1. M A S T E R T I T L E Second Language Learners’ Perceptions of Email Communication in English Jia Ma Queen’s University TESL Ontario, 2010 Copyright Jia Ma (2010). This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

2. Overview Rationale Purpose Research questions Methodology Data collection and analysis Results Implications Resources

3. Rationale Experience of email communication Literature about email communication

4. Rationale—Experience My own experience From the year of 2000, constant email communications with native-English speakers My change in English language learning o Like writing o Larger amount of writing in comparatively less time o Fewer grammar errors o More imitations of words, phrases and styles used by native-English speakers

5. Rationale—Literature review Potential of integrating email communication in language learning o Learner-centered and active learning (Haworth, 1999; MeLester, 2001; Sabieh, 2001) o Quantity of writing (Gonzalez-Bueno & Perez, 2000; Barile & Durso, 2002) o Cultural learning (Jogan, Heredia & Aguilera, 2001; Hilton & Kameda, 1999; Warschauer, 1996) o Social interactions (Baron, 1998; Bloch, 2002) o Purposeful writing (Fedderholdt, 2001; Jung, 1999 )

6. Rationale—Literature review (cont.) By 2000, there were over 800 million people using email, and about 100 million email are sent each day (Crystal, 2001). More than 50,000 email discussion lists are operating; many of them are related to language learning (Gaer, 1999). However…

7. Purpose The purpose of the study is to learn how ESL learners see the effect of regular email communication in English on their English learning, cultural learning and social interactions.

8. Research Questions Environment for English learning English language learning Cultural learning and the development of social interactions

9. Methodology Qualitative Methods o Analysis of Email samples o In-depth Interview Participants Four students at Queen’s University o who speak English as a second language; o who have at least one-year experience using email communication in English; o who view English email communication has some effect on them

10. Data collection and analysis Data of Email samples o 6 emails with around 200 words of each participant  3 of personal interactions  3 of school work Data of In-depth interviews o 4 one-hour interview with each participants

11. Data collection and analysis (cont.) Research instrument o Email analysis checklist Email analysis checklist o Interview guide Analysis o Email sample analysis o Interview data analysis

12. Results Environment o “Self-created” learning environment o Comfortable and relaxed environment o Sense of audience

13. Results (cont.) English learning o Vocabulary o Thinking in and understanding English o Developing writing conventions  short paragraphs,  connection words,  repetition of terminology

14. Results (cont.) Cultural learning and development of social interactions o Learning knowledge of English language culture and of Canadian culture o To maintain and build friendly relationships

15. Implications Practice o For language teachers o For language learners o For native-English-speaking email users

16. Implications (cont.) Future research o Emotional colouring & compensation for language proficiency o Longitudinal study—vocabulary variety and English emails

17. Resources Linguistic Funland http://www.linguistic-funland.comhttp://www.linguistic-funland.com Internet for English Teaching Warschauer, M., Shetzer, H., & Meloni, C. (2000). Internet for English Teaching. Alexandria, Virginia: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

18. Next time when sending emails…