A study on high school students’ perceptions of the process of learning to write emails in English

Journal of Science, Hue University of Education 
ISSN 1859-1612, No. 02(50)/2019: pp. 25-38 
Received: 30/9/2018; Revised: 05/10/2018; Accepted: 18/10/2018 
A STUDY ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE 
PROCESS OF LEARNING TO WRITE EMAILS IN ENGLISH 
TRAN THI TO, LE PHAM HOAI HUONG 
Univeristy of Foreign Languages, Hue University 
Abstract: The present study was carried out to investigate students’ 
perceptions of the process of learning to write emails in English. The 
participants comprised of 100 high school students of grade 11. Data 
collection methods include questionnaire, interview and reflective journals. 
The study found that students had good awareness of email writing skills in 
the classroom. They shared their viewpoints on the process of learning to 
write emails in English both negatively and positively, with positive 
opinions outweighing negative ones. The findings also revealed that the 
respondents had positive attitudes toward email writing skills and tended to 
accept their difficulties as motivation in their language classes. Based on the 
findings of the study, implications were put forward as to how to teach and 
learn to write emails in English effectively. 
Keywords: Email writing process, reflections 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The important roles of email in improving EFL learners’ language proficiency and 
supporting human beings in daily work have been studied by many researchers. Findings 
from studies on email learning and teaching have showed that email has been so far the 
most popular and useful tool for foreign language education (Chaffee-Sorace, 1999). 
Thus, studying students’ perceptions of the process of learning to write emails in English 
is necessary for both teachers and learners in increasing the instructional quality. 
The importance of emails in teaching and learning 
Nowadays technology, especially email is developing rapidly all over the world. As a 
result, the use of email is increasing in the classrooms for the purpose of promoting 
language learning and teaching. It can be seen that email writing is one of the most 
important skills that students should master in order to support them not only for 
learning but also for real-life situations, especially when they are preparing for 
university study. 
The rapid increase in the use of web tools in language teaching and learning has 
promoted email as a common interpersonal communication medium. As its high 
transmission speed, email has been widely used for both personal communication and 
institutional communication, particularly in academic and business institutions (Crystal, 
2001). Schwienkorst (1998) and Warschaur (1995) indicated that email writing provides 
a context for real-world communication and authentic interaction by connecting foreign 
language speakers outside the classroom with other speakers in communicative 
26 TRAN THI TO, LE PHAM HOAI HUONG 
situations. In the context of the classroom, email provides immediate feedback and 
allows students to discuss and communicate directly and cheaply with key pals around 
the world (Hoffman, 1994). 
Email is also a useful tool for students to improve their English writing skills. 
According to Alias and Hussin (2002), web- based activities such as searching for 
information, exchanging of messages via email and participating in discussion groups 
are helpful to learners in their writing process. Accordingly, the students can enrich 
their knowledge about the world and foster their writing ideas. What’s more, speed, 
power, and flexibility of the computer and email can effectively facilitate their second 
language acquisition, and then help students raise their awareness of learning writing. 
More importantly, developing email writing skill is especially necessary for English 
language students at the secondary stage. In terms of developing the overall ability of 
writing for high school students, they have to learn how to write emails in English. It 
can be said that the secondary level of education is a stage of consolidation, supporting 
and reinforcing English language basics previously learnt by students during the 
preparatory stage (Abdel-Razek, 2006). By using emails, they also become familiar with 
a communication tool that is vital to their survival in the 21st century. Thus, mastering 
writing skills during the high school study helps students’ progress in their university 
studies (El-Shafie, 2006). 
