Email communication has been widely used in tertiary education. It should be used to enhance teaching and learning. A study was conducted in two years with university students in an academic program to investigate the functions of email communication from the learner's perspectives. A total of 1478 students' emails were collected for data analysis. The results indicated that students' email communication was heavily based on management of learning. They were more concerned with clarifying, confirming, requesting to ensure that they were on the 'right track' and little emphasis was placed on discussion of ideas and concepts.