writing development through dialogue journals

8/9/2019 Writing Development Through Dialogue Journals

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To the Almighty God,

The owner of everything I do.

To my parents for their support in anytime

Along my way.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Throughout the development of the life project there have been some people who

have looked after me whole-heartedly. First of all, I want to express my gratitude to

the Almighty God for helping find the way I should go by, to my parents for being

unreservedly willing to help and support me along this journey, to Mauricio Ochoa

for guiding and counseling me along this strenuous process, to my students from

whom I learned more to become a teacher. Finally, I would like to thanks to all

those teachers who, somehow, made this possible.


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INDEX

1. RAES.5

2. Introduction..12

3. Justification..14

4. Chapter 1: Literature Review.. 18

5. Chapter 2: Instructional Design. 40

6. Chapter 3: Research Design 45

7. Chapter 4: Data Analysis 52

8. Chapter 5: Conclusions and Implications 71

9. Chapter 6: Limitations and Further Research 75

10. References . 78

11. Appendixes . 80


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RESUMEN ANALTICO RAES

Tipo de documento: Tesis de Grado

Acceso al documento: Universidad Pedaggica Nacional

Ttulo del documento: Writing development through dialogue journals (el

desarrollo de la escritura a travs de Diarios de dilogos).

Autor: GIL RODELO, Jhoinis

Publicacin: Bogot, 2008, 94 pginas.

Unidad Patrocinante: Universidad Pedaggica Nacional

Palabras Claves: Dialogue journals, Process approach, Heuristicity,

Individualization, Interaction, Individual heuristicity.

Descripcin:

El proyecto de investigacin que se presenta a continuacin hace parte de un

Action researchde tipo descriptivo cuyo objetivo principal es observar y explorar el

papel de los Dialogue journalsen la habilidades escritoras de estudiantes de tercer

grado de una institucin educativa localizada en el suroriente de la ciudad a partir

de la enseanza del ingls como lengua extranjera.

Fuentes:

BURNS, A. (2001). Research for English language teachers. Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge. CASSANY, D. (1989). Describir el Escribir: Cmo se aprende a

escribir. Barcelona: Paids. CUSHING WEIGLE, SARA (2002). Assessing writing.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ELBOW, P. (1981). Writing with power:

Techniques for mastering the writing process. New York: Oxford University Press.


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FREEDMAN, A., PRINGLE, I., and YALDEN, J. (1989). Learning to write: First

Language / Second Language. Applied Linguistics and Language Study. New

York: Longman. HATCH, E., and BROWN, C. (2000). Vocabulary, Semantics,

and Language Education. New York: Cambridge. HEDGE, Tricia (1998). Writing.

Oxford University Press, New York. HOPKINS, D. (1995). Data gathering. In: A

teachers guide to classroom research. Open University press, London. (p. 117 -

137) HYMES, D (1972). On communicative competence. Sociolinguistics. Eds.

Pride, J.B. and Holmes J. London: Penguin books. KROLL, B. (1997). Second

Language Writing: Research Insights for the Classroom. New York: Cambridge.

MACKEY, A. & GASS, S.M. (2005). Second Language Research: Methodology

and Design. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. NUNAN,

David (2003). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge

University Press, United Kingdom: Cambridge. PEYTON, J.K., & REED, L. (1990).

Dialogue journal writing with nonnative English speakers: A handbook for teachers.

Alexandria, VA: TESOL. PEYTON, J.K, & STATON, J. (1993). Resource guide: A

dialogue journal bibliography. Washington, DC: NCLE. RAIMES, Ann (1983).

Techniques in teaching writing. Oxford University Press, New York. REID, Joy

(2001). Writing in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge

University Press (edited by CARTER, Ronald and NUNAN, David), Cambridge.

RICHARDS, J. C., and RODGERS, T. S. (1986). Approaches and Methods in

Language Teaching. Communicative Language Teaching, 64-86. New York:

Cambridge. YULE, George (1998). The Study of Language. Cambridge University


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Press, Cambridge. WILLIS, Jane (1996). A framework for Task Based Learning.

Longman, London.

Contenidos:

El presente documento est dividido en seis captulos. En el primero se ocupa

acerca del sustento terico sobre el cual se basa el presente proyecto de

investigacin. En ste se introducen trminos como Dialogue journals, Process

approach, Heuristicity, Individualization, e Interaction. En el segundo captulo se

versa de los pasos que fueron seguidos al momento de aplicar este estudio. En eltercero se tratan los aspectos relacionados con la contextualizacin de este

proyecto de investigacin como los participantes, los instrumentos y el tipo de

estudio. En el captulo cuarto se ocupa del anlisis de informacin en los

instrumentos empleados. En el captulo quinto, se presentan las conclusiones que

responden a la pregunta de investigacin formulada. Finalmente, en el ltimo

captulo se da cuenta de los aspectos que se podran exploran en estudios

ulteriores y de los elementos que constituyeron en obstculos para el desarrollo

del presente estudio.

