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Korean students don't often have the real life experience that a second language can offer them. Some students have been participating in student exchange programs, but this is not feasible for a majority of them. Still, students need to feel that they are utilizing real language with a real purpose. What better way to do that than to encourage international postcard exchange with people from all over the world for those students who are unable to leave their country for various reasons? The researcher is using an online venue to encourage (www.postcrossing.com) students to write and receive short letters in English from native speakers (postcrossers) the world over. Not only does this allow the students the opportunity to practice writing what they want to say, but it also opens the world to them. Using postcards as a window to the world, the researcher has been able to show students in a very real way the use of English with other people. And it's fun! The students enjoy the process and share the cards received, thus increasing the broadening of their horizons exponentially.

Keywords: Postcard exchange, Pen pal, Postcrossing.com, International.

INTRODUCTION

In Korea, English has been taught to children as a part of the official curriculum since 1997 (Cho, 2004). But there are a number of difficulties with learning the language, cultural and pragmatic. Because the hold of Confucianism philosophy and the rote memorization that characterizes it, students are often not able to express themselves. This philosophy is the basis for the Korean educational system (Robertson, 2002). Students are often unwilling to participate in class discussions as pointed out by Zou (2004).

This reticence in EFL classrooms has been identified as a frequent byproduct of cultural beliefs that include maintaining social hierarchy and face value (Liu, 2005; Cortazzi and Jin, 1996) which can be frustrating for the teacher and crippling for the student. Brown (1994) comments on the effects of this inhibition stating that learners view making mistakes as a threat to their egos. Finally, students are not expected to spontaneously produce unique information and are thus low in their competence of productive skills as reported by Rusina (2009).

This combination makes spontaneous language usage in a classroom a near impossible feat at times for...

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