\

Pergamon

English for Specic Purposes, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 391412, 1998 1998 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0889-4906/98 $19.00+0.00

PII: S0889-4906(97)00024-0

How to Motivate EFL Learning and Teaching of Academic Writing by Cross-cultural Exchanges
Sada A. Daoud
AbstractLearning/teaching academic writing in EFL and ESL contexts is often described as challenging. In the case of Arab learners and teachers, the task is formidable in many cases, mainly because of students lack of prociency and insufcient motivation to write. This paper describes a strategy that has proved useful in motivating EFL/ESP students of intermediate level to write better. The strategy is based on an exchange of students essays. Two teachers, one American and one Syrian, were involved. Students on both sides started by answering one anothers questions. Afterwards, they wrote essays that reected their personalities, lives, and culture or dealt with issues of international concern. They did this with the audience in mind. The teachers frequently informed each other about different matters related to implementation, including management issues and their own response as well as that of their students to the strategy. This exchange proved to be motivating and useful to the EFL context in which it was tried. The paper shows how this strategy has helped to effect improvement in the learning and teaching of academic writing skills as well as some change in students attitude to the target culture, perhaps as a result of increased audience awareness. 1998 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Introduction
As is the case in many EFL and ESL contexts, learning/teaching academic writing is challenging to students and teachers in Syria and other Arab countries. This is mainly because of students lack of prociency and insufcient motivation to write (see Doushaq 1986, for example). The challenge is greater in countries where English is not the language of instruction but a compulsory school and college subject. This is the case in the context for this paper. The paper reports on a pedagogical project: a cross-cultural essay exchange. The main aim of the exchange was to motivate students to write

Address correspondence to: Sada A. Daoud, CELTE, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: elray@csv.warwick.ac.uk.

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by giving them real audiences, but it proved to be useful to the authors EFL students and to her in other ways as well, e.g. increasing their understanding of the target culture. After describing the context of this project, the paper reviews related literature and then describes the process of implementation, focusing on students and teachers responses and the effect on improving writing and attitudes.

The Context
Research for this project was carried out at the ESP Centre (ESPC), Damascus University. Among other things, the Centre provides required courses to all the Universitys students doing Masters degrees in disciplines other than English language and literature. The courses are intensive (20 hours per week for three months) or semi-intensive (10 hours per week for six months). Every year, about 400 students follow these courses, which are designed to meet their academic and professional needs. Students The main focus of this research is on postgraduate medical students at the ESPC, most of whom are at intermediate level when they start the course. On the whole, they are the elite in the country as far as their general academic record is concerned. They value achievement and are highly competitive. Their English course is semi-intensive and in-sessional (i.e. they have to follow it during the rst or second year of their Masters courses). They are required to work a minimum of 40 hours a week in teaching hospitals in addition to one to three nights (depending on their specialization) as part of their professional practice. Medical students motivation to learn English is generally high because they need the language for their academic and professional courses, mainly for reading medical references, and they need it to improve their chances of getting study and work offers in English speaking countries. The United States is often the country of their choice. Course Components Three main components constitute the ESP course designed for medical postgraduate students: Core, Social, and Lab, each of which has its own syllabus. The Core is the main course component wherein all four skills are learnt in an integrated manner, though its main focus is reading. The same approach is followed in the Social component, which concentrates on listening, speaking, and general language and social skills. In the Lab component, students learn how to listen to lectures and take notes. Course hours are divided equally between the Core on the one hand and the Social and Lab on the other (5 hours a week each).

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Academic writing is a Core component. Students learn to write formal letters, essays, and research papers. However, most of the time allocated to writing is usually spent on the research paper, called Academic Project Paper (APP), which is based on doing some kind of case study or library research on topics that relate to students specializations. Essay writing, which is not as strictly eld-specic as the APP, does not usually get as much attention due to the course time constraint. It is, however, the principal means of measuring students achievement in writing in the end-of-course exam, the only criterion for pass or fail. Students' and Teachers' Attitude to Academic Writing Students feel that they are poor writers. Asked about the skill they thought they were best at, none selected writing, a few selected speaking and listening, and the majority chose reading. They expect the course to cater to their needs/wants in this order: speaking, writing, and then reading (Daoud 1994a). A previous study at the site (Barmada 1993), showed that medical students perceived writing as the skill they needed least. A more recent study (Daoud 1995), however, showed that though the majority still perceived speaking as the skill they needed most, their perception of writing needs was changing. About 46.5% believed that they would need to publish in English in the future. However, their motivation to write is generally low; some even claimed to hate writing. This could be attributed to the contextual constraints they work under (mainly that of time) and to their overall low writing prociency due to lack of experience in this area. In addition, the courses writing requirements are higher than students can cope with. This causes learning anxiety, particularly because they are used to high achievement. Moreover, the general feeling on the part of the teachers at the Centre is that after 11 years of learning English at school and college, these students should be able to write essays and mini research projects reasonably well. This attitude could increase student anxiety in a culture where teachers views are generally respected. Also, most teachers at the ESP Centre nd teaching writing challenging (a pain in the neck). They believe it is the most constrained and problematic, and that although it is time and energy consuming, it is the least rewarding of the components in terms of learning effects and relevance to students immediate and future needs. Some think that the majority of students will not need to write in English in the future. To counter negative attitudes and feelings on the part of learners and teachers, there is a need for a good deal of understanding about the learning and teaching of writing. Students in this context, and perhaps in similar ones, need tutors to provide a more liberal methodology with attention to affect and motivation in order to build on their strengths and positive characteristics. The next section reviews some literature on motivation and motivating language learning with particular reference to ESP and academic writing.

