.
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CHAPTER 4 - THE FINDINGS
Introduction
The quantitative portion of the study was analyzed using a Analysis of
Variance (Two-Way ANOVA). The result was that no statistically significant
outcome was found with regards to whether email discussion was beneficial to
college level EFL learners’ compositional ability. In the qualitative portion of the
study, it was found through one-on-one interviews., that subjects perceived that
there were both benefits and detriments to using email in the curriculum.
Findings by Research Question One
The two groups’ pre-tests and post-tests scores are below. Double blind
coding was as follows: the control group was given the code M, while the
experimental group was given the code N. Two filler numbers were placed into the
code followed by two numbers which denoted whether the test was a pre-test (10)
or a post-test (20). The two numbers following those coded the individual students
(i.e., 10, 20, 30, etc). The chart below shows the scores by: subjects which group
they belong to; and which test is referenced (pre-test or post-test.)
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Table 1
Subject Scores by Group and Test
Subject
Control Experimental
Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test
M001010 2.25
M002010 5.5
M O O 1020 2.0
M002020 5.0
M O O 1030 3.5
M002030 4.75
M O O 1040 3.0
M002040 4.0
M001050 2.5
M002050 3.75
M O O 1060 2.25
M002060 4.0
M O O 1070 2.5
M002070 3.75
M O O 1080 2.0
M002080 3.5
M O O 1090 2.0
M002090 4.0
M O O 1000 2.25
M002000 3.5
M001011 2.75
M002011 3.5
N001010 2.75
N002010 3.5
N001020 2.75
N002020 3.5
N001030 3.0
N002030 4.5
N001040 3.5
N002040 5.5
N001050 3.25
N002050 4.5
N001060 3.0
N002060 5.5
N001070 3.25
N002070 4.0
N001080 2.5
N002080 4.0
N001090 3.0
N002090 3.5
N001000 2.5
N002000 3.75
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A Two-Way ANOVA was run to ascertain whether there was a significant
difference in Independent Variable 1 (mean scores between the pre-test and the
post-test - change over time) because of the Independent Variable 2 (treatment -
use of email discussions in the experimental group). The groups were intact.
Therefore, this was a quazi-experimental design (IV 1- repeated measure and IV 2-
factorial), which required the use of a Split-Plot Analysis of Variance
(SPANOVA). A SP ANOVA determines if the differences in means is due to either
IV 1 (time), IV 2 (treatment), a combination of IV 1 and IV 2 (interaction), or due
to chance. By comparing the F observed values with the F critical values for each
factor, it can be determined that IV 1 Time (from pre-test to post-test) was the only
one to be statistically significant. Again, because the groups were pre-existing,
their initial group means would not be expected to be the same. Although the
control group’s mean scores would have been expected to be higher since the pre
test was given one month later than the pre-test for the experimental group, the
control group’s mean scores were actually lower by 0.50 (see chart below).
Table 2
Table of Means
Pre-test Post-test Total
Control 2.45 4.11 3.28
Experimental 2.95 4.23 3.59
Total 2.69 4.17 3.43
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The difference between their post-test scores mean scores for the
experimental and the control is less (0.12). Additionally, the value of the F
observed for the treatment (means squared of the treatment group / means squared
of the subject within group) is 2.28. For this value to be significant at the 0.05
level, it should have been higher than 4.35, which it is not. This leads one to the
conclusion that the treatment is less of an influence to the change than expected.
The hypothesis is that students who use email discussions will have higher
composition scores at the end of the experiment than students who use the
traditional discussion method. The Null Hypothesis is proved - there is no
difference. The rest of the ANOVA test proves that conclusively.
Table 3
ANOVA Table
SS df MS F observed F critical
Treatment 0.92 1 0.92 2.28 4.35
Subject within group 8.07 20 0.40
Time 21.79 1 21.79 71.77 4.35
Treatment x Time 0.39 1 0.39 1.27 4.35
Time x Subject
within group
6.07 20 0.30
TOTAL 37.24 43
The value of the F observed for time (means squared of the time/ means
squared of time by subject within group) is 71.77. Again, a number higher than
4.35 is needed for the value to be statistically significant. This value is higher;
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therefore, time is a statistically significant factor for whether the subjects would be
expected to achieve higher mean scores at the 0.05 level.