Metodologa:

En el desarrollo del presente proyecto investigativo se siguieron una serie depasos a travs de los cuales se llev a cabo este estudio. Se debe tener en cuenta

que stos no se suceden en un orden necesariamente cronolgico ya que en cada

instante del proceso los estudiantes reciben retroalimentacin. El primer paso se


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constituye en una etapa de preparacin en la que los estudiantes reciban todo el

input que ellos necesitaban a fin de efectuar la tarea principal para la leccin. En

este momento, los educandos entran en contacto con el vocabulario que ha de ser

utilizado durante la leccin. Aqu la gramtica se presenta de una manera

inductiva a los estudiantes a travs de juegos, guas, lminas, etc. Basados en el

andamiaje (scaffolding) que los stos reciben durante este estadio, los estudiantes

escriben sus notas en sus diarios. Basados en stos, se desarroll el presente

estudio. A este paso le sucede una pequea socializacin de los aspectos

consignados en los diarios. Este aspecto tom lugar de manera espontnea entre

los educandos y tena el objeto de retroalimentar el comunicativo que los

estudiantes haban emprendido al momento de escribir sus diarios. Finalmente,

en el ltimo estadio, se consider la etapa de respuesta de los diarios de los

estudiantes y seleccin de nuevos aspectos a tratar en leccin futuras. Ahora, a

travs de diarios de campo y de algunas muestras de los estudiantes se logr

visualizar una sucesin de fenmenos que fueron decantados en una serie de

patrones entre los cuales se establecieron asociaciones a fin de lograr las

categoras que posteriormente seran analizadas en el da a da a travs de los

instrumentos de recoleccin de informacin.

Conclusiones:

Los diarios de dilogo (Dialogue journals) tuvieron un gran impacto en proceso de

aprendizaje y en las habilidades socio-comunicativas de los estudiantes. Su

proceso escrito fue enriquecido con el uso de una serie de referens que los

estudiantes emplearon a la hora de comunicar sus ideas. Este hecho demuestra


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que los educandos construyeron su propio significado a partir de la puesta en

escena de un complejo proceso cognitivo (Individualization, Heuristicity, and

Individual heuristicity). En este contexto, los estudiantes necesitaron de un

proceso de socializacin al momento de comunicar sus significados a los dems.

Este estadio tom lugar justo antes de los educandos consignaran sus ideas en

sus diarios. Este hecho haca que el proceso comunicativo fluyera gil y sin

traumatismos.

Fecha de elaboracin resumen: 02 de junio de 2008


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ABSTRACT

Writing implies an interactive challenge in which both the readers (the audience-

call it which you please) and the writer take responsibility for the communicative act

in which they are going to be interacting. However, the views on the nature of

writing are very different from each other. On the one hand, some scholars regard

writing as a complex communicative product. Therefore, this phenomenon can only

be assessed and seen as a whole. On the other hand, some theoreticians claim

that writing should be seen as a process. Thus, this communicative act is

developed into a series of steps which the author carefully selects on his/her own

as the result of an exploration process that will lead him/her to construct his/her

own meaning. In this context, this study aimed to characterize students writing

performance when implementing dialogue journals. The latter appear as an

alternative way to acquire an interactive writing in order to develop language and

literacy, and to foster personal and social development in third grade students at

IED Liceo Femenino Mercedes Nario. During the pedagogical implementation, all

participants went through four main stages, namely, a preparation phase, a

dialogue journal entry stage, a socialization one, and the response-selection of the

new topic stage. Also, two instruments were utilized in order to collect data, i.e.

field notes and students artifacts. Results showed significant evidence of social

interactions before, during, and after students start their journals. These outcomes

indicate that socialization plays an important role for students at the moment of


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conveying their meaning. That is why, students felt more comfortable when

exchanging their ideas before starting their entries. The latter was part of some

strategies students applied at the moment of conveying their meaning, namely,

spending some time preparing what they were going to enter in the journals and

using a series of referens spontaneously in order to convey their meaning. These

referens shaped into complex assortments of mother tongue and the foreign

language, and into some symbols the student writers make use of.

.


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INTRODUCTION

Communication is a phenomenon that provides human beings with the opportunity

to exchange their ideas, concepts, feelings, and all the heuristic facts within an

individual. Also, that opportunity is what makes society necessary, as a mechanism

so as to preserve human culture, identity and existence. However, it has many

faces; as many languages are inside the human society. Notwithstanding, there is

a language that has been used as a metaphor of a bridge that makes closer most

of the cultures around the world: English. It means that through this language

communication among different civilizations has been possible. Also, this metaphor

brings the idea of globalization: the world itself is not the limit but the context in

which many ideas can be shared. But, before communicating through the bridge it

is necessary to build it.

Here build means to learn English as a foreign language. Learning a second

language is a process in which one of the main objectives people have is to be

able to communicate to others by using the target language in a successful way. At

this point, it is important to say that, according to Hedge (1998), there are at least

two options people have for communicating to others which are, in my opinion, the

most common ones: speaking, which is kind of the most used one, and writingthat

has been employed by human beings for centuries and that now is been globalized

by the growth of mass media and the increasing popularity of technological

devices.


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Now, in the institution where this project was applied, there is a need regarding

communication. Communicating successfully to others is the main goal to achieve,

but it is, at the same, the main concern within the aforementioned institution. Thus,

there is an aim at developing interaction among students in the foreign language:

English. In this context, this project is going to be focused exclusively on writing so

as to improve students writing as a communicative skill through those elements

students are interested in.

Accordingly, this project proposes to explore students writing skill so as to help

them to improve it by implementing dialogue journals in class. The rationale for this

is interactive writing that it brings along. Here, students are able to express their

ideas, thoughts and feelings in the target language with the possibility to get

feedback within a non-threatening atmosphere. Also, the idea of making use of

Dialogue Journals promotes a worthier communication atmosphere since it

provides students exposure to the target language.