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Review of Related Literature

The inuence of motivation and learner differences in language learning has been much emphasized (see, for example, Gardner & MacIntyre 1990; Gardner & Tremblay 1994; Skehan 1990). Oxford (1990: 140) states that the affective side of the learner is probably one of the very biggest inuences on language learning success or failure. In their review of the affective variables and their role in second language learning, Gardner & MacIntyre (1993) show the relationship between learners attitudes and motivation and describe how language anxiety impedes language learning. Motivation and affect have also been emphasized in relation to EFL teaching and learning. For example, Dornyei (1994) highlights the role of the teacher as a motivator, and lists thirty strategies that EFL teachers can use to motivate students. Among these is promoting student contact with L2 speakers and using motivating feedback. The literature also reveals the role of motivation in ESP. Harvey (1986), for example, discusses motivational variables in ESP and the role of the teacher in motivating learning. She presents a model of learning motivation in which teacher intervention takes place at different stages and in different ways, starting with identifying learner needs and expectations and ending with helping the learner focus on a specic type of learning activity to full a specic goal (p. 29). Harvey (1986: 3132) also points out that although ESP learners are usually instrumentally motivated, with a rational understanding that English is a means of communication, this may not be accompanied by an equally positive emotional attitude toward the language, and recommends teachers to work on student motivation. According to Harvey (1986: 32) two factors may negatively inuence ESP students attitude and motivation. First, the feeling that learning the language requires a substantial investment in time and, secondly, the resentment of cultural dominance implicit in the wide use of English. To sustain motivation in ESP courses, different suggestions have been made. For EFL contexts, Harvey (1986: 32) recommends adequate interaction of teacher style and recognition of students needs and expectations. In ESL, Bloor & Bloor (1987) recommend negotiating the syllabus with the learners. Other writers suggest thorough understanding of the local situation (Adams-Smith 1986; Holliday 1994), and some argue for ESP courses that contain a general English component (Boyle 1993). In some cases students need and want a balance between ESP and EGP (English for General Purposes). In general, it is agreed that priorities should be established because pleasing everybody is rather difcult (Weir 1988). If motivational and affective factors are important in language learning in general, they are of vital importance in teaching/learning academic writing for two main reasons. First, writing is not generally the activity that student writers would willingly do (see Raimes 1983); even some professional writers acknowledge nding it challenging (e.g. Widdowson 1983). Second, it has been shown that writing, more than any other language skill, is a constrained

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activity on many levels: cognitively, communicatively, textually, linguistically, and contextually (Frederiksen & Dominic 1981: 1820). In EFL contexts, it can be painful for adult learners who lack the effective English to express their conceptual and experiential knowledge. Contextual constraints, e.g. time and timing of sessions, could aggravate the situation and lead to writing-related anxiety, which in turn leads to lower levels of verbal production, according to Gardner & MacIntyre (1993: 6). Thus, writing pedagogy should be aware of the importance of affect in order to be effective. The sources of motivation normally mentioned in the literature are the teacher; the learning/teaching task; tests or exams; and students needs, wants, and expectations. Though all these sources appear in the strategy this paper reports on (next section), the main source here is cultural contact with native speakers who provide motivating feedback. In this strategy, recipients of motivation include not only the students but also their teachers. The teachers involved motivate their students by nding motivating tasks for them. They, in turn, are motivated by these students and by each other. There is a reciprocal relationship, as we shall see.

The Strategy
Where The Idea Came From The idea of the essay exchange came in a letter (15 September 1992) that a Syrian member of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) passed on to me upon the writers request: ... please pass this letter to any colleague who may be interested. In this letter, Dr. Joan E. Penzenstadler, who was teaching freshmen composition at Clark College in the State of Washington, USA, invited participation in an essay exchange project in which teachers from different countries were involved. She explained that participants would ask their students to write essays with the other side of the exchange in mind, the essays would throw light upon their writers personalities, experiences, and the history and culture of their countries, or deal with issues of international concern. To encourage foreign teachers to participate, Dr. Penzenstadler added:
I have conducted essay exchanges in the past, both in the US and while teaching in Taiwan... Invariably, the students on both sides of the exchange were stimulated to better writing and were eager to read what was sent them.

Because the American academic quarter is short (10 weeks), she suggested starting immediately with exchanging lists of questions to which students could initially respond in paragraphs or short essays. This would motivate students to write longer essays to their audiences later, she explained. She urged participants in the project to send brochures and other information about their educational institutions.

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The idea appealed to me as relevant to my students writing needs. As the literature review shows, many writers have recommended contact with native speakers for acquiring a second language. I thought it would be a motivating activity that would prepare my students for writing their essays and research projects. Because contact hours in the medical course are few and students are loaded with work and study responsibilities, I thought of treating it as an optional extracurricular activity. Upon reection, I decided to test students response before experimenting with the idea as classroom research.

Initial Student Response and Consequent Action Initially, more than 50% of the students (in three classes, a total of 55 students) responded positively to the idea mainly because their audience would be native speakers of English. Students also agreed to treat the activity as extracurricular. I made it clear to them that taking it seriously would give them good training in essay writing and stand them in good stead in the nal exam. To test their response in action, I asked all students to work in groups and draft some questions to send to their American counterparts. A list of twenty questions emerged from group work and negotiation in the three classes. All students, those who agreed to write for the project and those who did not, participated in drafting and negotiating the questions, some of which turned out to be politically and intellectually challenging (see Appendix A.1). The AmericanSyrian questionanswer exchange was swift and motivating. We sent our questions and received questions in return (see Appendix A.2). Because all my students participated in writing the questions, all were eager to see how their questions were answered. Students started immediately drafting and revising answers to send to the US. Shortly afterwards, a packet of twenty-ve short paragraph and essay answers was dispatched to Clark College. Appendix B shows a questionanswer sample from each side of the exchange. To sustain students initial motivation, I treated writing at this preliminary stage as free writing, and the focus was mainly on ideas and clarity. Students attention was drawn to specic rhetorical structures: topic sentences and supportthings the majority were not aware of before. Language and mechanical errors were dealt with only if they affected meaning. However, I constantly reminded students of their audience. Writing was carried out at home, given to me for comment, and later revised by the writers according to feedback. Students were given freedom to choose whichever question they were interested in answering. In some cases, several writers answered the same question, each from his/her own perspective. Most of the questions sent to us were answered, even the political ones. Some students considered the latter highly challenging. Still, these questions were their favourite.

