Abstract

With the rapid development of technologies, online learning, especially email dialogue journaling, has been playing an increasingly important role in foreign language learning and teaching in recent years. While many studies have examined the effect of email learning on student learning performance, few have looked into students’ attitudes towards email application and its impact on their learning outcomes. Positive user attitudes have been considered critical factors that contribute to the subsequent and successful academic performance. By integrating email for the reading learning process, this study developed an electronic‐based peer collaborative environment to explore students’ attitudes towards email application in reading classes. Specifically, the relationship between students’ self‐efficacy and their reading performance was examined. The results demonstrate that most students maintain positive attitudes towards the potential outcomes of email application on reading achievement. Furthermore, the feature of electronic discussion has a greater direct effect on the reading enhancement. Implications of certain designs of email tasks for an enhanced second language reading development are presented.