When the same test was run to ascertain whether time and treatment
together would account for a statistically significant outcome, it was found that
only a 1.27 value was obtained from the F observed which is lower than the
significance 0.05 threshold of 4.35.
Consequently, the groups improved over time independent of the treatment
factor and the difference of means was not due to error, but rather time. Neither the
treatment nor the interaction proved to be significant at 0.05 in this case. So from
the above tables, it is demonstrated that the treatment (email discussions) does not
enhance compositional ability in the subject population. Learning occurred in both
groups which would be expected in an academic setting.
Findings by Research Question Two
Eight subjects were interviewed over a two-day period. The one-on-one
interviews conducted revealed that the subjects perceived that there were definite
benefits to using email discussions, but also one detriment. More than half of the
subjects found that email interactions helped them develop reflective writing skills,
build knowledge, increase equity and produce cross-cultural participation. Yet five
of the eight felt that the major detriment to email is their lack of speed at typing.
Although seven of the eight subjects reported to have used computers from
between 2 and 10 years (mean - 5.71 years), none of them had formal typing
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training, which caused them to spend more time searching for the letters rather than
just putting thoughts down on paper.
Table 4
Students’ Responses in One-on-One Interviews with Regards to
Bates’ Fourteen Points
Bates ’ Fourteen Points SUBJECT
1 2 .3 4 5 6 7 8
Developing academic discourse X X
Collaborative and project work X X X
Knowledge building X X X X X
Maximizing the knowledge and
experience of all participants
X X X
Increasing equity of participants X X X X X
Cross-cultural participation X X X X X
Development of reflective writing skills X X X X X X
Overcoming social isolation X
Emotional involvement X X
Ready access to help and support X X X
Feedback and direct student contact with
instructor
Active and interactive participation
Freedom from constraints of time and
location
X
Learner control
Discussion
Quantitative
The two-way ANOVA test found that the only statistically significant factor
in the mean score change between the experimental group’s score and the control
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group’s score would occur because of time. With or without the treatment, it
would be theorized that the subjects would score higher just because of their
exposure to English in the classroom for 25 hours per week.
Initially, because the pre-tests were not administered on the same date in the
two groups, it was thought that the scores would be skewed, therefore the use of the
ANOVA test. When the pre-tests were evaluated, however, it was found that the
experimental group’s mean score was actually higher than the control group’s mean
score which was administered a full month later.
Qualitative
Development o f reflective writine skills. The most important finding was
that the subjects felt that they developed reflective writing skills when using email.
Thus it seems that this aspect of Bates’ model is true, but upon further analysis, it
was revealed that only while sending emails to the instructor were the subjects
concerned about accuracy. They made an extra effort to make sure that emails
were grammatically correct and spelled correctly when communicating with the
instructor, but they did not use their monitor much when communicating with their
peers. This was epitomized by one of the subjects when he said that he didn’t care
what others thought of his writing since they were all second language learners
themselves. The only one he cared about was the instructor because she was going
to grade him. Another subject said, "I think more when I write to (the instructor)."
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On the surface, this seems as if the subjects did not reflect about their
writing while communicating with their peers, but delving deeper into the
communications that they had among themselves, the writing is not so different.
There were many short hand versions of words (e.g., U for you; & for and; UR for
your, etc), but these examples do not mean that the subjects were not reflecting; it
means that they were just trying to get their point across in a quicker manner.
Concomitantly, if the printed transcripts of the email discussions are to be used, it
must be known that those discussions were composed knowing that they would be
sent to the instructor also. Therefore, the subjects might have used their monitor
more in this instance. What one must do to verify if the subjects truly do not use
their monitor less while communicating to themselves than when they
communicate with the instructor is to devise a way to view email interactions
which are solely being directed from student to student. This would be a bit
difficult, but may be possible with the appropriate releases.
