Innovation in Language Learning

Malaysian government has put forth a lot of efforts in implementing pedagogical changes in the education syllabus to achieve its aspiration in increasing the use of information communication and technology (ICT) in the educational system. The Malaysian government’s aspiration is to increase the use of information communication and technology (ICT) in the educational system to enable students to face global challenges. As technology increasingly takes centre-stage of our lives, there are compelling reasons for incorporating ICT into the classroom to ensure that our students will be able to function in the societies of the 21^st century. This study explores students’ knowledge construction in a collaborative learning environment via email discussion. The primary focus of this study centres on how participants communicate via email in a collaborative learning environment incorporating process writing approach and pair work activity. The data for this study embraces the email messages and writing assignments. Findings are that participants’ knowledge construction process transpired from an interactive process focusing on three main categories: questions, clarification and support. The findings revealed that the process of knowledge construction conducted in this study transpired from an interactive process parallel with Vygotsky’s constructivist theory notion that knowledge is constructed through interactions and activity. Therefore, collaborative learning via email discussion seems to be an ideal environment for such transactional learning. The findings will contribute to the development and testing of the efficacy and flexibility of process approaches to ESL writing instruction through e-mail. The study offers positive views for further study to be explored in order to attain a better understanding of how learners interact and construct knowledge in a collaborative learning environment via email discussions.