1. Introduction
Traditionally, distance learning has implied an alternative to face-to-face contact, systems and methods that allow learners and teachers to work together even though they are separated by considerable time and distance. From this viewpoint, distance learning provides contact for learners and teachers who cannot meet for a variety of reasons, or for whom frequent association is not feasible. However, the distance need not be great, nor the face-to-face contact be infrequent for distance learning technology to bring learners and teachers closer together. The restrictions and limitations of set timetables, full or over full student schedules, large numbers of learners, limited time for personal contact, and even cultural diffidence, can be relieved by innovative use of distance learning technology in this case, electronic mail (e-mail) systems. E-mail is being used creatively in second language professional communication, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes
at the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong (CPHK). The systems, the pedagogy and the cultural and personal impacts are discussed below. This paper then presents initial notions, derived from research, about the value of electronic mail as an adjunct feedback mechanism for teachers and learners of writing in native and non-native languages.
2. E-mail Systems in the City Polytechnic
The PolyLink system at CPHK offers multi-featured and user-friendly communication to all faculty, students, and staff. Included are an e-mail system that provides for local and international communication, a module locker system that allows a teacher to set up a restricted bulletin board with separate folders for the sharing of assignments, course notes, and messages for an entire course, access to financial and travel information, a variety of bulletin boards set up by staff and students, and local fascimile transmission.
The e-mail facility allows the up and down loading of text and binary files as well as keyboard entry. All outgoing and incoming messages can be saved to disc or held in the system memory for review. Messages received can be extracted into replies and edited easily, a feature that makes this system especially valuable to ESL teachers and learners, as will be described below.
The PolyLink system can be accessed from any terminal in the institution (we have about a 10:1 student:terminal ratio at present and a 1:1 lelcturer:computer ratio) or via modem from students' and lecturers' homes. In an institution with 13,000 students and over 640 academic staff about 400 students and over 120 lecturers use home modems, and according to the CPHK Computer Centre, these numbers are growing rapidly. PolyLink is heavily used, and students are accustomed to checking their e-mail regularly, so this system provides a convenient, reliable and quick communication channel between teachers and students.
3. Pedagogical Issues: What They Are Trying to Learn and We Are Trying to Teach
Although effective professional communication in English, and other languages, requires a command of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, this paper concentrates on describing how teachers and learners use e-mail for sharing feedback on writing. However, it will be easy to see how an increase in student-teacher communication stimulates beneficial intercultural development, too, e.g., student-teacher, younger-older, local-foreigner, and so on.
3.1. The learners' perceived need for correctness
ESL learners of writing at CPHK are primarily concerned with the accuracy and correctness of their English, no matter what the genre and communication event. This stands to reason, as they have studied the language from a structural perspective and have been examined heavily on the correctness of form. Rarely have they written English for any purpose not directly connected to the classroom, and rarely have genuine or well-stimulated communication needs prompted their writing. Their search for correctness presupposes that good writing is grammatically and syntactically correct writing. Later in their university careers they may come to understand that richness of content, clarity and logic of organisation, and the power of style are critical to successful professional communication. At the outset they are directed by a need to get things 'right'.
CPHK students are looking for a lot from their teachers, and they express frustration with the limitations of textbooks, class hours, time, effort, and access to rich critique. From their teachers, the learners want, but fear, personal consultation, want thorough reading and marking of drafts, and explicit identification of errors that can be corrected. They want to submit finished products that will somehow meet or exceed a set of clearly defined, all embracing, and totally concrete criteria as if one standard of 'rightness' could apply to all writing. When they come to accept the many forms of 'rightness' and idiosyncratic style that can apply to writing, they express dismay. When questioned, they reveal that what they truly want and need from their teachers is more readily available non-threatening consultation and feedback.
3.2. The teachers' need to exploit the strengths of communicative process writing
From the teachers' point of view, the pedagogy of writing supports the students' deep seated need for personal contact expressed above. That is, students learn to write by drafting and shaping meaningful texts in consultation with peers and teachers. They need the opportunity and motivation to work through a process of text development, with ample scope for non-threatening review and critique and the chance to revise text and reshape ideas freely in response to feedback. Writing teachers who subscribe to process writing and communicative language learning principles are usually stymied by the number of students with whom they work and the limited time they have to interact with their learners throughout the process. Classes meet at set times on set days, gaps intervene from the end of classes one week to the start of the next week's sessions.
