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...

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Main Authors: Paramasivam, Sheela, Supramaniam, Kaarthiyainy, de Mello, Geraldine
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pahang 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/36147/
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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, it fostered the perception that learning English was fun and meaningful, no matter what culture they belonged to.
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spelling uitm-361472021-06-22T04:20:13Z https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/36147/ 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 gading Paramasivam, Sheela Supramaniam, Kaarthiyainy de Mello, Geraldine Culture Educational technology English language 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, it fostered the perception that learning English was fun and meaningful, no matter what culture they belonged to. Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pahang 2008-10 Article PeerReviewed text en https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/36147/1/36147.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) Jurnal Gading UiTM Pahang <https://ir.uitm.edu.my/view/publication/Jurnal_Gading_UiTM_Pahang.html>, 12 (2). pp. 61-70. ISSN 0128-5599
spellingShingle Culture
Educational technology
English language
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 Culture
Educational technology
English language
url https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/36147/