Students’ reflections on the process of email writing 
Reflection is a term which has been much used in the educational literature over the past 
decade (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985). Among many various definitions about 
reflection, Boud et al. (1985) shared the definitions with some common features and 
these are worth considering in more detail. Reflective thought was defined as active, 
persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the 
light of the grounds that support it and the further evidence by which the reliability and 
worth of a belief can be established so as to justify its acceptance. It is clear that an 
important outcome of the reflection process is changing one’s perspective as new 
information and experiences are encountered (Hay et al., 2004a). The reflection 
processes not only involve in the self but the outcomes of reflection also lead into a 
changed conceptual perspective, which helps learners understand the relationship 
between their learning and problem-solving goals. 
In the light of developing one’s knowledge and skills, reflection can be considered as a 
learning tool and action process has long been seen as a crucial prerequisite to effective 
decision making, especially in decision environments that contain ambiguous problems, 
unique elements, and no defined solutions (Pee et al., 2000; Schon, 1987). Therefore, it 
supports to revise extant understanding or to construct new meaning when experience 
incorporates a variety of mental and emotional processes such as dealing with fuzzy 
ideas to reconcile ambiguity and inconsistency; to recognize that one’s current 
knowledge set may be confused, incomplete or misconceived; culminating in the 
purposeful realignment of meaning to that which is different (Maclellan, 2004). 
A STUDY ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE PROCESS... 27 
When making a discussion about reflection in teaching and learning process, McAlpine 
et al (1991) stated that reflection can also occur prior to, concurrent with, and 
retrospective to instruction. Besides, teaching and reflection can also be a continuous 
and synchronous process in which they occur concurrently (Schon, 1987). However, 
this researcher also indicated that reflection may also occur asynchronously at some 
point when finishing the classes, and thus be disconnected from teaching actions. 
According to him, the retrospective reflection-on-action represents the most common 
conception of reflection. In other aspects, it also provides the opportunity for dramatic, 
extensive structural changes, and is more likely to take place in the strategic or 
epistemic sphere. 
Previous studies 
So far, there have been researches related to the fields of email writing in teaching in 
language education. For example, Liu (2011) conducted a research on EFL students’ 
perceptions of power differentials and their negotiation strategies when communicating 
with native English-speaking students via emails. The main participants, twenty eight 
Taiwanese and American undergraduates, participated in a semester-long cross-national 
email writing activity. The research showed that students in both places recognized 
power differentials. Especially, focusing on the Taiwanese students, the study identified 
their textual identities and writing styles used to negotiate power differentials in three 
types of interactions – balance, endurance, and resistance. Obviously, this study tried to 
provide insights into how important emails are applied to communicate with native 
English-speaking students. The findings offer important implications for teaching 
English writing in cross-national digital spaces. 
Mansor (2007) concentrated on collaborative learning via email discussion. Throughout 
exploring the strategies of implementing email in ESL writing classroom, the study 
focuses on how emails can be implemented in a collaborative learning ambience 
incorporating the stages of writing process approach and pair work activity. In order to 
obtain the success of the approach, both teachers and learners share their responsibilities 
together. Besides, the study was carried out with the hope that collaborative learning 
environment via email discussions has a positive effect on the students’ writing 
performance particularly in ESL writing classrooms. 
Another study was carried out by Mahfouz (2010) at a Jordanian university. The 
researcher tried to explore email exchanges with native speakers and how they can be 
used as a useful tool to improve the students’ foreign language proficiency in general 
and writing skill in particular. The research collected data from 110 university students 
in the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Arts at UNRWA University in Amman, 
Jordan through a set of questionnaire. The results showed that students' perceptions of 
using email interactions with native English speakers for improving their writing skills 
were generally positive. Besides, the study also pointed out three main differences 
among participants that related to whether they have a computer at home, how many 
years they can study at university and how often they can exchange emails with native 
English key pals so as to improve their writing skills. 
28 TRAN THI TO, LE PHAM HOAI HUONG 
The fact was that email writing is important for both teachers and learners; however, 
few studies have been carried out to investigate the student’s reflections on the process 
of learning to write emails in English to see that the students’ viewpoints can better the 
email writing skills for learners and improve teaching quality. The current study was set 
out to fill this gap. 