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Students' Main Writing Problems at the Early Stage Students had several major problems at the early stage of the essay exchange. The rst problem was sweeping generalisations with little support. Students also lacked appropriate vocabulary and expressions and needed help in these areas. The most challenging writing problem, however, related to style and tone. In their early drafts, some students were aggressive in addressing their American counterparts. They seemed to address the American government or public. It took me time and effort to train them to modify their tone and convince them that the type of writing they were trying was persuasive in some cases. Good writers, I reminded them, had to nd their way to peoples hearts and minds by presenting convincing arguments, supported by concrete details and examples. I have recorded some of their interesting answers in the early drafts and how these were modied later in the light of feedback. Appendix C shows one example of an early draft, the teachers comment on it, and the students modied version. The Second American Mailing Shortly after the initial questionanswer exchange we received a generous packet of essays from Dr. Penzenstadler. Thirty-ve essays were sent in addition to other useful materials. The essays were written in a variety of modes, purposes, and formats. Some dealt with different aspects of American life and culture, including topics such as Wrestling: A Sport in American Schools, How Christmas Came to America, ThanksgivingThe Truth behind the Myth, Silver Love, The Majority Doesnt Always Rule, The Gang Guy, Pygmy Goat Show, The Sting of Death, Hiking in the Rocky Mountains, Building Your Own Home: An American Dream, My Life across America, etc. Other essays, using comparison and contrast or interviews, gave us insights into other cultures as well. This reected the multicultural dimension of American society. We were familiarised with aspects of the Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, Togolese, French, German, and Swedish cultures. Topics included: Marriage in Togo, Christmas Seasons of America and Sweden, From Hong Kong to America on a Student Visa, Hinduism, and Education in Egypt and the United States. Appendix D shows a sample American essay. I found all the essays interesting and enlightening about American culture. Their multi-cultural aspect was also fascinating. The essays, however, were not the only thing my exchange partner sent in the second mailing. She enclosed other useful things: (a) a detailed description of how she used received essays in her own classes; (b) a copy of English 101 syllabus; (c) photographs of her two classes and college buildings, etc. Some students also attached photographs to their essays. These proved to be motivating to us as they were a tangible proof of the authenticity of the task. We were able to identify the essay writers on a piece

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of transparent paper attached to the pictures of the whole class on which students gures were drawn and their names were written.This is how my American correspondent described her use of foreign essays:
I make several copies of the essays and more copies of the special essays [She meant good ones]. These are made into booklets which include 34 essays. I insert a pocket and a card which the student signs for checkout, like a library book. I have these booklets in the room at class time and keep reminding students to check one out and bring it back in a week. If checkouts are voluntary, one needs only enough booklets for half the class... restricting students to checking one out at a time... I use different colored paper covers for the special papers.

She warned me NEVER put the original out where it can be borrowed by students. Dr. Penzenstadlers description of the writing course at Clark College was very enlightening. She informed me about the aim behind writing to real audiences on subjects students are familiar with: Writing about a subject one knows well makes one an expert on the topic, enabling the writer (and the teacher) to focus on the development of skills such as organization, clarity, and correctness. She added:
I nd that even when my students write about what they know well, it is a real challenge for them to present it clearly to someone who knows little or nothing about it. This is why I have them write for foreigners: to force them to make it all as clear as possible. Otherwise they assume the reader, a young American like them, can read their minds. Your students will find it challenging [added emphasis], too, I guarantee.

She was right; my students found the task of writing clearly to a foreign audience very challenging. But this kind of challenge proved to be useful and productive in the case of these bright and competitive medical students. They wanted to prove to their American audience that they were able to write well in English. The information my partner sent me with the packet of essays was very useful and educational to me. It also saved me a lot of time needed to learn the lessons she had learnt from experience. I was motivated to work harder on the essay exchange, and my students positive response motivated me even more. The borrowing rate was high, and responses came orally and in writing. I adapted Dr. Penzenstadlers class use of the essays in ways suitable to our context and to my research purpose. For example, because my students were very busy, I asked them to check one essay at a time and asked them to express their response to it in one paragraph, at least, on a special response sheet I attached to each essay. These written responses served two purposes: giving students additional practice in writing, and monitoring students responses and writing development. I also used informal discussion with individuals or small groups of students after class as a research

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tool to monitor student response. Samples of students comments (written and oral) were collected in a research record I kept for this purpose. The Second Syrian Mailing Our second mailing to Clark College included 35 essays on a wide range of topics that related to students lives and culture, such as The French Occupation of Syria, A Typical Day in My Life, Studying Medicine in Syria, What I like Best about My Country, Life in Students Halls of Residence, Wars, Ramadan: The Month of Fasting, New Years Day in Damascus, My Neighbours Wedding Party, The Five Pillars of Islam, Women Education in Syria, Teaching English: a Syrian Perspective, Medical Care in Syria, and others. Appendix E shows a sample Syrian essay.