Collaborative and project work. Knowledge building. Maximizing the
knowledge and experience o f all participants. The subjects’ comments place the
above three categories into one group. They spoke interchangeably about
"distributing knowledge" from one person to another and that "they tell me what
they know, I tell them what I know" in the context of working together to come up
with one coherent response (email) to send to the instructor. The collapsing of
these three groups is a consequence of the way the study was carried out. The
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subjects worked collaboratively to develop an email to send to the instructor. If the
study had been devised differently, it seems probable that these three categories
would not be grouped together.
Ready access to help and support. Three of the subjects reported that they
found that email allowed them to receive help when they needed it. Although this
help was not a direct consequence of the study, one of the subjects reported that
when he couldn’t find a specific answer about a specific topic, he emailed his
friends (not in class) to ask where he should look for the answer on the Internet.
The other two who report that they received help through email described that help
as answers to questions that needed to be turned in the following session. They just
wanted the answer, not how to find the answer themselves.
It is interesting that although the subjects seem to have had a great
experience with computers throughout their lives, their experience appears to be
limited and asking for help is not as common in their culture as it is in the United
States. The researcher frequented two of the campus computer labs (one was
located at the end of a dark corridor in the basement of the history building, the
other at the end of a corridor on the top floor of a building on the edge of the
campus) and from time to time used the computers in the library (which were
prominently located in the main lobby). Although the labs and the library had
technicians who were very helpful, the researcher informally noticed that the
Egyptian students who used these labs very rarely asked anyone for help. It would
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be interesting to determine what type of formal training these subjects have had in
computer technology, and also to formally observe, measure, and record who asks
for help and how often and compare that with the computer labs in the United
States. Maybe the Middle Eastern culture has more to do with subjects not asking
for help than any other factor. This could also be a factor contributing to the next
category.
Feedback and direct student contact with instructor. Not one subject
reported that email contributed to feedback from the instructor. When asked about
this, the majority of respondents stated that they spoke with the instructor (face-to-
face) but did not email her, but the communications between the subjects and the
instructor were not of the nature of question and answer. The subjects did not, for
the most part, voluntarily see the instructor. They went when they were summoned
for the bi-monthly meeting which was more of a chore to them than anything else.
They would sit and politely listen, sometimes laugh, but they did not actually
participate in what would be called a communicative interaction. A few times the
researcher sat in a cubicle hidden from the subjects, but he was still able to hear
what was being said while these meetings were taking place. The subjects were not
aware of his presence. The instructor would point out examples from their writing
that she felt needed improvement; the subjects would agree that they would try to
improve, but never did the subjects initiate a question themselves. It would be
interesting to determine whether younger children in the Egyptian culture ask
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questions. If they do (as would seem likely), then it would be interesting to
ascertain when they decrease and/or stop asking questions and what the cause could
be.
Cross-cultural participation. Although five of the subjects reported that
they felt that email increased cross-cultural participation, this number is deceptive.
One reported that he learned a little about the Spanish culture from the Spanish
students through email communications; the rest relayed that their cross-cultural
insights were from conversations while chatting and subsequent emails that they
had with people in other countries. Bates’ theory that email facilitates cross-
cultural participation was supported, but not necessarily strongly by this study. The
main reason for that was because most of the students were from Egypt; only one
was from Spain. The Lebanese student went to Egypt when he was six years old,
therefore, for all intents and purposes, acculturated as an Egyptian. This aspect of
Bates’ theory could be proven more strongly in a more diversified setting, not one
as homogeneous as the AUC, ELI classes.
Emotional involvement. Two subjects reported that they felt emotional
involvement when emailing, but as in cross-cultural participation above, this was
reported when they were emailing people that they had met while chatting, not their
peers in the class. Email definitely has the ability to provide emotional
involvement, but it was not proven by this study. In a future study involving a
different population, such as a more heterogeneous population, or a study involving
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two or more classes in different locations with different environments, it would
seem that this aspect of Bates’ theory could strongly be supported.
Developing academic discourse. One of the subjects was cloyly talking
about his instructor when he said, "I learned how to write in an academic way." He
was effusive with his praise, but it seemed warranted in this situation. The
instructor was not able to pinpoint any time that she specifically stated, "This is
academic writing," but it seems that she must have to have imparted that student
with the knowledge and the vocabulary to recognize the difference. Another
student didn’t mention academic discourse specifically, but he intimated it when he
said, "I write differently when I write a paper than when I write [an] email." This
doesn’t prove Bates’ theory, but it shows that there might be an conscious
awareness that there is a difference between email communications and academic
discourse, therefore allowing one to indirectly show what is not academic
discourse. It is a stretch, but one that might be proven in subsequent research.
