Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello
In this era of globalisation, it is necessary for students to be sensitised of towards other cultures around the world, and this could be done in the ESL classroom. This paper shows how modern technology such as email, can become a powerful tool and could be used to bridge language learning and cult...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pahang
2008
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29846/ |
| _version_ | 1848807343996796928 |
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| author | Paramasivam, Sheela Supramaniam, Kaarthiyainy de Mello, Geraldine |
| author_facet | Paramasivam, Sheela Supramaniam, Kaarthiyainy de Mello, Geraldine |
| author_sort | Paramasivam, Sheela |
| building | UiTM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In this era of globalisation, it is necessary for students to be sensitised of towards other cultures around the world, and this could be done in the ESL classroom. This paper shows how modern technology such as email, can become a powerful tool and could be used to bridge language learning and cultures. This project involves a group of Thai and Malaysian students who were instructed to email each other to gather information on various themes such as religion, places of interest, food and lifestyle. Throughout the project, they were encouraged to share their experiences in groups and in writing reports. At the end of the project, questionnaires with closed- and open-ended questions were distributed to Malaysian students to get their feedback on the email project as well as their language learning experience. Assessment was also done on their reports. It could be summed that they overcame their anxiety and discovered that learning English was more than just mastering grammar. More importantly, fostered the perception that learning English was fun and meaningful, no matter what culture they belonged to. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T22:41:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | uitm-29846 |
| institution | Universiti Teknologi MARA |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T22:41:19Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publisher | Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pahang |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | uitm-298462020-10-09T05:44:20Z https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29846/ Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello gadingss Paramasivam, Sheela Supramaniam, Kaarthiyainy de Mello, Geraldine Learning. Learning strategies Higher Education Foreign study Technology. Information technology. Internet in higher education In this era of globalisation, it is necessary for students to be sensitised of towards other cultures around the world, and this could be done in the ESL classroom. This paper shows how modern technology such as email, can become a powerful tool and could be used to bridge language learning and cultures. This project involves a group of Thai and Malaysian students who were instructed to email each other to gather information on various themes such as religion, places of interest, food and lifestyle. Throughout the project, they were encouraged to share their experiences in groups and in writing reports. At the end of the project, questionnaires with closed- and open-ended questions were distributed to Malaysian students to get their feedback on the email project as well as their language learning experience. Assessment was also done on their reports. It could be summed that they overcame their anxiety and discovered that learning English was more than just mastering grammar. More importantly, fostered the perception that learning English was fun and meaningful, no matter what culture they belonged to. Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pahang 2008-12 Article PeerReviewed text en https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29846/1/29846.pdf Paramasivam, Sheela and Supramaniam, Kaarthiyainy and de Mello, Geraldine (2008) Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello. (2008) Gading Journal for the Social Sciences <https://ir.uitm.edu.my/view/publication/Gading_Journal_for_the_Social_Sciences.html>, 2 (12). pp. 61-70. ISSN 2600-7568 https://gadingssuitm.com/ |
| spellingShingle | Learning. Learning strategies Higher Education Foreign study Technology. Information technology. Internet in higher education Paramasivam, Sheela Supramaniam, Kaarthiyainy de Mello, Geraldine Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello |
| title | Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello |
| title_full | Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello |
| title_fullStr | Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello |
| title_short | Nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading - writing classroom / Sheela Paramasivam, Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam and Geraldine de Mello |
| title_sort | nurturing cultural awareness via e-mail exchanges in an english as a second language (esl) reading - writing classroom / sheela paramasivam, kaarthiyainy supramaniam and geraldine de mello |
| topic | Learning. Learning strategies Higher Education Foreign study Technology. Information technology. Internet in higher education |
| url | https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29846/ https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29846/ |