Making Use of the Longer American Essays

In writing the essays, we built upon the skills students had acquired in the early free writing questionanswer stage, and further use was made of the longer American essays. In addition to meaning, purpose, and audience, focused on earlier, I guided students in how to write a coherent and unied essay. Some of the American essays were used as models for introducing the concepts of coherence and unity on the essay level. Having been written and revised several times under the supervision of an expert teacher of writing, they proved to be useful in showing my students how to write an introduction, body, and conclusion. Students attention was drawn to how the writers linked the three main parts using transitional devices, how the body was divided into paragraphs, each of which dealt with one main idea, how this idea was supported by details, examples or both, and how the sentences were linked using cohesive devices. Students were asked to work in groups to identify strengths in some good essays and weaknesses in the less effective ones. Thus, they were helped to comprehend the basic English writing conventions and apply them not only in writing their exchange essays but also in the ones required for their course. Transfer and acquisition of these skills were also evident in students academic project papers. Students also made considerable improvement in writing for a foreign audience. Throughout their school and undergraduate years, the teacher had been the only audience of their L1 compositions. Here are two examples, taken from My Neighbours Wedding Party, that show awareness of audience:
A wedding ceremony in Daraya, a small town near Damascus, reects the nature and life style of the Darayans. The bridegrooms mother expresses her feelings through zaghlota (a verbal musical local expression made by vibrating the tongue through the mouth rapidly).

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The non-dening phrase in the rst example and bracketed information in the second are redundant if writing is intended for Syrian readership. Students also improved a good deal in writing introductions and conclusions, two of their major weaknesses when they started the course. Students in previous courses used to write long and unfocused introductions, as they usually do in Arabic writing. They also did not have a clear idea about the function of the conclusion. In this course, some of the American essays provided students with model introductions and conclusions to emulate. Examples of their improvement are numerous. This is one example taken from the nal draft of Women Education in Syria (the essay was revised twice for wordiness and lack of focus): Introduction
Until Syria gained its independence from France in 1946, education in the country was exclusively a males domain. Over the following decades, womens education has taken great strides both in quantity and quality. Now Syrian women enjoy the same educational privileges that men enjoy.

Conclusion
I believe the learning and working of Syrian women will reect positively on social development in the whole country. Step by step Syria will become an educationally and socially developed country.

More students joined the exchange in its second phase. This can be explained by peer inuence and competitiveness for achievement. Those who wrote earlier reported their enjoyment of the task and their improvement in writing competencies, and this motivated more students of all levels to write. Responses to the American Essays Students differed in their responses to the American essays. This was evident in the out-of-class discussion of some of the answers received. Some students could not understand why some of their political questions, even a simple one like Would you like to visit Syria and why?, were not answered. Some believed that these questions were intentionally evaded because they were culturally sensitive and intellectually challenging to 18 or 19 year olds (quoting the American teachers description of her students age). Others assumed that American students were inuenced by the media. They were referring to an answer to the question: Are you for or against your governments becoming the policeman of the world? I stand behind my country 100% in this matter, the American respondent wrote. When a country violates the United Nations Security Councils resolution, something has to be done, she added. To my satisfaction, all discussion was held in English. Students were spontaneous in expressing their opinions and feelings. Grammar rules and

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appropriate expression did not prohibit their oral spontaneity as would normally happen in the case of contrived classroom activity. When they could not nd a suitable word, they inserted its Arabic equivalent and went on, not wanting to interrupt the discussion. To encourage them to write about their reactions to these answers to the American students (the majority of whom sent their addresses with their essays), my comment was: You see, these students have expressed their opinions to the best of their knowledge. If you believe that they dont have enough information about our culture or they were misled by the media, why dont you write and inform them? Some students said they would write. These discussions created a relaxed atmosphere in which the language was acquired naturally, and students were able to express their views freely. Indeed, I rewarded them for thinking in different ways. Thinking in different ways appeared more clearly when discussing some cultural issues. Many students strongly criticized Western values and way of life, blaming them for many environmental and health problems that have become real threats to humanity. Discussing AIDS, for example, some students expressed their belief that it was a punishment from God for those who misused the concept of freedom. Other students demonstrated a more tolerant and open-minded attitude. They argued: If AIDS were a punishment, what would you say about babies who get infected in their mothers wombs and those who get the virus through blood transfusion? More tolerance was noted among the competent students and less so among the less competent. This tolerancecompetence relationship could be attributed to students different motivation to learn English. Those who wanted to specialize and work in the US and UK demonstrated more understanding of and empathy towards the target culture. Indeed, several of these students followed courses at the American or British language schools in Damascus during their undergraduate years. Whatever the reason, having both parties discuss the issues at hand resulted in a more positive attitude. In writing, students also expressed their views freely but more tactfully. Since writing is an elaborate process that requires a lot of revision of content and style, students had more time to think and reect. This was particularly noted in students written answers to some of their American counterparts questions. Many students modied some of their attitudes which they had expressed orally earlier. This nding would support an argument put forward by McNiff (1990: 58), that the act of writing is educational and empowering to the writer:
The action of writing helps me to improve my own education, the process of the development of my own rationality; and the form of my writing demonstrates in action the process of that development itself.

Feedback on the Syrian Essays All the feedback I received on my students writing came in my American colleagues letters to me. Her response was positive, and this motivated us,

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teacher and students, to a great extent. For example, this is how she started her four-page response letter (10 April 1993) after receiving the Syrian essays:
Thank you for the generous packet of essays by your students. I have read them all and found them quite interesting and informative to me about your culture.... I hope that as they experience the feedback of readers they will nd more rewards in writing in English....

She then added:

... descriptions of students lives, families, customs, the history and social structure of Syria (I knew nothing of the French occupation of Syria, and I know most Americans know less than I), and the aspects of Islam were very educational for me. I also found it interesting to compare the discussions of AIDS by your students and by mine. Tell your students they serve an important need by educating us, Westerners.

