Email is a fast way of reaching an individual or a group of readers. It also has a wonderful educational tool called a reply function which can turn a simple email text into a longer series of exchanges forming a dialogue.
The VLE organises email so that teachers can easily cross off names and send emails to one or several students.
The uses of email which we have found most valuable in network supported language learning are:
1. For the teacher to give a message personally to one or several people or a whole class
The advantage for a teacher of sending an email message is that it goes straight to the individual, which a posting on an electronic bulletin board does not. We see here a parallel between finding junk mail in your real post box and a letter addressed to you personally. Even if the same message is sent to several learners or even a whole class, the impression is that it has come to the reader personally. This in turn helps to give the recipient an impression of personal attention and interest. In a situation where communication is electronic rather than face to face, this creation of an impression of personal contact is very important.
The tone of such a message may be quite formal if it is announcing some part of the course:
This is a reminder that all written assignments must be filed in your portfolios by midday on June 2nd
Or quite informal
“Hi, just to remind you to file your assignments”.
The style in both cases is an announcement which gives a piece of information and does not expect or invite an answer, but does of course expect a reaction of some sort.
2. For the teacher to contact an individual student
Hi Janne, missed you in class today. Just to let you know we discussed which book to read next. Have you got any suggestions?
The above email is a tactful way of letting a student know that their absence has been noticed and inviting them to be more active. The reader is being given a strong hint that an answer is expected, and this can often develop into a longer “conversation”.
3.To develop an exchange between two people
Could you have look at this text and let me know if you think I‘m doing the right thing?
The email here either has the text in question in the email itself or as an attachment and is being used by a student seeking advice from a teacher. It might well develop into a longer exchange. In this example the teacher comments and invites the learner to continue the process.
Yes this is fine! I ´ve looked at your text and written some comments. Let me know if there´s is anything you don´t understand.
4.To create “dialogue journals”
This was an idea we found in Mark Warschauer’s book Network Based Language Teaching: Concepts and practice We have found it useful in developing a dialogue between learner and teacher where the learner reflects on their learning, and in which a process of reflection by the learner and comments by the teacher takes place. This seems to work best using the “reply” facility as the result is often a long but continuous document whose development can clearly be seen because it is continuous rather than being divided up into a series of separate documents which have to be opened individually.
The texts quoted here are in their original form and have not been corrected for language mistakes.
We have here two examples of dialogue journals. In both cases the course tutors’ use of language shows interest, enthusiasm and respect for what the learner is saying by comments and use of questions.
Dialogue journal between a course tutor and a teacher on a course.
In the first one, an experienced teacher on a net based in-service course is being asked at the end of the course to reflect on the learning that has taken place. The dialogue starts with a specific question from the course tutor asking the teacher to reflect on her learning under various headings
Your study plan is organised around 3 competencies needed by teachers of English: Teaching competence (including ICT competence!), language competence and cultural competence. How has your competence in these three areas developed during the course? Think about this in relation to your own aims and expectations when the course began.
The teacher then responds to the questions.
My main aim for this course was to become a better English teacher. First of all I felt a special need to enhance my vocabulary, which I feel I have during this period…………..
The course tutor responds, expressing interest in what the teacher has said but also asking a number of supplementary questions to which the teacher also responds.
Hallo Jannicke, I really enjoyed reading your first DJ text. I have one or two questions you might care to think a bit more about and/or expand on.
The course tutor then responds again both with interested reactions to what the teacher has said, but also “personalises” his comments with a reference to the teachers having been in Rome and also with a bit of personal experience of learning another language. We have found that such “personal” comments help to establish a secure relationship with the learner.
Hallo again and welcome back from Rome. Your comments brought up some really interesting points…….
Dialogue journal between a course tutor and a German student on an international course for European students held at Høgskolen i Oslo, avdeling for lærerutdanning.
This dialogue journal has a similar structure to the first in that it starts with a specific question from the course tutor:
During the course you have been through several learning processes. We would like you to send us an answer in which you reflect on two or three of these learning processes: what and how have you learnt? We don’t want a long answer, but we want you to think fairly hard.
The student responds with a long answer which goes into a lot of detail and is obviously taking this task very seriously
The tutor then both responds to the student’s answer and herself spends quite a lot of time reflecting both on what the student has said and on its implications. The tone is enthusiastic and friendly, but rather more formal than in the first example. She then carries the discussion further by asking more questions.
As the dialogue journal develops, the student here gets more personal, and this is a tendency we see in dialogue journals: the first round is fairly straightforward and factual, but subsequent rounds become more spontaneous and personal. Towards the end of his second posting and in response to the tutor’s question
Secondly, do you see your own culture in any way differently after your many dialogues with the other students?
André writes:
Most definetly I see my culture in a different light. It is always very nice to get some feedback from other foreign students. I had many good but also some bad experiences here. However, conflict is very or can be very productives as well. My culture is just one among many others. Admittedly I knew this before I came to Norway but it is always good to experience it – learning by doing. I can give this sentence “My culture is just one among many others” a deeper sense now. I do not only know it I also felt it. And as a student of philosophy it is always very good NOT to see things like cultures as the one and only possibility or as an absolute truth. If you do take things as too absolute you are very likely to be wrong.
