Implementing Email Discussions in Egyptian EFL Writing Classes. Potentials and Implications

      Аннотация: Email communication is part of everyone's daily routine. It is widely used for both formal and informal communication. In the EFL writing community, it represents an authentic tool for providing the learners with extra chances of practice. That is why, EFL writing teachers strive to incorporate it in their classes. The learners get motivated to improve their writing skills to meet the demands of that authentic medium which provides them with real audience and purpose for their writing. However,its impact on issues like grammatical accuracy, for example, is questionable. Only few studies in the literature give empirical evidence on its full potentials. This book, therefore, presents an experimental approach that examines the impact of email communication on the writing of EFL learners, mainly on the controversial issue of grammatical accuracy. The study assesses its potentials by comparing it with the traditional paper and pencil discussions. The results shed light on the impact of email discussions on different grammatical aspects in the learners' essays. The findings could be relevant to EFL teachers and learners, curriculum designers and educators interested in online technology.

Ключевые слова: SLA, CMC, EFL writing, grammatical accuracy, synchronous CMC, asynchronous CMC, email discussions, paper and pencil discussions