She also commented on her students response to Syrian students writing prociency, making particular reference to their questions and how her students responded to them. My students were impressed with your students ability to express themselves and with the neatness of their writing, she wrote. Then she added:
[The questions are] very good... they demanded some real thought and examination of ones own values; in some cases, they also required background knowledge of political and international issues.... I think when it came to thinking through a good answer, my students chickened out and gave up, because the effort would be more than they wanted to make.

As for her students answers to the Syrian questions, she wrote:

They give you a glimpse into how many Americans think.... Sometimes youll see what we call knee-jerk responses to political or religious questions... the answers given by my American students seemed to be derived more from parents and the media than from the students own experience and analysis.

This kind of feedback, coming from an American native speaking teacher of English was very motivating to us. We experienced a sense of achievement, which boosted our self-condence. We also gained considerable knowledge about American culture. Learning From Colleagues In all her correspondence with me, Dr. Penzenstadler showed personal and professional commitment characteristic of star teachers. Her detailed letters (running into several pages of small print), enthusiastic tone, and genuine response made me consider her a mentor and motivator. Her humility impressed me tremendously. Though she is a native speaker and

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an experienced teacher, she explained what she learnt from her EFL colleague. Responding to my idea of keeping a record of students responses on special response sheets, she wrote:
I had not thought of a way of keeping records of the reading and responses to the essays by your students, and now I wish I had done something as you did: get a tabulation.

She then mentioned planning to get students written responses to send me in the future. In short, I have learnt from my American colleague much more than there is room to detail and describe in a paper like this. Evidence of this learning is reected in my motivation to write and share this experience with colleagues around the globe. This desire to share was the real motive behind my rst attempt to participate in an international conference, at which I briey reported on the exchange idea and its preliminary ndings (see Daoud 1994b).

What Happened to the Essay Exchange? The essay exchange continued in the following academic year (1993 1994) with new groups of medical students. In that year, the American teacher moved to Taiwan, where she took up a position at Tamkang University. We exchanged a large number of essays (over 50), this time with Chinese students. The strategy remained motivating to students, but not to the extent it was when native speakers of English were the audience. Some titles of the essays sent to us from Taiwan were: An Undeliverable Letter, Knowing the Chinese Medicine Research Club, Ching-ming, the Spring Festival, Customs and Taboos of the Chinese Ghost Festival, Minghun: A Chinese Marriage Ceremony for Persons Already Dead, A Man out of the Mainland China, The Ceremony of Chinese Engagement, and others. Syrian essays included a wide variety of topics as well. They bore titles such as My 25 Years, My Hometown, Mothers day in Syria, The Quran, The Challenger, Syria: Past and Present, An Enriching Experience, Easter in Syria, Damascus: The Eternal City, War Memories, The Season of Pilgrimage, Freedom, Prevention Is Better than Cure, etc. Wanting to broaden the exchange, Dr. Penzenstadler sent me addresses of two other composition teachers: one American at Clark College and one from Portugal. Because I was leaving to do an M.A. in England, I passed the message on to colleagues at the ESPC and offered them all the essays I received and sent, asking them to read and comment on them. Several teachers borrowed the les and responded positively, orally or in writing, to the exchange idea. One of them showed interest in continuing it from the Syrian side. This is how he responded in writing:

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I have always felt that teaching English is the most interesting and rewarding jobs. Reading these essays, the fruit of great effort, made me more aware of the sacred mission of English language teachers, messengers of love, peace, and justice. I now feel that I like my profession to the degree of love. (DH [teachers initials], 1994)

I believe the essay exchange strategy helped to energise students reserved capacities to write with pleasure and hence reduce their writing anxiety and apprehension, something that resulted in better verbal production and hence learning. Their response to it is perhaps mirrored in a postcard I received at the end of the course from one group of students who were actively involved in the exchange:
With the course reaching its end, we all thank you. Thank you for all the interest and care you gave us throughout the course. Thank you for all the happy fruitful days we spent at this Centre. Students of Medical Group 4

Conclusions
The cross-cultural essay exchange described in this paper has proved to be motivating and useful in different ways. This section summarizes the ndings and relates them to the literature. (1) Writing to a real audience in the target culture proved to be interesting, challenging, and educational for EFL learners. This is consistent with arguments that support the role of motivation in learning languages, e.g., Brookes & Grundys (1988) argument for investing in students needs, interest, and knowledge (see the literature review). Similar effects of writing to real audiences (but in the local culture) are reported in other studies (e.g. Vincent 1990; Arnold 1991). (2) The presence of a strong affective component in learning English as a foreign language is evident in this research. We have seen how EFL students and their teachers involvement in the exchange, and hence their learning from it, increased as they experienced positive feedback on their work. This positive feedback also helped in improving their attitude to the target culture. These ndings are supported by a statement in Stern (1983: 310):
... the actual learning of the language is accompanied by emotional reactions, and the entire learning experience may lead to a xed constellation of likes and dislikes directed towards the whole language in question or features of that language, languages in general, the people speaking the language, and so on.