Finally, this project is divided in three chapters. Chapter one shows in a brief way

the literature regarding teaching writing that is considered in this project. In chapter

two, there is the procedure of how this project is thought to be applied in with the

students of the institute in which this project is going to be applied. As a final point,

chapter three deals with a chart that summarizes the research question, objectives,

type of study, setting, participants and the instruments that are going to be taking

into account when implementing the project.


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JUSTIFICATION

This paper contains the project that is going to be considered during the semester.

It was designed according to the necessities the population target had (a formal

female Institution in the south-eastern part of the city where English is taught as a

foreign language) in terms of communication. Communicating successfully to

others is the mayor goal to achieve within the institution where this project is being

arranged. But also it is the main concern. That is the reason why students who are

learning English in that institution are expected to communicate easily with others,

to use English spontaneously and to learn grammar in an inductive way.

According to this, students were supposed to use spoken English during the

classes by means of using some expressions and/or language chunks that either

students are acquainted with or that teacher provides in order to make

communication feasible in the classroom. Writing, on the other hand, is an ability

that either students have not worked on yet or students have worked very slightly.

Besides, students are in the middle of their literacy process in their mother

language. As a result, the communicative function writing skill has is not very clear.

Since the emphasis in the institution seems to be the oral communication, students

have the idea that writing is just a no-serious, irrelevant or somewhat boring

process - at least in the elementary level.

For that reason, this project proposes the use of writing as a mean of

communicating that complements the students learning process in that institution.


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Therefore, the same was meant to contribute to the accurate personal and social

development, to build confidence and self-esteem among students, and to develop

and maintain social relationships. Here writing was to be considered as a way to

reinforce students English knowledge (grammar structures and their use when

communicating) and their communicative performance during the class in means

for them to be confident when dealing with written English. This is because

according to Cassany (1989) as written language is different from the spoken one,

both are different channels of communication and both are important for a foreign

language learner learning process.


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RESEARCH QUESTION

Considering what was said before, there is a question related to the process of

learning a foreign language in the institution this project was to be applied that

concerns the writing performance in the student: What are the characteristics of

students writing performance when implementing dialogue journals?


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OBJECTIVES

-General:

- To observe and explore the role of Dialogue Journals in English foreign

language students writing skill.

-Specific:

- To enhance students interactions in the foreign language in a written way.

- To analyze and understand students writing process in the foreign

language when implementing Dialogue Journals.


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CHAPTER I

LITERATURE REVIEW

The present project deals with the performance a foreign language learner has

regarding writing skill so that communicate to others. Also, it is important to say

that it involves certain factors within it such as meaning negotiation, interaction,

and so forth. Accordingly, the theories that are going to be considered during this

project are related to the learning process of writing itself and the perspective given

to this process by the author of the present research. First of all, it is going to be

elicited some statements about the writing process. Here it is going to be

considered some ideas stated by Cassany (1989), Kroll (1997), Freedman (1989),

Hatch & Brown (2000) and Richards & Rodgers (1986).

The writing process

Reid, J. (2002)1 in the chapter entitled Writing introduces a general background

on the historical views on L2 and foreign writing. Even as late as the 70s, L2

writing was not even view as a language skill. As a result, L2 composition teaching

was not that popular by then. Writing was just limited to some grammar rules and

was strictly controlled in contrast to our recent guided writing. The teaching

philosophy grew directly out of the Audiolingual method. It was here that started

the shift from the language-based writing to the study of composition techniques

and strategies due to the development of NES composition field and to the

1Reid, J (2002).Writing. In S. Cushing, Assessing Writing (pp 57-92). New York: Cambridge University Press.


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teachers realization of the needs of English L2 students for post-secondary

entrance and replacement examinations. From that moment on, writing philosophy

focuses on teaching of organization patterns such as thesis statement, topic

sentence, etc. It is here that appears the product approach (see the previous

item).

Now, in the 80s, it appeared the expressive approach in which writing is

understood as a process in which the individual get through a process of self-

discovery. In here, student writers were encouraged to write as an excuse to

express their own feelings and/or opinions. In this approach, the process went from

the personal writing (based basically upon the creation of narratives and journals)

to foster students creativity and fluency. Here, students were able to explore freely

on certain topic. In order for them to do so, they often found new ways to get

innovative connections among different elements belonging to the same issue. At

this point, the writing process was constantly re-led to another placeof interest.

Afterwards, it arrived on the scene the writer-based approach in which took place

the exclusion of external audiences. Its representatives neglected accuracy in favor

of fluency: in this part of the development of L2 and foreign language, the process

is more important to individual development than the product itself. In contrast,

product teachers focused only on accuracy, appropriate rhetorical discourse and

language patterns. In here experts were not concerned about the voice of the

student writers, but rather about academic conventions that stifled creativity: it

emerged the reader-based. In this context, the writing was meant only for an


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academic audience. At this point, the development of multiple drafts to achieve

meaningful communication came into sight. Now, teachers focused on the

problem-solving aspect of identifying and practicing discourse conventions.

It was not until the 90s that the importance of L2 writing became popular in the

field of research because of three factors: first, the inclusion of writing on

international test of English proficiency. Second, the necessity for better teacher

preparation that gave rise to the development of better material. Third, the

development of a number of specific series devoted to writing.

