Introduction

I'd like to tell you about two letters I received recently on the same day. One was from Sue, a friend in England; the other was from Simão, one of my elementary students. While it was lovely to hear from Sue, it was Simão's letter that really made my day. I'd been concerned by his silence in class and hesitation when asked a question, and had therefore suggested quietly to him at the end of the previous lesson that he would perhaps feel more comfortable in another class. We agreed that he would think it over and let me know his views. This was the result.

In writing this, I felt Simão had taken a great step forward in terms of learning strategies. He had communicated his needs, ability and weaker areas in English and explained his hesitancy through the medium of a letter, which was more suited to his shy personality than any amount of discussion. In the rest of this article, I would like to look at more examples of the uses of student letters, what approach to the latter we as teachers should take, and finally consider the value of letters between students.

Uses of students' letters to teachers

a Giving personal information

I see my students for three hours a week. They lead busy lives - rushing from/to work or studies, other courses, etc. There is therefore little time to get to know them as individuals in order to meet their differing needs in the classroom. Like other colleagues I initiate and encourage introductory letter writing at the start of the academic year to try to rectify this situation, and learn something of their reasons for studying English, their previous experience of learning the language, their jobs, studies, etc., anything, in fact that is going to help me to help them as learners.

Here are two examples of introductory letters from students:

Example 1: from an Elementary student

I'm portuguese, twenty-nine years old, married, father of a son. My job it's in advertising agency, and I need very much speak, write and read English. In the school I had English, but it's a very long time.
Sorry my English, but I don't remember anything. Please help me. I need you OK. Thanks.
Joaquim

Example 2: from an Advanced student

Hello Joanie! So, you want to know something about me... Well, as you are a very kind person, I conceed you the privilege of sharing a little bit of my daily life.
Ana Teresa

b Students' comments on their ability/progress

As the term progresses, it is immensely valuable to get students' comments on their progress, strengths and problem areas in English. As a result of such self-assessment, the learner should become more aware of their abilities and of areas which require more work. For example, a student may mention difficulties in listening: the teacher could then suggest ways of gaining further listening experience outside the classroom and encourage the student to keep a learner diary to record such strategies and review their progress. Such suggestions could be made in a letter of reply and/or a tutorial. Below are some examples of comments on progress and abilities, the first two from more advanced students, the other one from a near beginner:

... Every week, I make improvements in English, but I understand a language isn't learnt in three or four weeks. (We are not computers or robots). The results are seen after some time. Although the classes in the Institute are helpful and important, I need studying, reading, being patient in order to speak and writing English.
I look forward to hearing from you
Kisses,
Helena

... About my English, I really must say that I found that it's improving and I'm very glad about that.
Even in grammar, which was the subject that I founded more difficulties, I feel I'm getting better at it as well.
About orally, I think I should speak more often in class. Don't you think so?
Michele

... before I don't link to English ...
But now I think differente, I want learn English very well becase I need him to my future and I learning to like English, thing that before no happend.
Good bye!
Carla

c Students' comments on methodology/class activities

Opinions and suggestions from students regarding teaching approaches, activities, use of resources, etc. are also important. Not only do they provide useful feedback for the teacher, but also they encourage students to take greater responsibility for their learning. By using students' suggestions as a basis for discussion and negotiation in the classroom and trying out some of the ideas in lessons as a result, the teacher proves to the students that they too can and should be involved in determining both what and how they learn: the first steps towards greater learner independence.

In general, the classes have been interesting for me; they will continue so as long as I feel I'm learning.
Miguel

I like see more videos and take more lecons in the computer room.
I don't like leçons with the recording because they speak very fast.
In the leçons I like the group work because with this we can speak and change opinions with the others studants.
Maria Isabel

In my opinion, we're going along at a fine rate. We've covered, approximately, half of the syllabus and we will, in all probability, complete it before the end of the term - at least, the most important items.
I've enjoyed most of the lessons - they've been a clever mixture of the "boring" with the "interesting". I wish you would talk more about England, though - people's habits, likes, dislikes, life style, etc. I've found particularly useful the lecture on describing objects, which taught me several ways of making suggestions and expresing purpose, as well as the one on punctuation, as I don't remember ever having studied it.
Vasco

I'm feeling I'm learning not only English but subtly some social and work relations. And I really like this.
Now, to finish my letter and to explain my last comment, I want to thank you for a very special moment last week: the video with Sting, Peter Gabriel, the Chilean women and "Gueca Song". It was very touching and I was very impressed by it - to confess myself, when the women appeared on the stage, crying, with the photos I felt I was with tears trying to get out... And I just didn't cry because I felt embarrassed.
Lena

d Students' comments on 'new' teaching approaches

Earlier this year, I gave my students a ghost story project to do. They had to decide who to work with, what form the story would take (for example - written, audio/video recording). What they would need, etc. On completion of their project work, they were asked to consider:

• how long the project had taken -
• how much Portuguese/English they had used
• if they had been satisfied with the end product;
• if they had any advice for students doing a similar project in the future;
• if/how it had helped their English;
• if the teacher's role was different in any way.