Overcoming social isolation. Only one subject reported that he used email
to overcome social isolation, but this was in emails that he wrote and received with
his friends in Qatar (where he was raised, although ethnically Egyptian). No
participants reported that in-class email or email among their classmates had any
effect on their social life or even intimated that it had that function. It would have
been interesting to have interviewed the Spanish student to see if she used email to
communicate with friends in Spain. She spoke no Arabic and had a limited number
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of peers who she interacted with in Egypt. When the researcher communicated
with her over email, she seemed eager to socialize, but declined being interviewed.
Increased equity. The most difficult aspect of Bates’ theory to substantiate
was whether the subjects actually had increased equity through the use of email
than through face-to-face discussions. The main obstacle to this was that the
students could not accurately quantify the percentage of time spent speaking in the
face-to-face discussions. Most of the subjects over-estimated their talk time.
When asked, "What percent of the time did you speak?", it was reported by most of
the subjects that they spoke about 50% of the time. When further clarifying
questions were asked such as, "If you spoke 50% of the time, then the other four
people together spoke the other 50% of the time?" "Yes was the response" from a
number of the subjects. Further clarification was attempted but not successful.
Either they did not understand what percentage was, or they really felt that they
spoke more. This may be because Middle Eastern culture is an extremely verbal
one, and the more someone knows, the more someone is allowed to speak.
Therefore, if they spoke a preponderance of the time, then they must be intelligent.
The written transcripts seem to be more telling, but again, there was a flaw
in the procedure. The subjects wrote roughly an equal proportion of the email
discussions - approximately 25% for groups of four and 33% for groups of three.
This was because they were assigned to write equally; each subject w as assigned to
write her or his opinion with regards to an article that she or he read. Then that
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opinion was sent to the group leader and the instructor. The group leader culled the
opinions and wrote a synopsis which was sent back to each of the group members
and the instructor, etc. The very nature of the assignment was flawed for this
study’s purpose because it didn’t allow the subjects to freely write the amount that
they wished to write and discuss more naturally.
In addition to restructuring the email discussion, it would have been prudent
to have recorded the oral discussions to determine the actual time taken speaking.
Then the actual time spoken and the more natural email discussion session could be
compared. This way, Bates’ theory could not be proved or disproved.
Yet, the subjects did state that "we write more equally" and "sometimes the
girls typed more than they spoke." It was unclear as to how the subjects
ascertained this, but it seems that they perceived a difference between the oral and
email discussions.
Active and interactive participation, freedom from constraints o f time and
location, learner control. These three aspects of Bates’ theory were not reported
by any of the subjects. This does not prove that the above are not resultant from
email interactions, but just that this study did not find them. The fact that the email
communication was held in a room during the normal class period could account
for the fact that freedom from the constraints of time and location was not reported.
As stated earlier with regards to Feedback and direct student contact with
instructor, it may be an inherent aspect of Middle Eastern culture that students
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would not take into their own hands their education or ask question. Therefore,
active and interactive participation and learner control may not be provable in
research done on this population.
Other findings. An interesting finding of this research was that a great deal
of sexism exists in this population. At first, the researcher was stunned to hear both
the males and the females refer to themselves as boys and girls, but upon further
thought, it is not uncommon for college students in the United States to refer to
themselves as guys and girls. It could be that the researcher is a feminist and finds
it abhorrent to refer to a woman as a girl, but it seemed at first glance that it was the
combination of boys and girls that caught the researcher’s ear.