Students and teachers often proceed through a term's writing in lock-step. Drafts will be due on such and such a day, second drafts on another, and final products at the end a bad case scenario. The student has a question on Wednesday afternoon but won't see the teacher again until Monday; the learner wants feedback on a bold stylistic stroke before a scheduled writing conference; the learner wants to question a comment written on a draft but can't find time right after class; the teacher has an insight that will affect how a team of students is tackling a particular project. These are the realities faced by learners and teachers as they work with the pedagogy of process writing within typical scheduling constraints.
A significant factor attendant on writing feedback on student papers is the mental and physical labour of writing by hand unique and, hopefully, useful comments in the margins and twisted in and about the lines of students' texts. Writing teachers often relate that the physical effort of writing in cramped spaces on student papers and the mental effort of shaping the most succinct feedback conspire to make marking papers a grim job.
4. Electronic Mail Promotes the Process and Meets the Needs of Learners and Teachers
The needs created by process writing principles that are amenable to fulfillment through e-mail communication are these:
- The learner's and teacher's need for unscheduled consultation and feedback
- The learner's need for response to 'trial' passages
- The learner's and teacher's need to check back on feedback
- The learner's need for prompt response
- The learner's need for objective and non-threatening critique
- The teacher's need for timely intervention
- The learner's need for rich summative commentary
The electronic mail systems at CPHK allow these needs to be met. At present, the author has identified the following six kinds of feedback on writing that occur over the network:
- Response to student initiated questions about assignments
- Teacher commentary inserted in passages sent by students spontaneously with their specific requests for critique
- Teacher commentary inserted in assigned draft passages
- Elaboration on response to questions raised in class or elsewhere
- Information for an individual student, a whole class, or a whole course prompted by new information, an idea, or an insight on the part of the teacher
- Summative commentary and grading
This section will discuss the giving of these kinds of feedback over electronic mail in light of more traditional methods, including writing commentary on student papers, audio-taped feedback, and conferencing.
4.1. Response to questions
First and second language composition and professional communication courses often use simulations of real communication events to lend relevance to writing exercises. Student questions about such assignments can relate to the 'real world' aspect of the assignment as well as to the pedagogical purpose of the assignment. Students often need to know more about the context of the simulation or about how the assignment dovetails with other learning in the class or institution. A better understanding of the nature of the assignment itself leads learners to more effective application of their time and energy.
In Hong Kong, students typically are loathe to question teachers about assignments directly, especially early in a relationship. Such questioning can be perceived as casting doubts on the teacher's original explanation, and thus, on the teacher's competence. This reluctance to ask questions is not unique to Oriental learners, however, and, in the author's experience, is common among undergraduates. Still, complex and sophisticated simulations often prompt questions from learners, questions that are hard to ask face-to-face in front of a class or in private. Frequently, questions about an assignment occur at the work face, when the learners are alone at their terminals attempting to draft plans and text in response to the assignment.
Without access to e-mail communication, learners have few options for getting quick and relatively comfortable responses to their questions. They can ask their questions in class and perhaps get a quick response, but this is an act that can impose high pressure on the learner. They can ask their question personally, before or after class, again affording themselves high pressure in response for a quick oral answer. They can make an appointment for a personal conference, an option that requires pre-planning of time and considerable threat to 'face', the learner's and from the learner's perspective, the teacher's, as well. Or they can take a chance on the teacher being available and just drop in to the office uninvited, with all the 'face' problems of the appointment compounded by the student's sense of physical intrusion on the teacher's space. The planned or spontaneous office visit can yield a fairly high quality of response, but the emotional cost to the learner can be high. Many times important qu
estions that can shape a second language student's approach to an assignment go unasked or, if asked, are answered quickly and possibly, superficially.