This gave rise to the development of creative writing. The same involved strategies

such as: re-writing from different viewpoints, shifting registers to explore changing

communicative effects, writing predictions and completions to texts and so on. In

this context, the research in this field draws its attention to similarity-deficit model in

which the researchers are searching the scarcities that might show up. In here it

has been adopted ethnographic methods such as case study and speak-aloud

protocols.

The Importance of Written Language

According to Ferris (cited by Flowerdew, 2001), the approaches and techniques

used when teaching L1 are also appropriate when teaching a second and a foreign

language because of considering students previous knowledge and giving them

the opportunity of using the target language in a real context. For example,


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techniques such as pre-writing activities, drafting, invention and portfolio

assessment are relevant because they take into account the way students were

taught in their L1 process and so all the background they might have concerning

writing. Moreover, they bring the opportunity for them to interact with others (which

means communicate and exchange of meaning); showing them, a posteriori, the

way the target language is used in context. It means that a second language

writing process would consider exercises in which students are supposed to

express their ideas about certain topics, to negotiate how to deal with some

problems or situations, and so other activities in where they can use the language

they are studying for communicating what they already do when using their mother

tongue.

Besides, considering what Brookes and Grundy (2002)2 have said about the study

of language in the twentieth century3 the written part of language has some

advantages that spoken language does not (for example, the use of images in

advertisement, posters, and so on) which can be explored and used for making

communication wealthier. By writing, students can transcend the here and now

using images that support the idea they want to be immortal. However, it does not

mean that spoken language is inferior than the written one; the fact is that both are

complements, and if a teacher focuses his/her attention in just one of them,

students will learn one perspective of what communication and interaction are: they

2Brooks and Grundy (2002). Study of language in the twentieth century. In S. Cushing, Assessing Writing (pp

120-145). New York: Cambridge University Press.3

The study of language in the twentieth century has tended to concentrate on spoken language. Written language was

thought by some to be spoken language put into written form Brookes & Grundy, 2002.


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are going to miss the variety of perspectives written language can offer and

support the spoken one and vice versa. However, as in the institution this project is

going to be applied they focus on the oral English, the written one proposed here is

going to complement the process that institution is carrying with the students that

are learning English as a foreign language there.

This last part is evident in the article The grown and development of first-grade

writers when Graves explains that Children have a natural urge to express, to

make marks, to play with writing, to experiment boldly with new ways to put

messages on paper. (article edited by Freedman, 1989). It means that children

need to express themselves using as many communication ways as possible. That

is the importance of teaching not only writing but also non-verbal communication

patterns. However, the one that concerns to this project is the first one.

Considering what Graves has said writing could be considered as a new

perspective that children can learn for communicating to others. However, as

writing can help students to interact and to express and exchange ideas and

meanings, it is important to take into account the possibilities it has nowadays so

as to be real in human beings interaction. In this context, the goal of writing would

be to communicate a certain message, which is thought to be of common interest,

to others. Thus, it is enhanced the conveyance of real meaning among students

with real purposes

Here Graves said that the teacher has to take into account the real-world writing

that is used by students outside the classroom (letters, poems, articles, and so on),


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in both native and foreign language (article edited by Brookes, 2002). Accordingly,

there are many contexts in which the target language can be used: making notes in

a diary, writing greetings cards, writing graffiti on a wall, and so forth (Brookes, p.

6, 2002). Considering these contexts, students would be able to communicate and

negotiate meaning by writing letters, e-mails, or participating in forums. Here the

importance is that they can make notes about some else writing, or give some

comments about what a classmate has written, and so on. The fact is that taking

into consideration writing as a perspective students have for negotiating and

exchanging meaning, they would be able to communicate in a more meaningful

way because of using extra spoken language tools such as posters, draws,

advertisement, postcards, which generate a worthy atmosphere during

communication.

Considering what has been explained, it is important to take into account some

ideas regarding the nature of the writing process itself. Here there are two views

about writing that are important because they are the conceptions writing has had

and that are to be considered in this project so as to reflect on the process

students in the institution are going to have.

First of all, the way one views an object is usually the way one deals with it, and to

some such extent, the same affects the way one interacts with it and ones own

conception of it. In this sense, it is important to understand the nature of the objects

one is dealing with before one actually jumps into them. Now, in order to

understand something about the writing process it is a must to understand the


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different views of its nature. Nunan, in Designing tasks for the communicative

classroom, defines two views of the nature of writing: the product approach and

the process approach.

The first one, the Product Approach, focuses on the end result of the act of

composition: the outcome. Here teacher is deeply concerned on the fact that the

text is readable and comprehensible, with an accurate use of grammar, and with a

strict acquiescence to the discourse conventions. The main purpose of the class is

to copy and imitate: carrying out sentence expansions from cue words and

developing sentences and paragraphs from models of various sorts.

In the second one, the Process Approach concentrates as much on the means

whereby the completed text is created as on the end product itself. Here teacher

does not concentrate only on such things as grammar or the readability of the text,

but rather on the different strategies the student writers use in order to get their

ideas across. That is why, in the writing process, one can write what one aims to

convey until one actually gets on the way to discover meaning. That is to say that

the writing process is regarded as a process of discovery for the student writers in

which they are in search of new ideas and new language forms to convey to their

audience. According to Raimes (1983), they can come up with different

connections among the elements they are familiar with. Therefore, this process is

constantly re-led to diverse places of interest. The latter makes it more important to

individual development. In this context the whole process is assessed taking into


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consideration the different stages the writer has gone through in order to come up

with the final draft.