However, the more overt sexism came in the form of statements like "I
don’t like working with girls" or "I don’t think when I write to girls" and "Boys in
my class don’t have a mind." These statements reflect a deep seated sexism that
the Middle Eastern culture fosters and perpetuates. The males did not enjoy
working with the woman and visa versa. They usually stayed away from each
other during break times and during meals. Although purported to be a liberal
school, the AUC’s students come from the surrounding culture. Therefore,
although one sees males and females together, it is not common. What is more
common is a group of males together separate from an equally sized group of
fem ales. Furthermore, the researcher noted that for the m ost part, once couples
marry, they lead quite separate lives. The males awake to find breakfast ready for
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them, prepared by their wives (just like it was prepared by their mothers prior to
marriage). They go to work and return to find dinner prepared. After dinner, they
take a nap, followed by going out to visit with male friends until late at night, when
they would return to sleep and begin another day. There are exceptions, but this is
quite a predominant scenario. Since the researcher is a man, he was not privy to the
goings on of a woman’s day. Although many do work, most of the women’s jobs
are conveniently scheduled to end before their husband’s job so that they can return
home to fix a meal. What these women do in the afternoon and evening is
something a female researcher could discover.
Secondly, six of the subjects reported that it was difficult to relay their
thoughts on email because it took too long to type the ideas accurately in the
limited amount of time. This problem could be alleviated when the subjects use
email at home or somewhere not during class time.
One of six who found it difficult to relay their thoughts on email also stated
that writing is difficult because "we can’t express our emotions on email." The
subjects could see each other when they spoke and could hear the tone, pitch, etc.,
of the voice. Although this is a problem inherent in most written documents, some
people are using groups of letters and symbols to express emotions, what some are
calling emoticons (e.g.,:) = smile,:(= sad,;) = wink, LOL = laugh out loud). This
could add emotions to words like American Sign Language (ASL) does with
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grander gestures and exaggerated facial movements to add emotions to visual
words.
Another reason the subjects did not like discussing over email was because
they couldn’t include their native language in the message since Arabic uses a
different ‘alphabet’ (for lack of a better term). "If we don’t have the words, we
can’t discuss" one of the subjects concisely stated. When these subjects orally
discussed something, they could fall back onto their common LI and relay the idea
of the statement; in email, they could not and had to rely solely on the L2 that they
were learning, a perceived drawback to the subject, but pedagogically beneficial for
them. This way, they are forced to acquire their L2 at a more rapid rate. The only
subjects who verbally used this technique were the ones who were grouped with the
Spanish student. They were "forced to speak in English" as one subject stated,
because she did not speak Arabic. Therefore, if they had to express something to
her, they were forced to use English.
Typing was mentioned numerous times in different aspects. Overall, as
stated earlier, none of the subjects had formal typing training which could be
because Arabic does not use the Latin alphabet and more directly that Arabic is a
diglossic language. Diglossia means that the written language is markedly different
from the spoken language, marked different because all languages differ between
the two. Very few, if any, native speakers of English speak as they write.
However, Arabic is different in that the language written is not spoken and the
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language spoken is not written. Students do not master reading and writing at an
early age as they do in most Latin-based and Cyrillic-based languages (Greek being
an exception because it is another diglossic language). Therefore, students (or
people in general) are not encouraged to read or write and few Arabic speakers are
avid readers or writers - bookstores are few and far between and there are public
lending libraries in a country of approximately 75 million one of which is a non-
Arabic library. Writing is a means for earning money, but it is not a means of
pleasure for most. Therefore, typing is not taught in the curriculum and
subsequently this lack of typing ability is a hindrance to email communication.
Also, not too long ago in the United States, typing was seen as a task done by
women not men. In offices throughout Egypt, there is a typing pool where women
type the letters, etc., that the male superiors dictate or hand write. Therefore, a man
could feel emasculated if he is perceived to be proficient in typing; the hunt and
peck method is best for these men.
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CHAPTER 5 - SUMMARY, CONCLUSION,
IMPLICATIONS
Summary
This study set about to demonstrate a correlation between email discussion
and improvement in compositional ability through both quantitative and qualitative
methodology and what the perceived benefit those discussions were. Through a
quazi-experimental quantitative study using pre-test and post-test and analyzed
through both an ANOVA and SPANOVA, it was found that there is no statistically
significant difference between traditional discussion and email discussions.