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
The purpose of study is to investigate the students’ perceptions of learning email writing 
in English, how they write emails in English in writing periods. Hence, the study 
focused on gathering data from high school students only. In order that the data 
reliability is strengthened to provide a clearer understanding of the problem, research 
triangulation with three data collection instruments including questionnaire, interview, 
and reflective journals was employed in this study. The study called for the voluntary 
participation of 100 students of grade 11 at a high school in Quang Tri province. All of 
them began learning English at the age of 8-11. 
Bell (1993, p.76) argues that questionnaire is very useful tool for gathering a wide range 
of data cheaply and quickly. Therefore, using questionnaire is so useful because of its 
convenience. The questionnaire was designed and sent to 100 students of grade 11 
students. It consisted of 35 statements basing on a five-point scale. The questionnaire 
involving in the content of how students learn to write emails in English includes four 
main clusters. Cluster 1 focused on teacher’s effort in encouraging students to learn 
email writing in English. Clusters 2 dealt with teacher’s methods in instructing students 
how to write emails. Students’ ways of learning to write emails in English was 
discussed in Cluster 3 and then Cluster 4 focused on teacher’s feedback for students’ 
email writings. 
The current study also interviewed 10 students of grade 11 in order to gather a variety 
of information about how they learn to write emails in English, their attitudes and 
reactions toward their email learning in English classes. There are five questions in the 
interview. The questions asked the interviewees about how they learn to write emails in 
English, how the teacher guided them to write emails, whether they got help from 
classmates and teachers. In addition, the students’ reflections on that learning process 
and some difficulties they had to face in email writing lessons were also mentioned in 
the interview. 
Besides, twenty students were invited to write reflective journals to reflect on the process 
of learning to write emails as well. It is believed that the focus on learning from reflective 
processes has the potential to enhance and illuminate the realities of the context in which 
practice takes place, and to help the students and practitioners to describe and understand 
their feelings and influence in the situation. Also, there is the potential, through critical 
reflection and action, for the students and practitioners to challenge the 'existing order' 
through an understanding of the factors which are influenced beyond and outside their 
immediate situations (Foster and Greenwood, 1998). Therefore, reflective journal writing 
is recognized as not only a valuable tool to promote students' learning but also an 
A STUDY ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE PROCESS... 29 
educational strategy for facilitating learning in the practice setting. In this study, the 
reflective journal was designed by the researcher. The students reflected on the practice of 
learning to write emails in English, how they learnt emails at school, how they felt about 
the effectiveness of the email writing lessons, some difficulties they face with. Six 
questions were designed to support students whether they know what should be included 
in their writing. In addition, the reflective journals aim to collect information about what 
the students really think about email writing lessons at school. Hence, they are required to 
write the journals after finishing the email writing periods. Moreover, students were 
required to write journals in Vietnamese at home. Then, twenty reflective journals were 
collected for data analysis. 
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
Before presenting numerical facts, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was used to test the 
reliability of the questionnaires. It reached 0.790 indicating acceptable reliability of the 
questionnaire. The mean scores of four clusters were presented in the following table: 
Table 1. Mean scores of four clusters 
 N Minimum Maximum Mean SD 
Cluster 1 100 2.00 5.00 3.59 0.61 
Cluster 2 100 2.57 5.00 3.79 0.54 
Cluster 3 100 2.00 5.00 3.71 0.51 
Cluster 4 100 1.75 5.00 3.24 0.65 
As shown in Table 1, the mean score of the all clusters with 100 participants was rather 
high (M>3). In addition, the standard deviation for most clusters was at acceptable 
level. These statistics show that the current study employed a reliable tool for data 
collection. The study continued examining the statistics of how students learn to write 
emails in English. The following table presents the statistics of teacher’s effort in 
encouraging students to learn email writing. 
