Email Pen Pals

Today, nearly 90% of youth in the United States between the ages of 12 and 17 use the Internet, and about half of these users go online every day. Although instant messaging is extremely popular, email remains the most popular Internet application. Teenagers use email to talk about dating, friends, parents, where they live, sports, school, and other topics. These adolescents not only learn a great deal about each other but also improve their writing skills in the process of writing letters and emails back and forth. Email correspondence between pen pals is a growing part of electronic communication not only for American teens but for young people around the globe.

Indeed, quite a few researchers feel that personal communication not only helps us develop friendships but also is instrumental in learning a language and improving writing skills. Students can learn more effectively when they interact with others because they are able to express ideas and interpret oral and written messages within a meaningful and purposeful context. In doing so, they become familiar with language symbols and structures, which prepares them to make connections between what they know and what they are learning. One activity, pen pal communication, can fulfill these interactive aspects of language development. When two people communicate through writing, an environment for language use is created. This activity has been applied in a variety of educational settings and among students of different age and grade levels. The research findings demonstrate that pen pal writing increases motivation in literacy learning, improves language proficiency, strengthens writing and keyboarding skills, and enhances cultural awareness. In one study, three groups of university teacher-education students were paired with public school students to form pen pal (correspondence through written letters to the university students), e-pal (communication through email to the same teacher-education students), and control (writing to an imaginary correspondent, no response expected) groups. Those students who communicated via email showed the greatest improvement in their writing, as compared to traditional pen pal correspondence. Other schools should consider incorporating e-pal programs so their students can realize these benefits too.

A company called ePALS helps schools set up pen pal communications with students from around the world. ePALS Classroom Exchange is one of the leading providers of school safe email and collaborative technology. Founded in 1986 by John Irving and Tim DiScipio and headquartered in Easton, Connecticut, with offices in Ottawa, Ontario, ePALS is an online [Page 293]environment in which teachers and students can safely connect with peers in an educational setting. Since it was introduced, ePALS Classroom Exchange has achieved a global reach, with 5.5 million students and teachers in over 191 countries. This reach was achieved by making the site available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. Because students can access potentially illegal content online either intentionally or inadvertently, ePALS introduced ePALS School Mail in 2001. This is a subscription-based, safe email option targeted to schools that allows students to use email in a protected, managed way. Even with safe email, the need to protect students from inappropriate material on the Internet remains and is addressed with the ePALS Safe Browser. The ePALS Safe Browser filters out inappropriate Web content and controls access to computer applications. It is a flexible product that allows school administrators to specify what is “inappropriate” and to create rules for different users, making it a better alternative to other browsers.

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