However, the subjects reported that they felt that email discussions did lead
to benefits in specific aspects of compositional ability and self-esteem. Among the
aspects reported, in varying degrees, through one-on-one interviews were
developing academic discourse; collaborative and project work; knowledge
building; maximizing the knowledge and experience of all participants; increasing
equity of participants; cross-cultural participation; development of reflective
writing skills; overcoming social isolation; emotional involvement; ready access to
help and support; freedom from constraints of time and location.
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Conclusion
The conclusions that this study found are that email discussion is at least as
effective as traditional classroom discussions and email correspondence can raise a
student’s self-esteem, make a student become more involved with the process of
learning, introduce new cultures and experiences, and allow students to learn from
each other instead of isolating individual learners.
Implications
The implications of this study are (1) given that email is an effective
instructional tool, it may be an ideal adjunct to classroom discussion. It does not
require instructor (or student) presence, yet promotes learning and self-esteem and
(2) email is a medium that can be used to facilitate learning and involvement both
abroad in an EFL environment and in the United States in an ESL environment. As
was stated earlier, the ESL environment in many US cities is more similar to an
EFL environment abroad. Therefore this study can be generalizable to that
population. Additionally, since the methods were not age-sensitive, the techniques
and methods used can be transferred to school-aged children as well as the
population used. To reiterate, this study has implications for wide use throughout
the educational field, in the US and abroad, for college students, and for young
children.
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Email communications is in its infancy. Methods and
methodologies are being designed to take advantage of this new and exciting
resource. It is even more imperative to formulate methods of inclusion and
participation in developing countries, where, without the introduction of up to date
technologies, those countries and their citizens will be left behind and isolated.
Email can alleviate these problems and facilitate the formation of one
technologically advanced community with many similarities and a world
community that understands and accepts the differences.
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BIBILOGRAPHY
Anderson-Inman, L. (1993-1994). Real writing, real audience and real gains: A
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95
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APPENDIX A
Limited Release of Information Form
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Limited Release of Information Form
I, ____________________, allow John T. Elkholy to release the email
(print name)
correspondences that I had with my classmates and instructor, that were
part of the AUC class, held in the Spring of 2000. This release is only
for those emails and oral interviews and is limited to those emails and
any oral interviews, held during and/or after the end of normal class
session. I am also aware that the emails and interviews will be free
from my name and any personal reference that Mr. Elkholy deems
such.
Signature_________
D ate_____________
Home phone number
Mobile number____
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APPENDIX B
Student Informational Questionnaire
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Student Informational Questionnaire
Name_________________________________________________
Email_________________________________________________
Home phone number___________________________________
Mobile number_________________________________________
Did you attend (please circle one, name it and give its location):
public school___________ ____________________
private school________________________________
private language school_______________________
How many years of English language education have you had?
What language of instruction was your primary and secondary education?
primary_____________________ secondary______________________
Do you consider English as a native language? (circle one)
Yes No
On average, how many hours of English do you use per week outside of AUC?
At home or with friends, what language do you use most often?
home_____________________ friends______________________
When you watch television or go to the cinema, do you prefer to watch Arabic programs/films or English
programs/films?
television_____________________ cinem a______________________
Do you have a computer at home? (circle one) Yes No
If yes, how many years have you used it? ______________________
Do you use it mostly for (give percentage of each activity below):
Word processing___________________________
Chatting__________________________________
Email_____________________________________
G am es______________________________________
Information gathering______________________
Graphics__________________________________
Business/Finance___________________________
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APPENDIX C
Having an E-Group Discussion and Making Decisions on Email
(March 8, 2000)
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Having an E-Group Discussion and Making Decisions on Email
(March 8, 2000)
Follow the steps below to create an email discussion with your group and plan a
group project.
■ Rule Number One: No talking during this activity!! The purpose of this
exercise is to enable you to express yourself in writing, without emotions, when
discussing something you want or feel strongly about. Your writing should be
clear and reasonable (not irrational!), with good ideas and support.
* Go to your email account, quickly read, and delete all unnecessary messages.
(Do NOT send any messages to your friends, John!!) Get into the habit of
reading and deleting messages every day, or your in-box will soon have
hundreds of messages.
■ Your assignment for next week while I am away will be to research and write
about aspects of one area of Egypt’s problems. So spend a few minutes
thinking (not talking!) about which type of problem (social, economic,
environmental, or political) that you would like to work on with your group.