Now, Ann M. Johns (2002) describes within the Process Approach two main

movements: the Expressivist Movementand the Cognitivist Movement. In here the

author explains some categories that are taken into consideration when talking

about writing from the perspective of the Process Approach. The first one is the

writer. Within the Expressivist Movement, the writer is the instigator of a creative

process whereby the same gets into a self-discovery process. On the other hand,

in the Cognitivist Movement, the writer is seen as a planner as well as a problem-

solver. The latter usually plans his/her writing extensively in order to come up with

alternative solutions to former rhetorical issues. In both movements, the student-

writers are the ones who guide their own process. The second category deals with

the audience. Since the Expressivist Movement holds the view that the goal of

writing should be to move towards a condition in which we do not necessarily need

an audience to write or speak well (Elbow, P.: 1981; p. 190). For that reason,

Elbow introduces the concept audience invoked because the audience in written

discourse is a construction of the writer, a created fiction. Conversely, for the

Cognitivists, the audience is the one who is going to get the writers communicative

act. The third category deals with Reality and Truth. Both the Expressivist

movement and the Cognitivist movement agree on the fact that the latter reside

within both the writer (who attempts to establish them through the text) and the

audiences mind. In here, the writer proposes its audience a reality where they both

can agree on- yet the writer tries to bring the latter around to a particular truth


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within it. Finally, the last category copes with the language component. Again,

both movements are of the same opinion: the writer is the one who builds up the

linguistic construction. The latter depends on the writers prior experience and

his/her creative urge.

Now, according to the author, understanding the nature of writing would lead us

inexorably to get our students to achieve a successful writing in an adequate

pedagogical process. The same involves a series of stages and/or processes that

the person who writes should get through in order to get a successful writing.

However, it is important to say that in this research it was not considered those

stages. They are meant to contextualize the reader in terms of the view most of the

teachers have regarding teaching writing. Here are organized as follows: first, the

one who writes should master the mechanics of letter formation as well as

becoming skilled in and being submitted to the conventions of the language such

as spelling and punctuation. Up to this point, the writer uses the grammatical

system to convey his/her intended meaning and organizes the content at the level

of a single paragraph and the complete text in such a way that it shows a certain

degree of reflection upon the information s/he is given, based upon which s/he

actually creates his/her intended meaning. Then, the writer is supposed to polish

and revise his/her own initial efforts, and finally select an appropriate style for

his/her audience. To conclude, Nunan (2003) states that the better we, as

teachers, know the nature of write, the more capable we will be at the very moment

of orienting an adequate writing process in our pupils.


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All in all, according to Nunan, there are two main views of the nature of writing: the

product approach and the process approach. The former draws its attention to the

product of writing. Only product is the one that is assessed by the teacher. In

contrast, the latter spotlights the writing as a process in which one is growing in the

understanding and the management of different elements in order to discover

ones meaning. The latter is the one that is to be taken into consideration in the

current project when dealing with the process of developing a communicative

competence in written English.

Now, in order to address students needs and to be able to track down students

written performance, it was taken into consideration for the current research the

Dialogue Journalsas a way to introduce an interactive writing in order to develop

language and literacy in EFL students. Besides, these journals foster students

personal growth. According to Hedge (1998), they help personal and social

development and can be useful at the very moment of building confidence and self-

esteem among students at lower levels.

Peyton, J.K., & Reed, L. (1990) describe Dialogue Journals as a >. In this special way of writing, students can write about any topic of their

preference to a tutor. The latter, then, writes back to the students (each one at a

time) in response to the former issue. This exchange, which continues for a certain

period of time, is confined to the two people involved: the teacher and the student.


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Nonetheless, this exchange is not focused upon form, but upon communication

and interaction.

The dialogue journalprovides student-writers within the writing process with a non-

threatening atmosphere since it encourages one to one communication. Moreover,

students are offered with an excellent exposure to the target language because

they have a real context for writing and optimal language learning conditions.

Students are invited to write at their proficiency level (even if it is minimal) about

topics that interest them. Also, students get enough modeling because teacher

works here as a language model. This approach was considered in this research

as a key concept for three main reasons: First, because of the extending contact

time with students that it provides; second, because of the management of classes

with students of varying language, ability, and interest levels. Finally, this approach

was taken into consideration in the current research because it provides an

excellent exposure to the target language.

So far, there has been explained the writing process itself based on authors and

their ideas regarding this skill. Now, it is important to take into consideration the

writer itself who is going to be a student that is learning both foreign language oral

and written channel. For this, here are some ideas stated by Cassany (1989)

regarding writing and writer.

In his book Describir el escribir, most of the ideas explained by Cassany deal with

the process of writing regarding literature and academic texts. However, his


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general ideas of writing are considered important here because he classifies the

kinds of writers presented when an individual is learning a second and a foreign

language. Also, this text shows the idea how the written communication is

considered to be taught, having an implicit idea of the important role of semiotics in

the process of learning vocabulary and grammatical structures (code) made by the

learner. Besides, Cassany states the importance of the written code in terms of its

independence from the oral one (it is not merely a transcription of this last one)

affirming adquirir el cdigo escrito no significa solamente aprender la

correspondencia entre el sonido y la grafa, sino aprender un cdigo nuevo,

suscintamente distinto del oral.(Cassany, 1989, 27)

