E-MAIL Exchange Between Native And Non-Native Speakers: A Case Study In A CNU Writing Class

The paper reports a case study which focuses on the particular variety of CMC--e-mail exchange between native and non-native speakers, in an attempt to reveal the linguistic difference between native and non-native speakers and the problems that non-native speakers encounter in e-mail communication. The subjects involved in the study were from two intact classes. One was an EFL class (English as Foreign Language) in Capital Normal University, and the other, an English class at Morehead University in America They were asked to exchange e-mails based on the assigned topics for intercultural communication.After exposure to the exchange, Chinese students were questioned about (1) the specific types of linguistic difficulties and other communication problems that participants encountered in the use of e-mail, (2) the opinions of English learning students of Chinese on the use of e-mail in facilitating language learning. Finally, the e-mail exchanges were collected and analyzed quantitatively to examine the linguistic difference of native and non-native speakers.Results from the data analysis showed that, while statistically significant difference existed with respect of fluency and accuracy, there was no significant difference between native and non-native speakers in terms of syntactic difficulty, which could be attributed to the delayed nature of e-mail communication that allowed the participants more time to plan and produce syntactically complex language. It was also found that Chinese students experienced difficulty in communicating with native speakers. Factors causing Chinese students communication problems were categorized as linguistic factors, namely, word, sentence, usage, slang, and culturaldifference as well as non-linguistic aspects such as limited access to computer, slow response, even non-response and so on. The obtained results corroborated the previous conclusion that electronic discourse was a hybrid form of formal written texts and informal conversational texts. Moreover, the study provided substantial evidence supporting the usefulness of e-mail as a promising tool to promote student language learning.The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications. On one hand, for theory builder, the findings may provide empirical evidence to construct a model for L2 interlanguage model. On the other hand, from the practical point of view, the findings may help teachers understand specific linguistic differences between English speaking students and English learning students and the problems Chinese students encounter in e-mail exchange. Thus they can help language learners to improve linguistic performance and promote language learning.