Use of dialogue journals among students in selected Malaysian Matriculation English classes

Dialogue journal is a writing technique that has been used in many classrooms for many different purposes. This study was conducted to explore the roles that dialogue journal can play in Matriculation English classrooms from students’ perspectives. This study employed a single-site single-case study using qualitative approach. Nine matriculation students from different levels of proficiency were chosen as the participants in this study. The study was conducted over a period of ten weeks in which students were asked to write a weekly journal. Data were collected from three semi-structured interviews conducted with each participant and also the weekly journals written by the participants. The interviews were analysed using Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) Coding Procedure to find out the students’ attitude and views towards dialogue journal. The journals were analysed for length, topic choice and use of language to understand how the students approached dialogue journal writing. Findings showed that using dialogue journals in Matriculation English classrooms has its own strengths and drawbacks. It was found that while most participants were able to point out some advantages of practicing dialogue journal writing, many did not find the technique effective enough to improve either their writing skill or language proficiency. The study also found that even though students may differ in terms of the language proficiency and their views on dialogue journal, they basically used the same strategies when writing their journals. This is reflected in their choice of journal topics and language use. The conclusion that can be made from this study is that dialogue journal is not for everybody. This study suggests that aspects such as attitudes, proficiency levels and preferred learning styles may influence how students view and approach dialogue journal. Therefore the implementation of dialogue journals in matriculation English classrooms should consider these elements to ensure maximum benefits.

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