The Foreign Language Writer-Learner

The writer without code is the name Cassany has called to all kinds of people who

are trying to write in a second language (in this case, a foreign language) which

has not been acquired completely. Also, in the case of students, it is important to

say that they are developing the skill of writing in a competitive way in their first or

mother tongue. That means students are developing both first and foreign

language writing skill. (21) This last part is important to be taking into consideration

because as students are also in the process of writing in their mother tongue, they

are not very conscious about the importance of this skill so as to communicate and

interact with people. For that reason, it is important for the teacher in charge of the

procedure this project states (using blogs for helping students when dealing with


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the writing part of the quiz) to take into account the distinction made by Krashen

(1984, quoted by Cassany 1989) considering Chomskys theory:

la competencia es el cdigo escrito, es el conjunto de conocimientos de

gramtica y de lenguaque tienen los autores en la memoria; la actuacin es

la composicin del texto, es el conjunto de estrategias comunicativas que

utilizan los autores para producir un escrito. La competencia es el sabery la

actuacin es el saber hacer. (Cassany, 1989, 17)

According to Cassany, the writing skill is the mastery of both chomskian stages:

competence (knowledge regarding the foreign language code) and actuation

(which strategies students can use in order for them to produce a text using all the

knowledge they have). Based on Cassanys ideas, throughout the implementation

of this project students are going to practice the use of written English so as to

master its use by considering all the previous knowledge they have regarding this

language so that they can describe places or people during the quiz4. However, the

author states that un escritor debe conocer y saber utilizar estos dos

componentes si aspira a comunicarse correctamente por escrito: debe tener

suficientes conocimientos del cdigo escrito y adems tiene que saber aplicar las

estrategias necesarias de redaccin (Cassany, 1989, 18) It means that for a

successful-in-communication writing, students have to know English deeply in

terms of structure and meaning: syntax and semantics.

4This is because as the institution in which this project is been carried focuses its attention on interaction through

spoken English, students are not very accustomed to the written one. For that reason, when they are asked to write or

describe something they list separated sentences instead of writing a complete text.


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But, according to Wilkins (1972, quoted by Richards & Rodgers, 1986) when

teaching language it is important to focus on communicative proficiency rather than

mastery of structures (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, 64) For that reason, Wilkins

recognized that when learning a language students need to understand

communicative meanings (notional categories such as time, quantity, sequence,

location and so on) and categories of communicative function: requests, offers,

denials, and so forth) rather than describing structures. Those communicative

meanings are what this project aims to master in students: by considering the

cognitive process they will have when writing (Individualization, Heuristicity and

Individual Heuristicity) students are going to use their previous knowledge they

have regarding the linguistic code which in this case is English, so as to express

their ideas (things they like, opinions) and to describe the contexts in which they

are within (Family, school, and so forth). Those aspects are basically the topics

they are asked to write in a dialogue journal.

Notwithstanding, Cassany states that the linguistic knowledge a person has (he

calls it written code) can be learned in different ways: when reading by pleasure or

by obligation; when memorizing some pieces of written texts such as legends,

stories; when studying grammatical rules and structures; when writing pieces of

texts that may be interesting by individuals such as poems; and so on. The author

says that in those activities utilizamos estos conocimientos para procesar textos,

ya sea codificando o descodificando: leyendo o escribiendo.(Cassany, 19) This is


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the input students have: different contexts in which they can learn more vocabulary

and structures in English. It can be unconscious or conscious, but what is

important here is that students are supposed to use all the information gathered

not only in the classroom but outside it. Here it can be considered the contexts in

which they are in where English is important: school, entertainment: video-games,

films, music, and so on.

This process of learning abstract knowledge (English code) is important because it

shows a semiotic approach that makes relevant the Process of Transcendental

Production of Discourse: the individual is within different contexts. Each context

has many symbols, icons and signs the individual is supposed to decodify in order

for him/her to understand them. This process of decodification deals with the

Individualization process in terms of construction of the world and meaning,

cognitive processes in where the relationship established is Subject-Subject

Heuristicity (individual and thoughts) Then, the interaction of all the cognitive

elements that make possible the individual heuristic realm has an outcome

(thought) that is going to lead the individual to two processes: mental

(Individualization and Heuristicity) and physical (interaction-abstraction towards an

object)

Present Research Perspective

Considering the ideas presented, in a brief way, and taking into account the impact

that the Communicative Language Teaching has had among writing skill, showing


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that it is very important to recognize how people communicate to others,

recognizing the importance of intelligibility and persuasiveness when writing

(Brookes, p. 11 2002), this project takes into account the idea of what the author

called the Process of Transcendental Production of Discourse (this is what is going

to be explained in brief) considering also the process approach explained above

and different stages, proposed by the author of this current project, students writers

were going to follow so as to communicate through writing.

When talking about the Process of Transcendental Production of Discourse, the

reader has to take into account three stages that make possible this perspective of

communication: Individualization, Heuristicity, and Individual Heuristicity. The first

one refers to the heuristic construction of the world and its referensmade by an

individual. By Individualization the reader would understand as the first kind of

cognitive relationship presented inside the human being mind: the Subject, in

philosophical terms, and its heuristicity: Subject-Subject heuristicity. This

relationship exemplifies the human being itself and the process in which he/she is

been involved (the subject and its thoughts) However, it is important to say that this

statement does not mean that the subject is independent of its thought. In fact, it

means that Individualization is a macro sphere in where there is another sphere

that symbolizes the subject heuristic realm. All in all, this relationship corresponds

to the following diagram5:

5This theory and next diagram are excerpted from: Rueda N and Gil, J (2007). On the individual and his

heuristicity. ______________, Bogot, D.C.


