Southern New Hampshire University

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Southern New Hampshire University

• MS in TEFL Program
• EFL 537 CALLInstructor Lyra Riabov
• Lesson Plan A High School Email Exchange
  Project
• Presenter Masao Nakagawa

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Lesson Plan

• A High School E-mail Exchange Project
• An Attempt of Cross-cultural Collaboration

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Contents

• Outline of the Lesson
• Description of Class
• Materials
• Objectives
• Procedure
• Closing

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I. Outline of the Lesson

• This is a project-based lesson in which American
  high school students and Japanese high school
  students exchange e-mails so that they can deepen
  their understanding of the school culture of
  their counterpart.
• In this lesson, the students join a mailing list
  specially designed for this project. They will
  exchange e-mails through this mailing list.
• Three teachers are involved in this project a
  high school teacher in the US, a Japanese high
  school teacher who works with the teacher in the
  US for this project in an American high school,
  and a high school teacher in Japan.
• These three teachers will be facilitators of the
  mailing list.

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II. Description of Class USA

• Student 16 sophomores
• Native Language English
• Language Proficiency Level N/A
• Previous computer work
• Every student has his/her own e-mail
  account.
• They have utilized computers in their
  research projects.
• Class needs or goals
• This is a part of a Japanese history
  course. The course objectives are 1) critical
  analysis of Japanese history 2) understanding of
  Japanese culture and society.
• Recent work
• The students read a book about Japanese high
  schools written by an American graduate student
  who taught English at a high school in Japan.

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II. Description of Class Japan

• Student 16 sophomores
• Native language Japanese
• Language proficiency level low intermediate
  high intermediate
• Previous computer workThe students have
  utilized computers in their research
  projects.Every student opened his/her own e-mail
  account and exchanged e-mails with their peers.
• Class needs or goals
• This is a part of an EFL writing course. The
  course objectives are 1) to improve paragraph
  writing skills. 2) to write a short essay for the
  final project of the course.
• Recent work
• The students have written several types of
  paragraphs, such as time sequence,
  classification, and cause and effect.

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III. Materials

• A computer with access to the Internet for each
  student
• Microsoft Word
• Yahoo e-groups
• Tutorial for yahoo e-groups
• Brochures of each high school
• A guideline for netiquette
• Handouts

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IV. Objectives

• 1. General objectives
• To establish an international and cross-cultural
  relationship between students from different
  countries
• To share cultural views and experiences that may
  contribute to a better knowledge and
  understanding of one another
• To learn from peers

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IV. Objectives (cont.)

• 2. Language objectives (Japanese students)
• To write paragraphs to an authentic audience
• To develop writing skills for an authentic
  audience
• To revise and refine writing through the e-mail
  interaction (process writing)
• To raise awareness toward English as a valuable
  tool for international communication

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IV. Objectives (cont.)

• 3. Computer literacy objectives
• To learn netiquette
• To participate in an e-group
• To familiarize oneself with discussion through a
  computer-mediated forum
• To raise awareness toward a computer as a
  valuable tool for international communication

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V. Procedure

• Pre-computer activitiesDay 1-Contextualization
  (US school) 50 min.
• A Japanese teacher will visit their Japanese
  history class and answer the students questions
  about Japanese culture and its school system. The
  US teacher of the course will facilitate the
  discussion. The students will be also given a
  school brochure of the Japanese school to which
  the teacher belongs as supplemental material.
• The US teacher will suggest an e-mail exchange
  with Japanese high school students at the end of
  the class so that they can ask further questions
  about Japanese culture.

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V. Procedure (cont.)

• Pre-computer activities (cont.)
• Day 1-Contextualization (Japanese school) 50
  min.
• The students will read a reflection paper of an
  American exchange student who visited the school
  several years ago, and discuss the cultural
  differences and similarities described in the
  paper.
• Next, the students will write a paragraph about
  the differences between American high schools and
  Japanese high schools.
• The teacher will suggest an e-mail exchange with
  American high school students at the end of the
  class so that they can share their thoughts on
  cultural differences.

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V. Procedure (cont.)

• Pre-Computer activities (con.)
• Day 2-Orientation (both schools) 50 min.
• The teacher will explain
• 1) the objectives of the project
• 2) the structure and the procedure of the
  project
• 3) the evaluation criteria of the project
• The students will ask questions and discuss
  further possibilities of the project.

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V. Procedure (cont.)

• 2. Presentation of the lesson
• Day 3-hands-on activities (both schools) 50 min.
• Brief lecture about netiquette
• Tutorial of yahoo e-groups
• Joining the e-group
• Posting a self-introduction message
• Posting a picture
• The students will read messages later.

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V. Procedure (cont.)

• 3. Student practice
• Day 4,5-culture Q A activity
• Each of the US students will post a question
  about Japanese culture. (individual activity)
• The Japanese students will be paired up. The
  teacher will assign two of the questions on the
  discussion board to each pair so that they can
  compose their answers in English cooperatively.
  (classroom activity 50 min.)
• The US students will read the answers and discuss
  Japanese culture and society in their class. A
  summary of the discussion will be posted on the
  discussion board. (classroom activity 50 min.)
• The Japanese students will comment on the summary
  and the US students will comment back.
  (individual activity)

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V. Procedure (cont.)

• 3. Student practice
• Day 6,7-essay writing and reviewing (individual
  activity)
• The Japanese students will write a free essay for
  their final project of the writing course. The
  Word files of the essays will be stored in a
  common folder of the e-group.
• Each of the US students will pick up one of the
  essays and write a review. The review includes
  1) comments on the similarities and differences
  of the cultural view 2) good comments 3) some
  suggestions for improvement. The Word files of
  the reviews will also be stored in the common
  file.
• The Japanese students will revise their essay
  after reading the review.

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V. Procedure (cont.)

• 4. Follow up activities
• Day 8-Reflection (both schools) 50 min.
• The students will write a reflection paper about
  the project. (The Japanese students will be
  allowed to write the paper in their native
  language.)
• The students will hold a reflective discussion
  about the project. The summary of the discussion
  will be posted on the discussion board. They will
  exchange their comments on the summary through
  the e-group.

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VI. Closing

• Potential problems
• There is a possibility that students will be
  reluctant to participate in the e-group or the
  on-line discussions. Since this lesson is
  designed for student-centered learning, the
  students agreement on the theme of the project
  is essential.
• Language tasks tend to be very demanding.
  Teachers must implement certain measures to
  encourage students to accomplish the language
  tasks.
• Communication breakdowns caused by cultural
  misunderstandings between the students may
  happen. The difference of cultural discourse
  norms should be mentioned in the preparation
  activity.

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VI. Closing (cont.)

• 2. Evaluation of students learningThe
  students learning will be evaluated through
• Reflection paper
• The e-group log the participation to the
  discussions will be recorded in this log.
• Free essay (the Japanese students)
• Essay review (the US students)