■ Send a two-paragraph email to the members of your group - with a cc to me -
telling them two things: (1) what you like about working with your group (to
set a positive tone) and (2) what area of interest you would like to work on. Try
to be clear about your reasons. If you feel very strongly about a certain type of
problem, say so and give reasons. If you don’t feel strongly and are flexible
about changing your area of interest, also say so. But everyone must at least
choose one area. No one can say, “I’m not interested in anything.”
■ Wait for your group’s answers and read them. Think about what they have said
and about whether you can live with another choice. Then respond to each
email with “Reply to all” so that the whole group has access to the whole
discussion (and I have a copy).
101
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■ Continue with this process until your group has found a broad subject area for
investigation. When you have agreed, and everyone is happy with the decision
and can tell me why (in writing, on the email) you have chosen this area, your
group will earn 10 points.
■ After you have made the first decision, still using email discussion, narrow your
topic. Brainstorm with your group exactly which 2-3 problems in this area you
could investigate, and then convince each other which would be the most
interesting or useful to research. The essay prompt will be: In a well-
developed essay, discuss the most significant problems your country must solve
in the next twenty years.
■ Decide whether you will investigate two or three problems and what they will
be. When you have made a second group decision, send me an email to tell me
what it is. Then raise your hands to indicate that you have finished the task.
Your group will then earn 10 more points and will be allowed to leave the lab.
Any person who speaks (except to me or the lab assistant) will lose 2 points for
the group score each time he or she speaks. Good luck!
102
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APPENDIX D
Email Group Discussion 2
UG -ll
April 19, 2000
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Email Group Discussion 2
UG-11
April 19, 2000
♦ The rules for this group discussion are the same as the last time: No talking
during the activity! This activity is done entirely to make you depend on and
practice your reading and writing skills. Anyone who talks will lose a point for
his/her group.
♦ For this exercise, the groups are as follows: Crimefighers (Paloma, ElSayed,
Yasser, Mohamed El Kholi). Group leader: El Sayed, Detectives (Rana, Yara,
Shaza). Group leader: Shaza, Group 3 (I can’t remember the group name:
Omar, Khedr, John, Mena). Group leader: John. The group must cc. me
(cclark) on all emails, and the group leader must send me an email with the
results at the end of the class period. You have 40 minutes to complete your
task.
♦ Your goal is to discuss with your group what you think Susan Smith’s
punishment should have been and come up with 3-5 reasons why you think so.
In your first email to your group, clearly define what you understood her crime
to be and what her punishment should be. See if other members in your group
agree or disagree, and try to reach consensus on what form of punishment the
judge should have given her.
♦ When you have a decision on the type of punishment, email it to me and then
you are ready to brainstorm reasons for your decision in your group. In this
step, you must come up with a group list of 3-5 reasons to say that you have
successfully completed the task. The group leader must compile them and each
group member must contribute at least one valid reason. You will use this
information to write an essay tonight, so include any details or examples from
other cases that you can think of. Group leaders again must email me when you
have your reasons decided on. Please number the reasons 1, 2, 3, etc.
104
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♦ The group that comes up with the most reasons before the time is over will get
7 points. All groups that finish the task on time will get 5 points.
♦ If you finish the task early and have extra, your group can earn 3 extra points by
looking up Susan Smith’s case on the Internet search engine (Mamma.com,
google.com, askjeeves.com, or northernlight.com) and finding an article that
tells us what sentence the judge really gave her. You can do this during your
break time if you do not have time during the class period.
105
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APPENDIX E
Pre-test and Post-test Questions
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Pre-Test and Post-Test Questions
Pre-test question
(administered in Experimental class on February 17, 2000; Control class on March 12,
2000)
What is the difference between public schools and private language
schools?
Post-test question <
(administered both classes May 14, 2000)
A large gap or difference between rich and poor people in a society can
cause many problems. What are some o f these problems?
107
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APPENDIX F
THEME - SEVEN POINT RATING SCALE
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THEME - SEVEN POINT RATING SCALE9
A score of 0 points indicates that the student is a rank beginner. The student produces very little written
English. It is not conceivable that this student could participate in a university class.
