What is Electronic Mail Electronic Mail in Teaching Writing

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B. Electronic Mail

1. What is Electronic Mail

Klesin 2008: 1 says that electronic mail, commonly called e-mail or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other computer networks. Originally, e-mail was transmitted directly from one user to another computer. This required both computers to be online at the same time. Todays e-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model. E-mail servers accept, forward, deliver and store messages. Users no longer need be online simultaneously and need only connect briefly, typically to an e-mail server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages. An e-mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message body, which is the e-mails content Kelsin, 2008: 1. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originators e-mail address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional information is added, such as a subject header field. The message header should include at least the following fields: · From: The e-mail address, and optionally the name of the author. In many e-mail clients are not changeable except through changing account settings. · To: The e-mail address, and optionally name of the messages recipient. · Subject: A brief summary of the topic of the message. Certain abbreviations are commonly used in the subject. commit to user 24 · Date: The local time and date when the message was written. Like the From: field, many e-mail clients fill this in automatically when sending. The recipients client may then display the time in the format and time zone local to himher. · Message-ID: Also an automatically generated field; used to prevent multiple delivery and for reference in In-Reply-To.

2. Electronic Mail in Teaching Writing

Technology is rapidly changing the way people communicate. Internet has been used by some language instructors in creative ways. One of creativity is the use of e-mail, as a specific feature of the Internet. E-mail is one of the most powerful and often used new communication tools because it is easy to use, even teachers those are not familiar with computers can quickly become adapt in using e-mail with their students. As stated by Dudeney and Hockly 2007: 5 that students’ activities where they depend much on the use of technology. The most popular technology used by the students is computer. Facts show that teachers tend to ignore ICT, and teachers are often far less skilled than the students. E-mail allows student to send a message via a computer to other user that will then be available for reading at that person’s convenience. The students receiving the message can respond easily by typing in a reply and pressing a key or clicking the mouse. The entire message or a part of the message can be included in the reply to remind the sender of the original post. commit to user 25 E-mail allows the students to keep in touch with their teachers and other students around the world via mailing list and discussing groups. In general, e-mail can encourage students to use computers in realistic, authentic situations in order to develop communicative and thinking skills. Although the Internet has been available to most people, only small amount of educators understand the potential of internet can provide in second and foreign language classrooms. E-mail can improve students’ writing skill including the aspects of writing namely; the use of punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting details, and organizing writing. E-mail provides the opportunity for students to improve their knowledge of the use of punctuation, capital letter, and mechanical writing. E-mail cannot be separated from computer because e-mail is one of the programs provided in internet soft ware application. When they type the assignment or message on the computer before sending it via e-mail, they can check the use of punctuation, capital letter, and mechanical writing correctly. They can also check the synonym, antonym, and even the meaning of the words electronically. It means that they save their valuable time in writing text. Eileen 2002: 4 said that by writing sentences and creating an illustration, the students find an appropriately descriptive word for themselves. Students elaborate on the word in the process; they make extensive use of the dictionary and thesaurus. commit to user 26 E-mail also provides the opportunity for students and teachers to communicate outside the classroom, for example sending, receiving, marking, and returning the students’ written assignments. When the students access to computers outside the class, they can write a text freely without being engaged in the limited time. It means that students are accustomed to expressing thoughts, feeling, and ideas better in written form. Moreover, Lee 1998: 3 underlines that by using e-mail; it enables the teacher to monitor the process of the students writings to save class time for the teachers assignments and comments. E-mail offers students opportunities for much more valuable communicative interaction in the target language. Occasionally, some students who do not like to express themselves in a group tend to do better with writing. Since students usually generate more content electronically than with hand writing methods, some students who are shy tend to express their opinions through e-mail freely without fear. This can give students self-confidence and improve their writing skill. The teaching and learning process used is based on Genre-Based Approach GBA. It is divided into two cycles. Each cycle contains four main stages such as building knowledge of the field, modeling of text, joint construction text, and independent construction of text Depdiknas, 2004: 46. Each of the stages can be shown as follows: commit to user 27 a. Building Knowledge of Text BKOF First of all in pre-meeting, the students in group are asked to find out the examples of descriptive text on the internet, and then send it to the teacher’s e-mail address. The students are introduced to the learning materials which are essential for the next part of the writing teaching process such as organizing ideas logically and coherently, supporting details, selecting appropriate vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and capital letter. Besides, they are also introduced the instructions of e-mail, various vocabularies related to e-mail, and how e-mail is operated. The aim of this stage is to make sure that the students have enough background of the topic or field to be able to write about it. b. Modeling of Text MOT The teacher provides the examples of descriptive text taken from the students’ assignments in the pre-meeting which are sent via e-mail. The aim of this stage is to make the students familiar with the purpose or social function, language features and generic structure of the text they are going to write by giving the example of text models. c. Joint Construction of Text JCOT The students make a kind of writing in pair, and then they send and share their tasks to others via e-mail. It is used to know the students’ cooperation and motivation. The task and activities in this stage are designed to enable students to: explore further the purpose of the genre and its relation to the commit to user 28 topic or field; contribute knowledge of the field in the shared construction of a text; and negotiate with the teacher and other students to construct a written text. d. Independent Construction of Text ICOT This is the final stage of the cycle when the students write their own text. The teacher provides a project to be accomplished by the students via e- mail individually. The project is making descriptive writing by paying attention to some writing aspects namely; the use of punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting detail, and organizing writing well. The teacher’s main role is to provide constructive comment to the students on what further development if it is necessary.

3. The Advantages of Using Electronic Mail