On the other hand, learners report that sending an e-mail message, especially at the invitation of their teachers, is far less threatening than face-to-face interrogation. The learner writer at the terminal need only change to the e-mail application to spontaneously generate a question about an assignment. The screen text of their messages is reported by students as being more objective and less a representation of their 'face'. A teacher's reception of e-mail questions is regarded as more objective, more distanced from 'face' than a personal encounter. Furthermore, e-mail is perceived by learners as less of an intrusion on teachers' privacy. Teachers can chose to deal with e-mail when they want to, whether they receive messages during the work day or late at night, if they check their e-mail from home.
Learners often receive more complete and considered answers via e-mail, a medium that combines the spontaneity of conversation with the reflective qualities of writing. Learners can seek elaboration to teachers' answers by simply 'replying' to their teachers' messages. Also answers to questions appear in a form that can be saved and re-read, a special boon to second language learners and to writers of lower linguistic ability in English.
Teachers point out that the spontaneous, yet considered, context of e-mail allows them to address their students humanely, to speak to them as individuals, to reflect on their questions in relation to their personalities, and to respond personally. While e-mail is quick, it allows teachers time to say what they really want to say.
The following extract shows a response to a question about an assignment.
Example 1
Response to a question about an assignment [teacher's comments in sans serif typeface]
From: Enrob
To: CS Student Phoebe
Subj: RE: terms unclear
Phoebe, hi,
Besides answering your questions, I've included some hints on your English. Look for these in square brackets [ ]. Okay? Be sure to query me if you want me to go further with this.
Dear Sir,
You said that Memorandum is for internal use, right? Why [DO] people use Internal Memorandum instead of Memorandum? Will the meaning of internal be duplicated?
I think I can clear up the terms for you. A 'memorandum' (plural: memoranda or memorandums) is a communication that is transmitted within an organisation. If you see a document headed 'internal memorandum', that means the same as 'memorandum'. I agree with you that 'internal memorandum' is redundant (duplicated). I wouldn't use the term this way. Does this help?
Okay, now to your second question:
How about [A] proposal, can a staff [staff member-'staff is a collective noun that refers to more than one person or a group of people working in a specific area] of a company send a proposal to the manager of the company?
Yes, sure, proposals can be circulated within an organisation. Common terms for internal proposals are 'technical brief' or just 'brief'. However, even the term 'proposal' can be applied to an internal document. For the purposes of our class, most teams are thinking of proposals prepared for external clients, but you would use a similar approach for a proposal or brief within an organisation.
Thank you for your explanation!
And thank you for your good questions.
Bye, Robert
Good luck!
Rob
Teachers and learners report that more questions get asked and more questions get answered promptly and fully when the e-mail channel is invoked. As students learn that they can expect prompt and useful answers to their questions, the barrier second language learners often perceive between themselves and their teachers becomes an open boundary they are more willing to cross.
4.2. Teacher commentary inserted in spontaneous or assigned draft passages
Another common question learners want to ask, but often don't, for all the reasons noted above, is "What do you think about this?' in specific reference to some problem of language or style arising from the drafting process. The draft is not being turned in for evaluation or formal review at this point the question is spontaneous and may be prompted by previous interchanges in or out of the classroom. Again, e-mail allows for the learner to express the question at the time when it becomes critical and expect good answer within a reasonable time, independent of whether the teacher is in the office or whether the class meets the next day or the next week. Students working at home who have modems can contact the teacher as directly as if they were on campus. In the case of a second language learner at CPHK seeking help with a specific question on writing, e-mail offers an environment which encourages the learner to communicate in the target language. The questions themselves become part of the learning e
xperience. See the teacher's commentary on Phoebe's use of 'staff' in the excerpt above.
In a situation similar to given feedback on spontaneous questions arising from the drafting process, teachers can also give more formal feedback on assigned draft writings, either full scale short writings or portions of longer pieces, e.g., the introduction to a long report. The following brief excerpt shows a teacher's response to assigned drafting of a memorandum report.
Example 2
Feedback on an assigned draft (abridged) [teacher's comments in san serif typeface]
Stanley,
Look for my comments in square brackets [ ] below. If you see an asterisk (*) this means you should look for a problem in the word or words immediately to the left of the asterisk. In most cases, if you think about it, you can figure out the problem. Remember, we discussed this in class?
