Learning and retention of English email writing skills by students at an engineering university in Japan

With the majority of domestic and international communication being done over the internet, email writing skills are valuable. Many university curriculums, textbooks, and proficiency tests focus, in part, on these skills. This report describes how students at a private engineering university in Japan learn English email writing skills, specifically the students' initial performances, their performances after instruction, which elements students continue using after instruction, and retention of email skills beyond one semester. Emails written by approximately 500 students enrolled in English Communication courses during the four semesters of the 2009 and 2010 academic years were analyzed. The various purposes of the emails included introductions, project presentation, analysis, and evaluations. The results indicated that students in 2010 courses on average advanced from scores of roughly 1.5 to between 4.0 and 4.5 on a 5-point scale in one semester. After the 2–3 month break between semesters, students on average failed to use one or two of the five email parts. The results showed that participants in both the 2009 and 2010 portions of this study had a higher frequency of omitting parts of emails in this order: greeting, salutation, name, subject, and message. The authors believe this is due to regression to informal mobile phone habits and L1 transfer. Continued instruction, practice, and use of email seem necessary for students to retain the proper format.