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Un Meurtre a C<strong>in</strong>et (Un homicidio en Toluca) : An E-mail Whodunnit to<br />

Develop Writ<strong>in</strong>g Competence <strong>in</strong> Intermediate Level Language Classes<br />

Offered at a Distance<br />

Terri J. Nelson<br />

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures<br />

California State University<br />

San Bernard<strong>in</strong>o, USA<br />

tnelson@wiley.csusb.edu<br />

Walter Carl Oliver<br />

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures<br />

California State University<br />

San Bernard<strong>in</strong>o, USA<br />

woliver@wiley.csusb.edu<br />

Un Meurtre a C<strong>in</strong>et (Un homicidio en Toluca) is an <strong>in</strong>termediate level language role-play<strong>in</strong>g project <strong>in</strong> which<br />

students collaborate to solve a murder mystery us<strong>in</strong>g e-mail, a listserver, and a Home Page. It is designed to<br />

provide students study<strong>in</strong>g language at a distance with an opportunity to work collaboratively <strong>in</strong> a l<strong>in</strong>guistically<br />

and culturally rich context without ever hav<strong>in</strong>g to meet face to face. The use of e-mail focuses attention on the<br />

subtleties of us<strong>in</strong>g writ<strong>in</strong>g as a communicative tool s<strong>in</strong>ce students' ability to solve the murder mystery depends<br />

upon their be<strong>in</strong>g able to ask challeng<strong>in</strong>g questions to ga<strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong><strong>format</strong>ion they need while avoid<strong>in</strong>g giv<strong>in</strong>g<br />

answers that <strong>in</strong>culpate themselves. The project makes extensive use of realia. The use of a home page allows<br />

for the distribution of this realia electronically and the use of a listserver facilitates extensive asynchronous<br />

<strong>in</strong>teractivity among the students regardless of location.

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