Having an e-mail address these days is almost as common as having a mobile phone. E-mail is a very real means of communication in the late 1990s.

E-mail provides a new and exciting resource for the language learner which at present is widely unexploited. E-mail is especially ideal for young language learners because:

• it has a real communicative purpose;
• students are obliged to use a common language, above all English, to communicate with other learners around the globe;
• young learners tend to love computers;
• it is student-centred: e it can be topically based;
• it can be a humanistic-cultural experience; g it offers opportunities for peer-correction:
• it may be used to improve traditional writing skills;
• and finally, it practises a real computer skill which is in its own right important in today's world.

At the British Council, Parede, we have initiated a number of simple and small-scale e- mail projects with various other centres around the world. So far they have proven quite successful and we intend to expand our contacts and participation in the near future.

Setting up e-mail projects

In order to avoid student disappointment and teacher frustration, there are a number of essential practical questions and other factors to consider before you launch into an e-mail project.

a Essential practical questions
What is the level of your students' computer operating skills?
Some students are not computer literate. You must be prepared to attend to the needs of these slower students and to allot sufficient time for them to finish their tasks in the computer room. A tip is to put the more able students with the weaker ones.

How much organisation/liaison are you prepared to put in?
You need to find someone at a school in another country to co-ordinate a comparable e-mail project so that your students have someone to write to. Then you must be prepared to liaise on a regular basis with your opposite number. This is a very important factor that will largely determine the how successful the e-mail project is. Considerable time is needed initially to co-ordinate student correspondence. Once the correspondence is up and running, co-ordination becomes easier.

How long do you want the project to go on for?
You need to establish this with your opposite number from the outset. You do not want an e-mail project to drag on indefinitely. You should limit correspondence to a number of weeks only.

How many exchanges do you want ' between students?
You should decide this before you embark on a project, for the same reason as above. Four to six exchanges should be enough.

What contingency plans do you have in the event of technical hitches?
Some technical problems can arise unexpectedly when you are actually in the computer room, for example, access to the internet might be denied. This could have disastrous consequences if you have not planned something else to do. One tip is always to have some CD-ROMs at hand for an alternative activity. Encarta is ideal because students can always do research about the history or customs., etc., of the country of the students they are writing to .

What should you do about students who take longer to write?
Some students simply write slower or more than others. Allow time for these students.

How do you monitor student output?
Ensure that students save their work and copy it to both yourself and to the teacher in the other country. This prevents loss of their work and allows you to monitor what they are writing.

What if a 'key-pal' is absent?
It is best not to let students write their own individual e-mails. Two or three students should share a computer and write a joint e-mail. This guarantees the exchange of e-mails even if one or two students are absent.

What about e-mail writing 'non-conventions'?
At the moment it appears that e-mail writing can be somewhat different from more traditional forms of writing. You can argue that, because of its speed, it shares some characteristics of both speaking and writing. It tends to be less formal, less conventional, than even informal letter writing. Some of the main differences would be the use of abbreviations "c u" for "see you", the absence of upper case, the representation of emotions and thought (Sooooo, would you like to come?" where the extra "o"s represent thought, and numerous misprints.

So, what should you teach your students?

This is a rather contentious issue. Some colleagues argue that you should stick to the writing conventions that you teach, for example, for informal or formal letter writing. Others believe that you should actively teach some of the new 'non-conventions' that are peculiar to e-mail writing. I personally favour the latter. E-mail writing is a new and different medium of communication and its language, at present anyway, appears to be equally different. Students will need to be, at the very least, aware of some of the writing peculiarities that are unique to e-mail, and especially chat lines, so they can understand them when they meet them.

There is no consensus on this matter. It is in the hands of the individual teacher. However, I can say that my students enjoyed comparing the above letter and e-mail. I believe it is a valuable exercise, provided that you ensure that the students know that the lack of traditional writing conventions is unique to e-mail and chat lines and that in 'normal' letters they have to be retained.*

b Other factors

• The project should correspond to a topic on the syllabus
• Whenever possible, this project should be an extension of the work you are already doing in class and not something extra.
• The project must have realistic objectives.
• Students should see that the project is viable. Simplicity is the key here.
• The students should see the value of the project The students need to be able to see that the project will improve their language skills.
• The project needs to have an end product
• Perhaps you should aim to make a wallchart or collate information about something. The e-mail project should only be a means to achieving something in the classroom and not an end in itself.
• Examples of activities include:
  • questionnaires-
  • collecting cultural information
  • writing reports or guides about a particular country, etc
  • role-plays (letters of enquiry, followed by letters offering something, followed then by letters of confirmation or negotiation, etc. This type of activity is perhaps most useful with adults)
• The project must be fun and interesting

An example of students' correspondence

My students enjoyed their first experience with e-mail. On the page opposite is an (uncorrected) example of a typical 15-year-old intermediate student's correspondence with some Thai students.

[sent] hello my name is margarida and i am fifteen i am a portuguese girl and i live lisbon i have one brother his name is manuel i ho [...]
	[received] Hi, We are We are Tha brothers. Tal, kik and Be. We are all 12 years old. We are Thai girls. We live in Bangkok. Thanks for e-mail us. Be and I have two bothers. Kik has three sisters !!! Thailand is very beautiful country.There are many interest things. Thai food is spice. Capital of Thailand is Bangkok. (that we live in) Thailand has three seasons but it's very hot all year. We would like to know about you and your country. Can you tell me? what is your capital city? Is your food spicy like us?How many seasons do your country have? see you later bye...^_^ kik be tal
[sent] Hi! My name is Margarida and i am a fifteenth Portuguese girl. I live in Lisbon, that is a wonderful city and is our capital city. We usually don't eat spicy food. In our country we have 4 seasons: summer, winter, spring and fall. I love doing gymnastics and listenning to music. And you? Bye from you Portuguese friend Margarida
	[received] Hi Margarida! Thanks for reply us. We glad to see your e-mail. In your country has four-seasons ! It's cool. Do u have snow in winter? In Thailand, winter is hot. ( We think it's your summer.) We like to collect all of tickets. Everything about movies! We like pop music. We like Backstreet's boys, Hanson , Spice Girls , Take 5 , 5ive , Kavana aqua , Boyzone and All Saints. We like to reading all kinds of boooks. Especialy CARTOONS! In Thailand we learn 2 or 3 languages.Thai , English someone learn Chinese , Japanese and French. We would like to ask you some questions.Do you collect anythings? and what? What bands do u like? Do you like reading? In protugal,how many language do you study? PLEASE REPLY US SEE YOU FROM YOUR THAI FRIENDS : )
[sent] hello i am glad you liked my e-mail. In Portugal winter is cold and summer is hot. I like reading novels and adventure books and my favourit bands are spice girls, silence 4 and green day. I do like collecting things and I have been collecting stamps and stickers.We learn two langueges like French and English.No, I must go, but I hope you will write to me later. Bye from your Portuguese friend Margarida

The steps involved in setting up an e-mail project

1 The two teachers send each other details of their classes, e.g. age, number of SS, names, etc.

2 The teachers match compatible classes. The corresponding classes should have approximately the same number of students.

3 Allow an entire lesson to giving your students e-mail accounts - it takes much longer than you might imagine.

4 The teachers exchange their students' e-mail addresses and agree on a topic.

5 In subsequent lessons the students write to each other - get them to copy their e-mails both to you and the other teacher, so that you both have a record of their work. 6 Limit the students' exchanges to between four and six exchanges.