Using Electronic Mail as a Medium for Foreign Language Study and Instruction

Ken R. Lunde
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Abstract:
This article describes how electronic mail can be used to send and receive foreign character sets, using the Japanese character set as an example. Electronic mail is fast, inexpensive, and can be stored, modified, and printed. This modern communication tool can be used to accelerate the traditional penpal process, and can act as a medium for instruction through correspondence courses. In addition, other computerized information, such as computer software and digitized speech can be sent using electronic mail. This opens many doors for future trends in computer-aided instruction (CAI).

Introduction

Electronic mail is an efficient means of communicating at the local and international scale. While it is easy to send text which uses only the 94 printable American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) characters, character sets which use more than these 94 characters pose problems. This article illustrates how these problems have been solved for the Japanese character set which contains nearly 7,000 characters, and how this ability to send foreign character sets can be applied to foreign language study and instruction.

This article has been divided into three parts to allow readers to skip over parts which are of less interest to them. Part I describes what electronic mail is and its advantages over other forms of communication; all readers are encouraged to read through this. Part 2 contains technical information for those who are interested in how Japanese is transmitted using electronic mail. Part 3 contains information on how electronic mail can be used for foreign language study and instruction, and examples of electronic mail in practical usage.

1. Electronic Mail

Electronic mail is a modern way to communicate across campus or across the globe. It makes use of computer networks to relay messages to their respective destinations. This adds a fourth method of communication to the three listed below:

Telephone

Facsimile

Conventional Mail

There are three factors to consider when communicating: speed, cost, and ease of storage for future reference, modification, or printing. For the sake of this article, I will suppose that we are communicating with Japan.

The first factor, speed, is found in facsimile and the telephone which communicate in real time. The next fastest method of communication is electronic mail. Electronic mail messages take anywhere from 30 minutes to six hours to travel from the United States to Japan. When sending electronic mail within the United States, the travel time is reduced to just a few minutes. The slowest method of communication is conventional mail which may take up to one week.

The second factor, cost, is an important consideration. Electronic mail may be the cheapest method of communication depending on where you are and who you are. Telephone and facsimile are more expensive since a direct long-distance connection is required. Electronic mail, for example, is entirely subsidized by the university for faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but students are allowed to use only a pay-as-you-go electronic mail service.

The third factor, ease of storage, is found only in electronic mail. Each character is stored electronically with its own unique electronic value, and thus can be inserted into word processing applications for storage, modification, and printing. A facsimile is a remote photocopy, so the unique electronic values for each individual character are not recoverable.

There are other advantages as well. Just as text files can be sent using electronic mail, computer software (in encoded form) also can be sent. In fact, public domain software may be acquired by logging in to remote hosts using telnet (remote login) or file transfer protocol (ftp). In addition, there are also mailing lists which regularly broadcast information on electronic mail networks.

2. Technical Aspects

2.1. The Japanese Character Set

The ASCII character set is a seven-bit character set. In other words, each character is represented by seven binary bits, each bit having two possible values, on or off. This gives us a maximum of 128 representable characters. However, only 94 of these 128 ASCII characters are printable (numerals, symbols, and the Alphabet). The rest are unprintable, and include control characters such as <CR> (carriage return), <LF> (line feed), etc.

2.2. Electronic Transmission of the Japanese Character Set

The Japanese have developed what are known as Kanji-In and Kanji-Out escape sequences; the reason why Kanji-In and Kanji-Out are called escape sequences will become apparent in the following paragraph. The Kanji-In escape sequence commands Japanese terminals to begin to treat two ASCII characters as one Japanese character. This means that two bytes represent a single character. The Kanji-Out escape sequence, on the other hand, commands Japanese terminals to return to the normal ASCII mode, namely that one byte represents one character. Using two seven-bit bytes to represent one character creates a matrix in which the first byte is the row, and the second byte is the column. As mentioned above, JIS only uses the 94 printable ASCII characters in this coding scheme; this allows a maximum of 8,836 characters to be represented which can clearly handle the 6,877 standard Japanese characters. The remaining 1,959 spaces are used for user-defined or corporation specific characters.

3. Examples of Applications and Practical Usage

3.1. Applications in Foreign Language Study and Instruction

Readers of the CALICO Journal are aware that CAI software and video tapes are currently being used to improve foreign language study and instruction. Now I will describe how electronic mail communication technology can be applied to foreign language study and instruction.

