Effects of Pen-Pal Letter Writing on EFL Saudi Students’ Communicative Ability, Language Competence and Writing Motivation

Driven by the views of ESP genre theorists who see texts as interactions between writers and readers and influenced by specific discourse conventions, this study has identified the gap in research on the effects of authentic written interaction on the development of students’ communicative writing ability and focused on pen pal letter writing of Saudi EFL first year undergraduate students studying in a Saudi university. It specifically explored the Saudi EFL students’ use of metadiscourse markers when communicating with their English pen-pal friends, while also tracking the changes in the use of markers through one academic semester. The study also examined the extent to which pen-pal writing had effects on Saudi EFL students’ language development (measured by vocabulary breadth and lexical diversity) and their writing motivation. To achieve these aims, the study employed a quasi-experimental design, using an experimental group of 22 Saudi female students who participated in four exchanges of pen pal letter writing with 22 English (11 female and 11 male) first year undergraduate students studying at a North American university, and a control group of 22 Saudi female students who did not have such exchanges. To ascertain the effects of pen pal writing on students’ writing motivation, Deci and Ryan’s (1985) intrinsic motivation questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with students were also utilised. The findings demonstrated that pen pal writing had many positive benefits. It developed students’ repertoire of metadiscourse markers, increased their vocabulary breadth and their writing motivation. The students with pen pal writing experience expressed more enjoyment with writing, felt more competent in writing and were less tense. However, no difference was found between the two groups with regard to the development of their lexical diversity. The study makes a significant contribution to enhancing our understanding of the development of written communication and offers important pedagogical implications for EFL teachers and material developers.