For many, it was the first time they had worked in this way. Here are some of their comments.

We took almost four lessons to do this work and I suppose that we used the time well because our story was quite big. Unfortunately, we spoke more Portuguese than English, during the project. Maybe 70% of Portuguese ... Anyway, it was very useful (in writing, for example) to improve our English.
I enjoyed the whole project, but particularly writing the story on the computer. For me, it was the first time ...
I think my group is pleased with the final result. At least, I am. If there will be other ghost storys next term, I'd like to give an advice to the students: try to speak more English.
Carlota

I think that, this experience must be continuous for the future, it is an informal way to learn English, give to students not only the opportunity to learn English, but also it helps to learn more than that, by listening and changing opinions, and working together increase the sociability between students and that certainly will improve the class performance.
Francisco

That work helped us very much in many different ways: vocabulary, grammar and speaking practice. And the most interesting was to record our work, which, in my opinion, was very important because we could listening to ourselves and we have been able to improve our pronunciation.
Paulo

This kind of work really helped me because I learn a lot of new vocabulary but even so it didn't help my writing. We were pleased with the final result because we could see that worth the effort. We should do it more often, with this kind of work we learn more because is less boring for the people that are doing the work. We try to share the tasks so that noone gets bored. Oh! Your role was fantastic. I saw you run down and upstairs it must have been very tireying.
Yours,
Mário

The teacher's approach to student letters

a How to incorporate letters into a teaching programme

As we have seen from the examples above, student letters can be written at the start of the academic year/term as a means of introduction, at regular intervals to comment on their progress, abilities, and on teaching methods, or after a particular activity such as a project. Letters by students can also form or be part of a learner diary, where the student keeps a record of what they have done in class with accompanying comments.

b To mark student letters or not?

Marking a letter by a student depends on whether you and the learner view it primarily as a piece of written work or as a personal communication to you. You may wish to leave the letter unmarked and simply write a letter of reply. Some students, on the other hand, may resent the fact that their work goes uncorrected. It is therefore something to negotiate with students - one compromise being that errors are underlined but letters are not graded.

Letters between students

These are of particular value in terms of furthering motivation and communication between class-mates and classes in the same and different schools. Students in the same class can be asked to write short letters to each other as part of a lesson or as homework, with the teacher also taking part. The students decide who they write to and what they want to write about. This would be particularly relevant to lower levels as a means of confidence building as a result of successfully producing a piece of written communication. A further benefit is that students hopefully learn more about each other in the process and consequently become closer as a class. Another possibility is to get your students writing to another class in the same school. This could be to ask for information, e.g. a questionnaire, to invite them to your classroom to take part in a joint activity or to ask for information and advice about an activity already done by the other class but not yet by your own.

For example, last year one of my young learner classes wrote information about their partners and the class in general as a result of interviews and surveys. This work was made into wall displays and questions were devised on it for the other class to answer as a competition with prizes. My class explained the task and acted as guide and 'judges'. If you have very large classes, the same type of activity could be done with half of one class visiting half of another, and the other half of the second visiting the other half of the first. To meet other students and see inside another classrooom is often very stimulating for students, providing a basis for feedback/discussion.

To take another example, as a planning activity in a project, one class can write to another class that has already done something similar (e.g. producing an advertisement, writing a biography) to ask them how they organised it, what materials they needed, how long it took, etc. with the other class writing back to answer the first group's questions. Both classes could meet at a later stage to share each other's work or perhaps carry out student-authored tasks, e.g. an advertisement in the form of an audio-recording could be accompanied by true/false questions for the listeners to answer.

Both of the above examples increase class-to-class co-operation while giving the learner the opportunity to take on the role of expert, which is again important for confidence building.

Finally, there is the exciting prospect of linking schools through student letters. This could be done between two classes of the same year in order to ask for information, advice, etc., as before, or simply to establish pen friends. The letters are made all the more interesting if accompanied by visual/audio information which would take the form of pictures, photos, audio and/or video recordings.

I am currently involved in such a project, linking a seventh year class at the Escola Secundária de Amora with my Senior Beginners class at the British Council. The letter writing has been to ask for further information in order to write a description of someone from the other class; never has so much effort and concentration gone into a writing task!

To conclude, letters by students are, in my opinion, a highly valuable form of written communication; they can perform a wide variety of functions and are motivating for both the writer and the recipient. Above all, writing a letter is the result of having something to say - genuine communication.