To: Robert Hoffman, Senior Lecturer [should be project supervisor, not 'senior lecturer'!]
From: CS Student, Stanley
Subj: Interview with Perfect Interior Design
Perfect Interior Design mainly* runs businesses [Do they do interior design for houses, other buildings, offices? I'm unclear about what you mean here.] in the interior design of a house [only one?] concerning about* painting furnitures* design and equipment installation. I am one of the systems analysts of New Age Computer Consultants. I met a systems interview with [I interviewed] some [who?] representatives last Tuesday in the client's company. I found out some* of their problems and suggested a few computerised strategies. This led to an agreement of possible methods of improvement for each department. [I know you are an employee of NACC, since I am your supervisor. In fact, your heading ought to have reflected this relationship instead of our student/teacher relationship. Try to 'get into' the simul
ation more—take on the role. Your summary paragraph is informative, otherwise, but should include more specific information. Incidentally, you 'interview' people, rather than 'meeting a systems interview'. Also, 'furniture' is a collective noun and rarely takes a plural form. Don't forget what we've been saying about countable and non-countable nouns.] To improve the inventory control and information management, some softwares [software] should be installed. Sharon Wong, the Department Head, also demands* word processing capabilities, e.g., the* Word Perfect for Windows can be adopted, Marketing Department.
The stock control can be installed with a receivable and payable accounting system, 'Sybiz', [Think about the order in the sentence so far ... what can be installed in the marketing department for what purpose??] to prepare trial balances and financial statements completely automatic[<--need adverb ending]
... Potential Problems
The training schedule of the CAD softwares* and implementation procedures of the accounting system should also be seriously planned. [Shouldn't everything be planned seriously???]
[What follows shouldn't be included under the heading of 'potential problems] Then [when?] I will gather with other team consultants to discuss about* all feasible means to increase working efficiency and overcome the problems of our clients. We will give them a draft proposal on 18 February. [We don't want to give our clients a draft. We will review drafts in-house and give the clients a firm proposal. Right??]
Stanley, despite a few problems, this is a good start. Try to make your summaries more meaningful in your rewrite. If I only read the summary paragraph, I should have all the key information. missed a sense of how routine the job might be and the key date when the proposal must be submitted.
Robert
Using traditional paper marking techniques, teachers would be unlikely to provide the depth of response seen in even this brief example. Lack of space on the page alone, would limit the amount of commentary and the targeting of comments to specific portions of the text. In this case, the feedback was available in the student's 'mailbox' within an hour of his having submitted the draft. Also, each student's draft was returned with comments as it was read. In both traditional hand marking and audio-taped feedback, it is usual that a set of papers are reviewed before they are returned to a class or made available for pickup.
4.3. Elaboration on response to previous questions
There comes a time in second language writing and communication classes when teachers and learners have finally established a relatively comfortable, free and open relationship. At this point, learners are more willing to ask for help in face-to-face situations. However, in the rush before or after class, or in the hubbub of a hallway conversation, learners and teachers might not explore questions adequately. Later the learner discovers a need for more thorough explanation or the teacher recollects the conversation and wishes to elaborate on the question. Sometimes students or teachers make notes to follow up the question at the next class meeting, but all too often the chance for elaboration is missed. When teachers and learners use electronic mail it increases the chance that feedback will become an interchange rather than a one-shot affair. E-mail makes it convenient to discuss issues in writing, rather than simply comment on them. The brief excerpt below illustrates spontaneous elaboration on a q
uestion answered previously.
Example 3
Elaboration on previously answered questions
Charmain, hi,
I was just thinking about your question earlier today about the many possible main ideas in your interview with Chan Wai Ming, so I went back and looked over your précis again. You are right, in that there are several main strands of information emerging in that interview. However, one memorable issue (it's memorable because you reported a lot about it and because I remember it) is the barriers that EDI needs to overcome before it can be more fully developed and accepted in Hong Kong. A main idea could be, "EDI must overcome legal and technological barriers before it comes of age in Hong Kong'. Incidentally, 'comes of age' is an English idiom that means becomes mature or reaches a stage of general acceptance or usefulness, in this context ... I hope this helps you further develop your thinking about how you can process the information that you are gathering. You ought to share this with Tat and Rocky, too.