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Subject

Thought

Heuristicity

Cognitive Elements

INDIVIDUALIZATION

However, the Individualization process has another one within it: a second process

that corresponds to the Heuristicity itself as the interaction of those cognitive

elements that are in charge of making possible the heuristic realm through thought:

HEURISTICITY

Finally, the third cognitive relationship presented is called the Individual

Heuristicity. This relationship deals with the interaction of the first two stages,

Subject

Thought


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Individualization and Heuristicity. This third cognitive process proposes an output

that is reflected in both mental (Individualization-Heuristicity) and physical

processes such as the one called interaction-abstraction towards an object

(referent). Also, it is shown in the process of production of discourses as a result of

the process previously mentioned. Accordingly, the diagram that exemplifies this

third stage would be as follows:

INDIVIDUAL HEURISTICITY

Considering this last diagram, there are two kinds of output: the mental one that

symbolizes the relationships between certain cognitive elements which are the

Heuristicity. They transcend creating a big (or macro) cognitive element called

Thought or First output. On the other hand, there is the physical output that is the

manifestation of Thought (First output) through the interaction-abstraction

processes before a referent, as it is shown in the diagram. Moreover, they are in

Output

(Physical)

Subject

Thought

Heuristicity

Cognitive ElementsOutput

(mental)

Referent

Interaction-

Abstraction

Production of

Discourses


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charge of producing discourses which according to the scheme are the possible

interpretations that the subject might have regarding the referent. As a result, the

discourse that was produced during this process (it may be an interpretation of a

certain phenomenon, here it could be considered as the result of the writing

process, which is something that is going to be explained later) is what the author

of the present project consider the Subjectivity of Writing.

Those three elements Individualization, Heuristicity, and Individual Heuristicity, are

the stages proposed by the authors of this project. Each stage is going to represent

the individual (student) as a Subject that has its own reality, mental and cognitive

realm: its individuality. Also, they are going to present writing as a process that

comes from the individual to others so as to communicate facts, ideas, thoughts

that are happening in its cognitive realm. It means the writing implementation

proposed in this project is not going to follow a structure as the one proposed by

Nunan (master the mechanics of letter formation, conventions of the language

such as spelling and punctuation, all the grammatical knowledge in order to

express ideas, the structure writing may have such as paragraphs, check his/her

production and select an appropriate style) but is going to focus its attention in

writing as a way human beings interact and communicate ideas each other. It

means that the writing process aimed here wants individuals to express their ideas

freely without having a structural-mind process of drafting what is going to be

written. It does not mean that there is not any process in the Process of

Transcendental Production of Discourse; the one proposed here comes from the

Individualization, followed by the Heuristicity and ending in a new process which is


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the Individual Heuristicity where the individual express the interpretation he/she

has about reality.

As it was explained, the process comes from the individual and goes to others.

This means that all the cognitive elements within Heuristicity are going to be

interacting so that to produce meaning, ideas and thoughts that are the ones

intended to be expressed. During this interaction, all the heuristic construction each

individual has is going to be involved in that process of creating an outcome. This

has a special importance here in this project: by having students writing about

things they know, things that belong to their heuristic realm, they are to recognize

the importance of writing in communication: there is a message, a person who

sends that message, an intention by sending the message, a person (or people)

who is (are) going to receive it, and a possible feedback regarding this message

which would be a specific answer according to the kind of message.

Pertinence of the Individual Heuristicity

The last three processes mentioned by the author are considered as the genesis of

writing in students. This is because they would have their Individualization stage

before producing any kind of discourse, and so the Heuristicity and the Individual

Heuristicity. Besides, during these three stages, there is interaction and negotiation

of meaning between the subject that can be any student and his/her Individual

Heuristicity in order for him/her to produce certain discourse. Having it, the student


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is ready to interchange and negotiate the meaning he/she has about the specific

referent with other student that has done the same process.

This Individual Heuristicity process also exemplifies what can be done during the

pre-writing stage, drafting, invention and portfolio assessment in the sense that it

makes evident the process a students has had so as to produce certain discourse

which in this case is a written one. After this phase, students would have the

opportunity to exchange their discourse (their written production), receiving

feedback from the other classmates (which can be considered as a negotiation and

exchanging of meaning because of the dialogue that is going to be presented when

each one is giving suggestions or assumptions about what they heard)

Furthermore, the necessity children have for communicating with others and the

new perspective writing can have for them as Graves said, makes the Individual

Heuristicity process something that can vary depending on the language children

are using. It means that by writing using their mother tongue, they are having a

different perspective of communication. But, by writing in a foreign language they

are having not only a new perspective of communication but also a new

perspective of having Individual Heuristicity processes so that producing

discourses.

Accordingly, the type of study that will be considered during this project deals with

the Qualitative paradigm because the phenomenon selected (explore writing skill)

is going to be interpreted by the people in charge of carry out this project. In fact,

all the hypothesis and ideas presented throughout the observations and the data


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collected come from their interpretation. Also, it was considered the process that

students were going to have during the implementation of this present project. On

the other hand, the Action-research model is the approach selected by the author

because it proposes the observation of an ongoing process through a step by step

process instead of focusing only on its result.


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CHAPTER II

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Since the current research project deals with the characterization of students

writing skills when implementing dialogue journals, in the present chapter, I am

going to elaborate on the methodology that was employed to develop this study.