A score of 1 point indicates that the student’s English is poor and the student would have severe difficulty
meeting the demands of courses that require writing assignments. A paper in this category is flawed by several
of the following characteristics:
♦ extremely limited vocabulary
♦ serious and frequent vocabulary errors
♦ serious and frequent grammatical errors
♦ little or no development
♦ points irrelevant or incomprehensible
♦ a lack of logic, organization, and coherence
A score of 2 points is given to a student whose performance is characterized by two or three of the descriptions
of a student scoring 1 point (see above) and two or three of the descriptors of a student scoring 3 points (see
below).
A score of 3 points indicates that the student’s English is fairly weak, but sufficient to survive in a regular
university class that would make minimal writing demands. A paper in this category exhibits minimal
competence in writing on both the rhetorical and syntactic levels. One or more of the following characteristics
is present:
♦ a fairly limited vocabulary
♦ an occasionally inappropriate choice of words or word forms
♦ inconsistent facility with grammar and usage
♦ occasionally obscured meaning, unclear or confusing points
♦ some use of detail to support or illustrate points, but generally not well-developed
♦ some problems with organization, coherence, progression
A score of 4 points is given to a student whose performance is characterized by two or three of the descriptions
of a student scoring 3 point (see above) and two or three of the descriptors of a student scoring 5 points (see
below).
A score of 5 points indicates that the student’s English is reasonable competent. The paper shows developing
competence in writing on both the rhetorical and syntactic levels. Students at this level could survive in
courses with serious writing demands but be somewhat disadvantaged. A paper in this category exhibits
several of the following characteristics:
♦ a fairly broad vocabulary, but occasional problems with word choice or word forms
Used with permission from the American Language Institute at the University of Southern California
109
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♦ few grammatical errors; some syntactic variety
♦ generally clear ideas with a fair amount of detail included
♦ adequate organization, coherence, progression
A score of 6 points is given to a student whose performance is characterized by two or three of the descriptions
of a student scoring 5 point (see above) and two or three of the descriptors of a student scoring 7 points (see
below).
A score of 7 points indicates considerable competence in writing on both the rhetorical and syntactic levels.
Students at this level can handle the writing demands of university classes without any apparent disadvantages.
A paper in this category exhibits the following characteristics:
♦ extensive and appropriately used vocabulary
♦ accurate grammar, few, if any, errors
♦ well-developed and unified paragraphs
♦ well-expressed ideas
♦ good organization, coherence, progression
110
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APPENDIX G
Tables 5 & 6
Institutional Domain Extensions & Email Breakdowns
11
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Table 5
Institutional Domain Extensions
.com Commercial organization
.edu Educational institution
.gov Government
.int International organization
.mil Military
.net Networking organization
.org Non-profit organization
Table 6. Email Breakdown
email address u serid host domain additional
elkholy@usc.edu elkholy
(author’s last
name)
use
(University of
Southern
California)
edu
(educational
institute)
farscapefan65 @hotmail.com farscapefan65
(code made by
user)
hotmail
(free commercial
organization)
com
(commercial)
manal@egnet.net manal
(a first name)
egnet
(Egypt Networking
Organization)
net
(network
organization)
mondial200@daemon.ltd.uk mondial2000
(business
name)
daemon
(commercial server)
ltd
(a limited
partnership)
uk
(United Kingdom)
distinguishes country
h23ml9s72@link.com.eg h23ml9s72
(letters and
number code
made by user)
link
(commercial server)
com
(commercial)
eg
(Egypt)
distinguishes country
mlopez@monterey.kl2.ca.us mlopez
(first initial
and last name)
monterey
(Monterey Unified
School District)
(kl2)
primary or
secondary
school
affiliation)
ca.us
(California, United
States)
distinguishes state
and country
112
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Asset Metadata

Creator Elkholy, John Theophany (author)

Core Title Effects of email on learners' compositional ability: A quantitative and qualitative study

School Graduate School

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, language and literature,language, linguistics,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Hocevar, Dennis (committee chair), Hallcom, Francine (committee member), Rideout, William M. (committee member), Vierma, Gayle (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-268361

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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