One traditional method used by foreign language students to improve their abilities in their target language is that of obtaining penpals. All correspondence with these penpals is usually done by conventional mail, and consequently much time elapses between letters. Perhaps only three letters are exchanged per semester. Electronic mail accelerates this process considerably. For example, in a time span of only two months I have received eight electronic mail letters from one of my Japanese penpals. Electronic mail correspondence has many benefits: the chances that mail will cross are reduced, and students get more practice reading and composing text in their target language. The first issue is a logistical matter. Foreign language departments or individuals can purchase terminals which display foreign languages. Dedicated terminals are, however, not always required since there is a wide variety of software which allows computers to emulate terminals, even foreign language terminals. This means that computers which foreign language departments or individuals already possess may be used as electronic mail terminals. The second issue has a variety of solutions. For starters, many universities throughout the United States have set up exchange programs with foreign universities, and an electronic mail penpal exchange program could enhance this relationship. Penpals and their electronic mail addresses can also be obtained by replying to articles posted in electronic mail news broadcasts. The most difficult foreign electronic mail address to obtain is the first one. After that they pile up fast! The third issue is educational in nature. Students and teachers must learn the fundamentals of word processing in their target languages, and learn how to use electronic mail. In the case of Japanese, the principles of Kana-to-Kanji Conversion must be learned. This can be accomplished through frequent tutorial sessions.

Electronic mail also has the potential to be used for administering correspondence courses. Correspondence courses are traditionally sent to students using conventional mail, and are tailored for people who do not have the time to attend formal classes due to job conflicts. As with correspondence with penpals, electronic mail also accelerates this process. Correspondence courses which are administered by electronic mail are not limited to people living in one's own country, but could be administered on a global scale due to the speed of electronic mail.

 3.2. Examples of Electronic Mail in Practical Use

 I use electronic mail on a daily basis for sending and receiving Japanese text. I am currently corresponding with three Japanese acquaintances, all of whom work for corporations in or around Tokyo. Although the reason I correspond with them is for the sake of obtaining useful information, my Japanese language skills have improved significantly as a side-effect of frequent correspondence. Imagine how much I could benefit if I concentrated my efforts on improving my Japanese! I simply like the idea that I can communicate with Japan hundreds of times faster and at a much lower cost than conventional mail.

These topics are called newsgroups, and a small sample of them is listed below:

Newsgroup Name	Description of Newsgroup
fj.ai	Artificial intelligence discussions
fj.books	Books of all genres, shapes, and sizes
fi.comp.text	Text processing issues and methods
fj.followup	Follow-ups to articles in net.general
fj.general	*Important* and timely announcements of interest to all
fj.junet	General discussion about JUNET itself
fj.misc	Various discussions when there are no groups to match
fj.rec.animation	Discussions about animated movies
fj.rec.ham	Discussions about ham radio
fj.rec.idol	General topics about idols (i.e., popular singers)
fj.rec.misc	Recreational/participant topics not covered elsewhere
fj.soc.misc	Socially-oriented topics not covered elsewhere
fj.sys.mac	Discussions about the Apple Macintosh & Lisa
fj.sys.pc98	Discussions about NEC's PC-9800 series & other computers

Each JUNET News broadcast contains many articles. The poster's address is always included in the header of each article so that replies can be sent either directly to the poster or as an article to be posted in a future JUNET News broadcast.

Although I am not using electronic mail to its fullest educational potential, I do notice a significant improvement in my abilities in reading and composing text in Japanese. Those who wish to use electronic mail strictly as a learning tool will, I am sure, experience marked improvement in their target language skills.

I recently discovered that there is already a course which makes use of electronic mail to enhance foreign language study. This course is offered at the University of Toronto, Canada.

This course, called Computer-Assisted Composition in Japanese and Chinese, while not devoted solely to correspondence using electronic mail, does give students much practice in composing text in their target language. The students studying Japanese are given the option to use electronic mail to correspond with their peers in Japan, namely students studying English at the University of Tokyo, to exchange ideas and information.

The goals of this course are to motivate the students to use their target language creatively, to promote interaction in their target language, to enhance the cultural and intellectual component of foreign language study, and to improve the students' ability to read Chinese characters. The results were that the students displayed marked improvement in their character production, reading comprehension, and word processing skills in their target language.

For further information regarding this course, please contact Professor Kazuko Nakajima, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, 130 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S IA5, Canada (BITNET: nakajima@utorepas).

Conclusion

The use of electronic mail for foreign language instruction does not, of course, replace formal classroom instruction, but instead complements it. Electronic mail is simply a modern communication tool which has the potential for use as an instructional or learning aid. Electronic mail communication can significantly improve students' reading and composition skills in their target language; spoken and listening comprehension skills can be improved in a classroom environment under the direct supervision of a native speaker who is qualified to teach, or in the foreign country itself.

Teachers should carefully consider how to use electronic mail as an instructional tool. If penpal correspondence using electronic mail is to be used as a motivational tool, it may be best to leave it out of the classroom environment since any evaluation or grading by an instructor may deter students from freely communicating in their target language.