(3) Students motivation to write effectively to their readers urged them to improve their cultural orientation and hence their academic language use

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(see Jin & Cortazzi 1993). It has made them aware of what is expected from them when they write in English (see Nida 1992). This adaptation was reected in their end-of-course exam results in two successive years (1992 93 and 199394): , No one failed in the Academic Project Paper, the main writing component. About one-third scored excellent (8+ out of 10) and the rest scored good (67 points). , Students performed well in the essay question of the writing exam. In the 199394 exam, for example, about half the students exposed to this strategy scored good or very good results (914 out of 15 points). Only a few students did not pass. , The strategy enabled students to practice all language skills in an integrated manner. They read, discussed what they read, wrote, and rewrote without being pushed to do so. This helped them to do well in all end-ofcourse exam components. According to the Syrian scale for measuring achievement, the majority got good (6069 points out of 100), very good (7079 points), or excellent (8089 points) scores. In the two academic years of the exchange, only six students (out of 92) failed. Overall, their scores were much higher than those of their peers who were not exposed to the essay exchange. One important factor that helped to bring about these results was building on the language the learners brought with them to the learning context and investing in their knowledge of the world and positive characteristics. According to Brookes & Grundy (1988: 102), this is essential in EAP because there is a need to
... address... students in general and postgraduates in particular at their own intellectual level... such students are at the very least our intellectual equals and will not be truly engaged in any classroom activity which does not challenge them intellectually.

(4) Two other unplanned benets of the essay exchange strategy emerged in the process of implementation: , The rst benet is the personal and professional development of the EFL teacher. The exchange motivated her to exert more effort to develop her students potential as well as her own by learning from her more experienced colleague. Additionally, experimenting with the strategy for 2 years was an optional ongoing professional course that contributed a good deal to her development. Though the exchange was demanding in terms of time, it was rewarding in terms of enjoyment, learning, and achievement. This is consistent with a highlighted statement in Fullan & Hargreaves (1992: 109): Teacher development and student development are reciprocally related. , The second benet relates to the needs of the world today. The two teachers involved acted as bridge builders and promoters of cultural

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understanding. They were able to broaden their students minds culturally and make them more tolerant and open-minded. One question that arises is to what extent these ndings can be generalised. The answer depends on teachers trying out this strategy in their contexts and nding out for themselves how much it will be able to achieve. Speaking from personal experience, the most important ingredient for success is teacher commitment. On the whole, cross-cultural exchanges and collaboration are easier now than at any time in the past, with information technology facilities available in many educational contexts. Organizations such as CARN (Classroom Action Research Network), IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language), and TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), to mention only a few, have their Websites on the Internet, and teachers can easily contact one another and nd counterparts for such exchanges. Additionally, all these organizations organize annual conferences in which professionals from different contexts can meet face-to-face and negotiate access to one another. At a conference in Cairo, several teachers from the Arab world and beyond (one from Japan) approached me for essay exchanges after I briey reported on the essay exchange strategy as my research on it was still in progress (Daoud 1994b). Though it would be simplistic to attribute all students achievements in the two years to the essay exchange, I can claim that the strategy was a success in motivating the learners and teacher involved into better writing. As can be seen from the literature review in this paper, motivation improves learning. In this piece of research, Syrian students and their teacher read, wrote, interacted, and learnt through writing and interaction. They did all this as an extracurricular activity for which they were rewarded by enjoying a sense of achievement. AcknowledgementsI am grateful to Dr. Joan Penzenstadler for giving me her consent to quote her letters and to Miss Jennifer Miller, Dr. Penzenstadlers student, for letting me use her essay. I also wish to thank all the students who contributed to the essay exchange. (Received 22 April 1997)

REFERENCES
Adams-Smith, D. E. (1986). ESP and the local situation. In P. W. Peterson (Ed.), ESP in practice: models and challenges for teachers (pp. 6468). Washington, DC: USIA. Arnold, E. (1991). Authenticity revisited: how real is real? English for Specific Purposes, 10, 237244. Barmada, W. (1993). Developing an instructional self-evaluation scheme in an ESP centre in the Arab world: rationale, experimentation and evaluation.

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Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, University of Leeds, UK. Bloor, M., & Bloor, T. (1987). Syllabus negotiation: the basis of learner autonomy. In A. Brookes & P. Grundy (Eds.), Individualization and autonomy in language learning, ELT Documents 131 (pp. 6274). London: Modern Language Publications in association with the British Council. Boyle, E. R. (1993). EST or EGP: a question of priorities. System, 21, 7985. Brookes, A., & Grundy, P. (1988). Activating the learners contribution in the development of academic writing skills. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Academic writing: process and Product, ELT Documents 129 (pp. 100108). London: Modern Language Publications in association with the British Council. Daoud, S. (1994a). Developing communicative competence in ESP classes. Tishreen University Journal, 5 (Special Issue), 12945. Daoud, S. (1994b). Three strategies for developing awareness of global issues in ESP classes. In M. Abousenna (Ed.), The global age: issues in English language education, Proceedings of the 13th National Symposium on English Language Teaching (pp. 12132). Cairo: CDELT, Ain Shams University. Daoud, S. (1995). Feedback in the process of teaching and learning academic writing in EFL/ESP contexts. Unpublished MA dissertation CELTE, University of Warwick, UK. Dornyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 273284. Doushaq, M. H. (1986). An investigation into stylistic errors of Arab students learning English for academic purposes. English for Academic Purposes, 5, 2739. Frederiksen, C. H., & Dominic, J. F. (1981). In C. H. Frederiksen & J. F. Dominic (Eds.), Writing: the nature, development and teaching of written communication: Vol. 2, Writing: process, development and communication (pp. 120). Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates. Fullan, M. & Hargreaves, A. (1992). What's worth fighting for in your school? (2nd ed.). Buckingham: Open University Press in association with the Ontario Public School Teachers Federation. Gardner, R., & MacIntyre, P. (1990). An instrumental motivation in language study: who says it isnt effective? SSLA, 13, 5772. Gardner, R., & MacIntyre, P. (1993). A students contribution to second language learning. Part II: Affective variables. Language Teaching, 26, 1 11. Gardner, R., & Tremblay, P. (1994). On motivation, research agendas, and theoretical frameworks. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 359368. Harvey, A. (1986). The role of motivational variables in ESP settings. In P. W. Peterson (Ed.), ESP in practice: models and challenges for teachers (pp. 27384). Washington, DC: USIA. Holliday, A. (1994). Appropriate methodology and social context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (1993). Cultural orientation and academic language

