SMS and E-Mails Blamed for Poor Performance in English

[Kuruvilla CK Joseph]

I read with great interest the comments by the Director General of Education, Malaysia about the contributing factors for the decline in the overall performance of Form Three students in the PMR English Paper of 2003. He attributed SMS and e-mails as the main reasons for this decline! From my readings, many teachers and researchers have identified these two forms as facilitators of language learning, especially the writing skills in the English Language. In addition, it provides authentic practice and students get to use authentic language. Most importantly, students see this as an authentic task that is done on an every day basis. It fits the three criteria of CLT perfectly but the DG has chosen to look at it in a different light. What needs to be done is to use SMS and E-Mails selectively. I wonder if any of you out there has used e-mails and SMS in your language classrooms and got negative feedback. Please feel free to express your views and opinions on this matter.

[fluffyhamster]

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... =8359#8359

[woodcutter]

I didn't notice that Fluffy Duncan's previous post, admirable as it is, addressed your point exactly. I would agree with what you seem to be saying, that your director is wrong, and whatever the style of English language e-mails, spending time on them must contribute to English proficiency. To think otherwise would be against the currently sacred principles of 'communicative teaching', and nearly everyone would back you up.



Now, I'm off to drink a lot and shoot myself.

[Glenski]

I read with great interest the comments by the Director General of Education, Malaysia about the contributing factors for the decline in the overall performance of Form Three students in the PMR English Paper of 2003. He attributed SMS and e-mails as the main reasons for this decline!

Coming from Malaysia, I find this statement interesting. Their level of English is pretty low, according to TOEFL (or is it TOEIC?) test results. However, what is the percentage of people using email vs. studying English? In my opinion, that statement is rather foolish and perhaps overlooks the teaching system at hand.

[Machjo]

I've never used e-mail in the classroom yet, but have been trying to include it for next semester. I've always considerred it to be important that the internet communication be controlled, not only for security reasons, but also sinse I must admit that, while I tend to be more careful in e-mails, I do tend to type faster than the wind in forums and don't bother proofreading usually. So if I don't proofread in forums, then I suppose some might take it one step further and not proofread in e-mails either.
Just my thoughts (so for any English learner out there, don't trust my English in forums, he he!)

[drakshug]

Here in Lithuania they look on the whole issue quite positively. The school leaving exam last year actually had a task where the students had to write an e- mail to a friend. This caught us on the hop. I'm preparing students for the oral exam this year but my colleagues are using e- mails in the classroom as an informal English task. The lower level exam always had the option of writing a postcard though it hasn't been applied recently and it helped in the rather tricky (for Lithuanians) note/abreviated forms which is very personal anyway.
SMS hasn't really come into it as yet but mobiles are a pain in the classroom and I've had to confiscate a few. Most of them wouldn't dream of trying it in English which is a shame but I might try it with my intermediate classes. Just how do you mark an e-mail to a friend as it is informal and personal.... spelling? content? Surfing the net I'm often distressed to see (maybe glad to see) that my 14/15 year olds have a better grasp of written English than many native users or maybe we all get sloppy on the net?

[woodcutter]

The trouble with using e-mails is that they do include a lot of non-standard English and sloppy English. Since we usually force people to take a lot of very rigid exams, that could cause problems.

I still think it's a good way to motivate people and get them practising though.