Good luck. Keep up the good work. Robert
4.4. Broadcast information
Electronic mail allows teachers and learners to share important information about developing assignments with individual students, teams, classes, or whole courses. Complex communication simulations and other writing exercises often take on an organic life of their own, prompting insights and realisations about an assignment that could not be predicted. New sources of data are discovered, common problems in handling the assignment emerge, unexpected schedule changes occur. The time to broadcast such late breaking news is as soon as possible, so that students in the process of writing do not waste time going down blind alleys. Messages can be as simple as announcing that a new book on bibliographic style has just been released by the library and put on reserve or as complex as a major reworking of the assignment based on the unexpected withdrawal of a specific source of information.
The fact is that e-mail promotes timely supervision and flexible development of realistic large or small scale writing exercises that span more than a single class meeting. Traditional methods of communication, such as the posting of notices or simply waiting until the class is together to share announcements are unlikely to enjoy as complete and timely coverage as an e-mail message directed to every learner. The value of e-mail broadcasts is even greater in classes in which learners work independently, as teams and in workshop sessions with a teacher for a period of time in which no full class meetings are held.
4.5. Rich summative feedback
For final writing products to contribute to an on-going learning pattern, summative feedback must provide more than a grade. If the writing process has been exploited richly during the preparation of the final product, it is likely the learners will have received a variety of formative commentary on their thinking, their style, and their use of language, including correctness. Nevertheless, the final product represents a finished job in which the students have invested time, energy, and often financial resources, in the case of large scale products such as beautifully packaged reports and proposals. The learners want and deserve thorough commentary on their work. Summative feedback on writing developed according to process writing principles does not imply scrupulous error identification or proof-reading of students texts. This task would be onerous with hard copy and, in the case of long texts, extremely unwieldy over e-mail. Consider opening a "newmail" folder to discover 60 proposals averaging 30
pages each. The purpose of process writing is to enable learners to govern the development of their writing through informed and thorough drafting. Nevertheless, teachers need to provide an analytical response to student texts as they relate to the purpose of the communication and the pedagogy of the class.
Traditional feedback mechanisms, marking papers, conferencing, and audio feedback all provide good opportunities for rich summative feedback. Electronic mail, also can function as a summative feedback mechanism that allows for prompt commentary on learners' work as it is read and marked. Some teachers report that it is easier to produce narrative commentaries on the keyboard and send them to the learners with a few keystrokes than it is to hand write comments at the end of a document. Many teachers prefer to make minimal marks on long documents, especially those that have been produced on high quality paper using sophisticated printing technology. Teachers recognise that such documents, assuming their content and linguistic quality to be high, can function as valuable portfolio entries to be shown to employers later.
E-mail allows for the facile production of summative comments, keyed by numbers inserted in the text, to various areas of the learner's writing, and the timely dispatch of these comments to the learner. If a feedback conference is planned, an e-mail message can set the agenda for the conference in advance by highlighting the reader's immediate and direct involvement with the text free of any mediation on the part of the writer. Increased communication between teachers and learners at the completion of a writing task or the end of a term can stimulate learners to value the significance of the lesson and tie it more firmly to future writing tasks.
5. The Distance Brings Us Closer
This paper has reported on a kind of distance learning that uses electronic mail to give feedback on writing within the academic communities of two institutions. The physical distance in this study is not great, even when learners and teachers use their modems to enter institutional e-mail systems from their homes in Hong Kong, the distance is never really very great. Perhaps the most important message arising so far is that communication through e-mail can offer freedom from restrictions of time and place and reduce the inhibitions of face-to-face communication that often distance learners from teachers. Rich communication early on seems to promote a quicker and easier crossing of the cultural and linguistic boundaries that can separate learners and teachers. Use of e-mail appears to produce more feedback and more effective feedback to guide learner writers, fuller exploitation of the principles of process writing, and greater satisfaction for students and teachers.
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