Table 2. Teacher’s effort in encouraging students to learn email writing in English 
Number = 100 Min Max Mean SD 
1.The teacher often discuss directly with us the importance of 
emails writing in the class activities. 1 5 3.38 0.98 
2.The teacher starts the lesson with interesting pre-email writing 
activities to stimulate our participation 1 5 3.54 1.04 
3.The teacher provides some supplementary information or 
appropriate strategies for us to write emails. 1 5 3.69 0.91 
6.The teacher often brings hunour into the classroom 1 5 3.94 1.04 
22.The teacher often take time to celebrate students’ success in 
email writing lesson. 1 5 3.40 1.01 
30 TRAN THI TO, LE PHAM HOAI HUONG 
Among the above items for teacher’s effort in encouraging students to learn email 
writing in English, the mean of teacher’s humor in the classroom reached 3.94; this was 
also the highest score whereas the lowest value for item 1 stands at 3.38. To the items 2, 
22 and 3, the mean scores were 3.54, 3.40 and 3.69 respectively, significantly higher 
than the average. However, the statement 3 achieves the lowest SD, at 0.91, showing the 
response rate to be closer to the mean value. Whereas, the item 2 reaches the highest SD 
indicating that the response rate was quite spreading out. Clearly, the teacher’s humor 
got the highest mean in the study. 
Moreover, when being invited to answer the interview, one male student expressed that 
he expected to learn in a funny atmosphere in the classroom and he felt satisfied with 
his lesson. He said: “I supposed that email writing activities toward our learning were 
really important. I did not want to be under high pressure during email writing; 
however; I felt lucky when studying with my English teacher, Mrs. Huyen, who always 
tried to bring us many funny stories, interesting activities in our lessons”. 
Another student shared her viewpoints about the process of email writing in reflective 
journals. She wrote: “Our teacher helped me to recognize that email writing not only 
supported us to send, receive the data quickly and shared information easily but also 
contributed to improve our writing skills”. 
Tallon (2008) also indicated that teachers should usually encourage students that their 
language proficiency certainly gets better if they try to learn. It was the teacher who 
could motivate their students why email writing played an important role in writing skill 
and engage them in learning email writing through interesting activities. The students, 
hence, have more belief in themselves and try to reach higher achievement in language 
proficiency. In the reflective journal, a female student shared: “For me, learning to 
write a good email in English is difficult; however; emails supported me to manipulate 
with the modern technology easily and I did not become out of date. Thanks to our 
teacher’s explanation and the exchange of learning experiences every day, I have 
improved my email writing skill so as to support my study and my work in the future”. 
The current study implies that the students really expect the funny, comfortable learning 
environment in email writing lessons; hence, both teacher and students should pay more 
attention to how to create interesting activities to make the lesson more effective. 
Furthermore, the teacher should also try to begin the email writing lessons with many 
exciting writing activities, help students understand the necessity of learning email 
writing, and provide supplementary information or appropriate strategies toward the 
students’ email writing learning. 
The Table 3 displays the data for teacher’s methods in instructing students how to write 
emails in English. 
As shown in Table 3, the mean score of the grammar supplies achieved the highest 
value, M= 4.04 showing that grammar is the most important factor that students would 
like to master. Regarding new/more words (item 8, M= 3.96) and the explanation how 
to write email from English teachers (item 15, M = 3.95), the study revealed that the 
A STUDY ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE PROCESS... 31 
majority of students considered these values as integral as grammar. The mean value of 
item 10 ranks fourth, followed by items 7 (M= 3.68) and item 4 (M= 3.69) respectively. 
Item 4 has the lowest mean score, at 3.45. The standard deviation for most items was 
rather similar, excepting from items 4 and 5. These values show reliability in responses 
given by the respondents for teacher’s methods in instructing students how to write 
emails in English. 
Table 3. Teacher’s methods in instructing students how to write emails in English 
N= 100 Min Max Mean SD 
4.The teacher often requires us to participate in pair and group 
work activities