Journaling for Enhancement of Self-Direction in Language Learning

Journal of Education and Practice, 2011

The teacher is saddled with enormous responsibilities in the ESL classroom. These responsibilities go beyond the teaching of prescribed texts and grammar of English but also in creating a robust and enabling environment to promote writing fluency and instilling confidence in the students. The innovative teacher does these by assisting students to acquire communicative, analytical, logical skills through the medium of journaling in the classroom. Journals enable students focus on the expression of their thoughts and ideas (Isaacs and Brodine, 1994: ix). Journal keeping is a pedagogical process of establishing a routine writing workout, and connecting reading with writing on the one hand, and enabling the English teacher to deal with the growing demands on the English teacher on the other hand. Research has shown that methodology, training and concept alone will not make a teacher competent enough to train students at college level to meet their requirements but a reflective practice could serve the ever growing needs of the English language learner and teacher by integrating both theory and practice (Lakshimi 2009:). This paper is designed as an investigative study on the potential of journal keeping development tool for equipping students with the necessary skills for their day-today expedition in the classroom.

2015

The mastery of writing skill is a crucial for ESL/EFL students. Scholars in the field of language teaching and learning have suggested so many strategies and methods to improve writing compositing. One of these methods is journal writing. However, whether the students actually realize that journal writing may improve a special kind of writing has not been explored. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of applying journal writing on the descriptive, reflective, and critical ability of EFL learners. The study included 80 male and female EFL learners of Hermes institute at the advanced level of language proficiency who were selected, and randomly assigned to experimental and control group. In the course of 10 sessions, the experimental group took the pretest and post test by which the teacher feedback and during which the treatment rubric were introduced. In control group, besides the pretest and posttest, they were provided with traditional writing with...

Profile Issues in Teachers Professional Development, 2008

This action research was conducted at Universidad Nacional de Colombia with nine preservice teachers of the Philology and Languages, with Emphasis in English, at the Upper-Intermediate level of English. The study consisted of planning and evaluating a pedagogical intervention, which consisted of students exploring readings and/or their background knowledge and reflecting through journal entries about themes of their own choice. The instruments to collect information comprised the students' journals, field notes from a poster session and a questionnaire. The results allowed me to conclude that the students had the opportunity to exercise a degree of autonomy which involved free choice on the topics they explored. The journal became a language-learning tool for the students; likewise, throughout its development, they experienced the need to do some research in the area they were exploring, which allowed them to construct knowledge.

Reflective learning has been supporting the teaching and learning process. Literature suggests several methods to encorage student's reflection. The aim of the research is to investigate the use of journal writing to know students' perception and comprehension about teaching and learning process in English as Foreign Language Classroom towards student's self awareness and critical thinking. A qualitative research was conducted. The students' learning experinces through portfolio in the form of journal were analysed for data of the research. The subject of the research was the first year students of English Education Department, University of PGRI Adi Buana Surabaya, Indonesia. The Students attended one semester (16 meetings) program of Intensive English Course as one of the subjects in the English Education Department. The information obtained from the students was based on researcher's experience in utilizing the journal as a reflective medium in the classroom. The result indicated that the journal helped students to recognize their feeling and create deeper insight of English teaching and learning towards self-awarness and critical thinking development.

1997

2018

This research attempted at knowing the implementation of peer-editing technique in learners’ English writing skill and their perceptions to peerediting for teaching and learning writing. The method used in this research is qualitative study. The subjects of this research were 22 learners of the second semester of English Department of University of Pesantren Tinggi Darul Ulum (Unipdu) Jombang of 2015/2016 academic year. The instrument for collecting data was students’ descriptive texts and questionnaire. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis. The results of the research showed that, in general, peer-editing technique made the learners’ progress on their writing achievement and good perceptions for teaching and learning writing skill of English. This implied that the implementation of peer-editing is significantly improving learners’ writing skill.

Journals have received an increased interest in education context. They have been found to be a fruitful way of communication between teacher and students. Liuolienė & Metiūnienė (2009) mention some purposes of journal writing. It can create a positive atmosphere for learning and foster deep learning by making learners relate new knowledge with the previous one. Moreover, as confirmed by Boud (2001), journal writing encourages students to articulate their level of understanding. It is part of reflective learning and a tool to facilitate language skill development. Through this activity learners are shaped to become reflective, which is crucial for their learning advancement. The study aimed at describing the effects of journal writing on ELESP students in three courses from different semesters. They were Structure I, Textual Pronunciation, and Micro Teaching classes. The sources of the data were the students' reflective writings. From the analysis it was discovered that the stud...

The primary aim of this study was to shed light on the impact of a new instruction model, reflective reciprocal teaching (RRT), on English as a foreign language learners' (EFL) reading comprehension ability. Its mode of inquiry was a mixed-method, and it took on a quasiexperimental design, including a pretest, treatment, and posttest paradigm. The sampling techniques were both convenience and random sampling by which 100 EFL freshman learners were selected and assigned into three groups of reflective reciprocal teaching (RRT), reciprocal teaching (RT), and control. Two tests, namely Oxford Quick Placement Test and Michigan English Language Assessment Battery, were used to measure EFL learners' proficiency level and reading comprehension ability in its quantitative phase. ANOVA was utilized to analyze the collected data. Also, during the next step, which aimed to explore the learners' perceptions of RRT instruction, semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data. The results indicated that the RRT group outperformed the control group regarding their reading comprehension ability; however, the RT instruction did not significantly impact this issue. Accordingly, the qualitative data analysis findings indicated that self-regulated learning, perceived competence, metacognitive awareness, confidence, and intrinsic motivation were the Research Paper

Teaching English as a Foreign Language Journal, 2024

The goal of this research was to learn about the strategies used by fifth-semester students to overcome speaking problem. The method used in this study is a qualitative method. Six fifth semester English study program students at the Indonesian Christian University Toraja took part in this study. Conducting interviews is the method used to acquire data in this study. The information gathered is broken down into three stages: reduction, exposure, and conclusion. The results of this study indicate that there are six strategies used by the fifth semester students of the English study program at the Indonesian Christian University Toraja. First, use the first language. Second, English speaking circle. Third, reading club. Fourth, follow-up activities. Fifth, fun oral activities. Lastly, use pauses and gestures.