コミュニケーションのためのライティング : 海外大学生との電子メール交換

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to report a study of the experiment on Hiroshima University students' e-mail exchanges with overseas college students, and second, to report the results of a questionnaire survey administered to two classes of students (N = 58) who have experienced with the e-mail exchanges. In the first report, the experiment was explained in details in terms of what preparations were necessary prior to the actual e-mail exchange including teaching computer literacy, informing students the purpose of e-mail exchange, seeking and choosing appropriate partner classes and matching keypals. Then the report shows the frequencies of actual e-mail exchanges which took place between Hiroshima University students and those in each of the four overseas institutions, as well as and the number of students which were involved in this exchange.

The second part of the paper reports the results of the questionnaire survey. The most significant finding is that almost all students perceive their e-mail exchange experience to be very positive, reporting that (1) they have learned about different cultures and people, (2) the experience was conducive to English learning, (3) e-mail exchange is a lot of fun, but somewhat difficult, and (4) they have learned how to operate a computer. The survey also shows that a great many students have a strong desire to do e-mail exchange with overseas students if they have another chance. Furthermore, a majority of students report that e-mail exchange helped their writing ability to improve; for example, because they want to convey their true feelings or ideas, they work hard to find appropriate expressions by looking into a dictionary. All these results suggest that e-mail exchange gives students a chance to increase cross-cultural awareness as well as a chance to improve English writing ability.