A Study of the Effects of Student-teacher Dialogue Journals on EFL Writing in High Schools in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Bonnie Wang, 王心漪
• Other Authors: Maosung Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/05810959268260793706

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語研究所 === 92 === This study examines the effects of student-teacher dialogue journal writing on the writing skills of EFL senior high school students in Taiwan. Dialogue journal writing seeks to promote written fluency and writing ability by allowing students to write freely on topics of their choice. Spelling and form are not marked or graded. The subjects in the study were 41 Neili Senior High School students from one class. They took part in a dialogue journal writing activity from September 2002 to December 2002. The differences in students’ written fluency, before and after the activity, were analyzed in terms of the t-test results of three elements: word count, the time students spent on their journals, and the syntactic maturity of their writing; in addition, the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test (1995a) was applied for analysis of the students’ first two and last two journal entries. The differences in the students’ writing ability were also analyzed with respect to their use of various language functions. The findings of this study reveal that dialogue journal writing helps students improve their written fluency in terms of increased word count, decreased amount of time spent on writing, and a decrease in apprehensive feelings about writing in English. The students’ writing ability also improved with respect to the use of a greater variety of language functions. It was also found that nearly all the students held a positive attitude toward the dialogue journal writing activity. Based on the findings, the researcher suggests that EFL teachers provide students with chances to experiment with diverse forms of writing. Asking students to write dialogue journals is a good way to achieve such diversity. When using dialogue journals, EFL teachers should respond to their students as individuals and tailor their journal responses accordingly.