Learners’ email with native speakers beyond the class: a follow-up to a classroom email project

Abstract

AbstractAlthough the linguistic and sociocultural benefits of class-based email projects are widely acknowledged, there has been little investigation of what occurs after a curriculum activity finishes. In particular, what factors promote continued communication or cause communication breakdown have received less empirical attention. This paper explores factors which promote the continuation or non-continuation of email interactions between Australian and Japanese students after the conclusion of their coursework email exchange task via the analysis of two class surveys, in addition to collected email interaction and interviews with four key students (two continuers and two non-continuers) who serve as case studies. The experiences of these four students who were randomly assigned partners in the project are contrasted with those of a fifth student, Lucas, who chose to communicate with a long-term Japanese friend for the assessment, instead of being paired by the teacher. A number of factors which influence continuation are identified, including past sojourn experience, existing social networks, perceptions towards the curriculum task and their partners, shared topics of interest, time constraints, explicit statement of desire to continue, and potentially face-threatening behaviour, and several recommendations for enhancing online exchanges are given.