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use. In D. Graddol, L. Thompson & M. Byram (Eds.), Language and culture (pp. 8497). Clevedon: BAAL and Multilingual Matters. McNiff, J. (1990). Writing and the creation of educational knowledge. In P. Lomax (Ed.), Managing staff development in schools: an action research approach (pp. 5260). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Nida, E. (1992). Sociolinguistic implications of academic writing. Language in Society, 21, 477485. Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle. Raimes, A. (1983). Anguish as a second language? Remedies for composition teachers. In A. Freedman, I. Pringle, & J. Yalden (Eds.), Learning to write: first language/second language (pp. 25872). London: Longman. Skehan, P. (1990). Individual differences in second language learning. SSLA, 13, 275298. Stern, H. H. (1983). Fundamental concepts of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vincent, S. (1990). Motivating the advanced learner in developing writing skills: a project. ELT Journal, 44, 272278. Weir, C. (1988). Academic writingcan we please all the people all the time? In P. Robinson (Ed.), Academic writing: process and product, ELT Documents 129 (pp. 1734). London: Modern Language Publications in association with the British Council. Widdowson, H. G. (1983). New starts and different kinds of failures. In A. Freedman, I. Pringle, & J. Yalden (Eds.), Learning to write: first language/ second language (pp. 3447). London: Longman.

Appendix A: Sample exchange questions

1. Questions From Syrian Students to Their American Counterparts
1. What is your reaction when your government enforces Security Councils resolutions when they pertain to some countries and not to others? 2. Why do you think AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate in your country? 3. What do you feel when you hear the word Arabs? Does your feeling differ when you hear the word Syrians? 4. Are you for or against your governments becoming the policeman of the world? Why? 5. Is higher education available for all in your country as it is the case here? If not, why not? 6. Would you like to visit Syria? Why? 7. Would you like to emigrate from your country? Why/why not? 8. Do you think that Palestinians should have the right to self-determination? Why/why not? 9. Do you think that the threat of a nuclear war has ended with the falling apart of the Soviet Union? Why/why not? 10. How do you understand the term marriage?

2. Questions From American Students to Their Syrian Counterparts

1. What is your rst thought when the term United States is mentioned? 2. Does your government help with the nancial cost of college?

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3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Is AIDS becoming a major disease in your country as it is in the U.S.? What are your opinions of American lms? What are your views for and against homosexuals and why? Is it common for a woman to work and have a separate career in your country? Is it standard in your country to be able to attend college? At what age do children leave home in your country? What are your favourite sports and why? What are your views on abortion vs. pro-life? Which do you agree with?

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Appendix B: Two Questionanswer Samples

A Syrian Answer to ``Is AIDS becoming a major disease in your country as it is in the U.S.?'' by Maher Kan'aan, MD
AIDS is not a major health problem in Syria. There are some scattered cases and the affected are foreign people or Syrians living abroad who have come home for a visit. To prevent the disease from spreading, all foreign people who want to stay in Syria for a long time are tested on their entry. If the test is positive they are isolated and treated or sent back to their country of origin. The reasons that make AIDS so rare in Syria are our social habits and religious beliefs. Homosexuality and drug addiction, which are the major causes of AIDS, are very much less spread here than in the U.S.A. or Western Europe. Having unlawful sexual relationship is also prohibited in Islam. These things guard us against this evil that threatens humanity.

An American Answer to ``Why do you think AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate in your country?'' by Christina Persons
There are a few reasons why I believe AIDS is spreading in the United States. The main reason is the use of IV needles by drug users. Many Americans use drugs and inject them into their blood stream. These drug users do not throw away their dirty needles. They share them and infect each other with the virus. Also many people engage in unprotected sex in America. People do not wear condoms and AIDS is transferred from one partner to another. Americans need to learn about protecting themselves against AIDS. Unprotected sex is very common. Learning about unprotected sex and teaching others is going to help stop the spread of AIDS. As far as IV drug users are concerned, most of them are beyond help. They are hard to reach with the AIDS message and most of them dont care.

Appendix C: A Revised Syrian Answer to an American Question

Question: What are your Opinions of American Films?
First draft. American lms are dangerous arms, you (most Americans, especially American government) try to control our minds by several means, lms are some of these means. You put a lot of poison in the lms, such as bad manners, your refuse habits and false ideas. But we are quite aware of your bad plans and we do not waste our expensive time in useless things such as your lms. Teacher's comment. Dear Sadik: I was interested in reading your answer to this question. It is good that you have expressed

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your opinion frankly. However, you havent supported your argument with details in order to make it convincing to your readers. You need to give some reasons that make you believe that American lms are dangerous arms, your main idea, apparently. Suppose you wanted to say that some of these lms are violent, it would be more convincing if you gave some details as to how you think this could affect young viewers, for example. Also, your argument will be more logical if you mention some positive characteristics about American lms before reaching your overall conclusion. In many ways, American lms reect American culture. If you were born in the States, Im sure youd think differently. In other words, one should be tolerant and open-minded regarding other cultures. Id like you to rewrite your answer after reecting on my comments. I look forward to reading your revised version. Revised version. My opinion is that some American lms are very good and amusing, but others are booby traps for both Americans and non-Americans. For example, when they present a matter related to some place in the world, they often deform the truth. In this case American people will take a standpoint according to it without trying to nd the truth. In addition to that, I am sorry to say that some American lms depend on violence to attract the attention of spectators... especially the young who will be inuenced by them, and their minds will be affected by these lms. In short, I would like to say that we must look deeply into the matters screened by movies and not to be passive spectators.

Appendix D: An American Essay

My Life Across America by Jennifer Miller
Although I have lived only eighteen short years, I have lived all over the United States. I have experienced diverse life styles and numerous different types of people. Each geographical section of the U.S. I have lived in is like a separate entity, each with its own culture, traditions, and customs. I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, August 4, 1974. I come from two very German families, the Kutterers and the Millers, most of whom still live in St Louis and in Chicago, Illinois. There are only four members in my immediate family; my mother, my father, my older sister, and myself. I dont have any memories of living in St. Louis, but my family does go back to visit our relatives. My dads company transferred him to a new position in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1977. My rst real childhood memories start there. I remember always being hot; the humidity was high in Kentucky. On an average day the humidity could be 89% and the temperature could be 80 degrees, making for a hot, sticky, and oppressive day. I spent most of my time playing in our basement, where I would stay relatively cool. Kentucky, like the rest of the South, is prone to tornadoes. I remember that when we would hear the tornado sirens, my mom would shufe us into the basement to wait out the storm. During the tornadoes the rain would be torrential, and my mom would sit at the door in the basement that led outside. With a dustpan in her hand, she tried to scoop the water out of the basement. We moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1980. I was six, but I went through a real culture shock. The physical environment of the two places are drastically different. Denver has a semi-arid climate, and the elevation is 5,280 feet, which is why Denver is called the Mile-high City. At that elevation, the air contains much less oxygen and is very thin. The weekend after we moved to Denver, my dad thought it would be good to go for a little road trip, rather than unpack. So we got in the car and drove to the top of Mt. Evans, with an elevation of 14,264 feet, making it the highest paved road in the world. I dont remember anything but the trip; by the time we got to the top, my sister and I had passed out in the back seat of the car due to the lack of oxygen. My family would go hiking up in the mountains almost every weekend. On an average day we would hike ten to twelve miles and the trails would have such a high elevation again that at the end of the trail we would be higher than timber linethe level where trees dont have enough oxygen to grow. Several times my family got stuck above the timber line in an electrical

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storm with nowhere to take cover and we had to run for our lives to get below the trees. The weather in Colorado was always unpredictable. After living in Denver for eight years, my dads company transferred him again, this time to Vancouver, Washington. I really didnt want to go and I had no idea what to expect. When my Dad told me we were moving to Vancouver, I thought: British Columbia. When he said Washington, I thought: District of Columbia. I had never heard of the Pacic Northwest and I couldnt stand Seattles pro football team, the Seahawks, so what reason did I have to be happy about moving to Vancouver? When we nally arrived in Vancouver I couldnt believe how green everything was. In Colorado, the landscape had always been brown because it rarely rained. The rst winter we spent in Vancouver shocked me; it rained continuously for three months. I was also shocked to see how small the town was. Previously, I had lived only in large cities, and Vancouver seemed very rural. There was one main street in Hazel Dell, the suburb of Vancouver in which I live, consisting of a few restaurants, a movie theater, and a supermarket. Another strange feature I noticed after we moved was that there were strange little humps dividing the lanes on all the roads. Whenever the car changes into another lane, the tires make noise on the humps and the car shudders slightly. In Denver the lanes had been divided merely by the lines painted on the surface of the road. When I nally asked someone, they told me that the bumps, also called turtles, had reectors on them so motorists could see the lanes when it was dark and rainy. Now I knew that Washington had turtles on the roads. My next discovery was of the activity called cow-tipping. Cow-tipping occurs when a group of people who have nothing else to do go into a eld late at night and tip over sleeping cows. I thought it was a joke but very bored people from Vancouver and the surrounding rural communities actually do this as a form of entertainment. Im sure in every part of the United States the kids have their own different versions of cow-tipping activity. Living all around the United States has helped me to learn about different habits of people, and how geographic features keep a group of people set in their own traditions and customs. I know from personal experience how enjoyable it is to discover different cultural communities within the U.S., and how easily one can adapt to living in a different part of the country.

Appendix E: A Syrian Essay

Life and Work in The Children Hospital by Salah Deen Suleiman
The University Children Hospital in Damascus, where I practice as a post-graduate doctor, is a famous hospital. It consists of two buildings, the rst for emergency and the second for the other departments. Students specializing in pediatrics have to live and work for three years in this hospital. Life is very hard there and very interesting at the same time. There are many difculties in work conditions. Work starts at eight oclock and ends at ve. Then doctors must continue their work at night to late houres [sic]. This means that every doctor has a night duty every other day, in addition to the day work. Friday is the week-end in Syria. We can have a week-end every other week only. In addition to that, the greatest dream of doctors is to have a quiet night. This rarely happens, especially when one is on a night duty. One should be ready all the time. His telephone is often engaged. Also, the relationship between doctors is not that ideal. Doctors who are in their second or third year act as pay-masters when dealing with their juniors. The young must obey the orders without discussion. Although life is hard at the Children Hospital, some of its aspects are interesting. We enjoy dealing with children and seeing their smile when they get better. One forgets his hard work when he saves a childs life or relieves him from his pain. We also get very good training under the supervision of highly specialised professional pediatricians who are well known all over the country. Life in the Children Hospital is not easy at all; however, it becomes interesting when doctors feel that their hard work has yielded good results. Learning from our experience is one thing we are here for, but saving a childs life is the most invaluable achievement of all. It is what makes life meaningful at such a huge hospital.

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Sada A. Daoud teaches at the ESP Centre, University of Damascus, Syria. She is currently doing her PhD at the University of Warwick, UK, on a Chevening scholarship. She has published and presented papers on academic writing, action research, and teacher development. She is also interested in learner autonomy and global issues in ELT.