The same was divided into four main stages, namely, the preparation phase in

which students are introduced the language for the lesson and receive the input in

which they were going to rely on at the moment of performing, the dialogue journal

entry stage, the socialization period, and the response-selection step. It is worth

mention here that these processes do not occur in the same order, but it is rather a

cyclical process going over and over. Thus, in the last stage of the process it is

selected the topics for the next lessons.

In first place, the preparation stage takes place at the beginning of the class. At

this point, students received all the scaffolding6 they needed in order for them to be

able to perform the main task of the class successfully. This scaffoldingconsists of

a series of activities in which the learner were going to see how the language for

the day was used in communicative situations. At this juncture, students received

full exposure to the foreign language in use. Most of the times, this first stage

shaped into short games in which the learners were supposed to use some

language chunks through which students were introduced the language for the

6This term was introduced by Willis, Jane (1996).


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lesson and/or the expressions they were going to be using as the lesson went by.

This part allowed them to use the language they already knew: this was a useful

way to recycletheir previous knowledge. So, as a result, students confidence grew

and they dared to use the new language in the different activities they were

presented.

According to Willis (1996), the aim of this preparation stage was to present

activities in which students explored the topic language being actively involved,

providing them with relevant contact with the foreign language and, above all,

creating interest in writing an entry on this topic in their journals. At this moment,

students confidence in handling the language would boost since they were given

some useful language to fall back on if necessary. Sometimes, teacher provided

students with a similar task to the one they were going to carry out during the next

step as an example. This aspect was especially important at the beginning of the

current research project. It is worth mention here that these features that were

taken into consideration for this preparation stage had been pre-selected by

students either in their entries on their journals or aurally once the class had

already taken off.

Now, by the end of the preparation stagestudents received instructions for the next

period. Nevertheless, they decided the path they were going to follow at the

moment of getting their entry in their journals. These instructions were, therefore,


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very general and they aimed to guide students about the topic they were going to

be elaborating on for the lesson. At this moment, students would read teacher

feedback on their previous entry in their dialogue journals. Next, students used the

latter in order to start theirs as a response to it. Here, as stated by Peyton & Reed

(1990), they could elaborate on the topics and concerns they wanted to, some

questions they may have had, new topics they would like to introduce, and writing

about themselves. Thus, the lesson was able to meet students interests in this

way. Consequently, students were intrinsically motivated to use the foreign

language in context. Therefore, the issues they dealt with were meaningful to them.

At this moment of the lesson, students were free to experiment actively with new

ways to put their messages on the paper: they got through a process of self-

discovery in which they perform their personal writing. According to Brookes &

Grundy (2002), the former allows student writers to use their entries as an excuse

to express their feelings and/or opinions freely and fosters their creativity and

provides them with fluency at the very moment of using the language for

communicative purposes.

Afterwards, students had the opportunity to socialize their ideas with their partners.

This issue had the purpose to contribute to boost students confidence at the

instant of using the foreign. As stated by Nunan (2003) & Willis (1996), this

socialization stageallows students to gain awareness in the purpose of language

itself: communicate something to someone with a specific goal, in a particular

context. Moreover, this aspect was implemented in order to enhance students


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confidence by providing them with a supportative learning environment. In this way,

students were more motivated to write in a greater extent about the things they

were truly interested in. At the same time, the latter enabled learners to learn from

each other, since they all had different strengths, abilities, and learning strategies.

At this point, students reinforced the language they had learned for the day.

According to Hedge (1998), this aspect helps students personal and social

development, build confidence and self-esteem, as well as increase their aural

skills.

Finally, the last phase of the pedagogical intervention corresponds to the

response-selection of new topics. This section is divided into two main issues,

namely, the response to students entries and the choice of new issues to

elaborate on. In the first part, teacher writes back in reply to students journals. As

stated by Peyton (2003), at this point, students focus on meaning rather than form

and, as previously mentioned, on real topics and issues of interests to them. Here,

teachers entries serve as input to students written language. The latter is

specifically adjusted to students proficiency level and they must link up on what

the student writers had written. Thus, these entries also provide recurrent exposure

and modeling to the style, language form and diverse purposes when writing their

entries. Secondly, the ideas they express in the journals contribute to the

development of further lessons. At this point, teacher is able to assess students

concerns and the steps to follow in future classes. The former was a very useful


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way of evaluating students process and they were also employed as a strategy in

order to craftforthcoming lessons.

All in all, the pedagogical implementation of the current research project consists of

a series of elements which made up the methodology that was followed at the very

moment of applying this study. To begin with, I implemented a preparation stage in

which students were given the scaffolding they needed in order to get them set up

to use the foreign language in context. Second, with all the input they receive in the

former stage, they are ready to get their entries in their journals. At this point,

students focus on meaning rather than on grammar. Next, students socialize their

ideas and/or thoughts. They profit from this to learn from each others, so they grow

in confidence in a supportative learning environment. Finally, in the last phase, the

response-selection period, students receive more input form teachers entries on

their dialogue journals, as well as more exposure on the use of the foreign

language for communicative purposes.


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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH DESIGN

This chapter deals with some specific details of the study such as the research

question and the objectives which led the current study, the setting where this

research project took place and the type of study that has been implemented. It

also, contains a characterization of the participants and a brief description of the

instruments that were employed for collecting data.

1. RESEARCH QUESTION:

- What are the characteristics of students writing performance when

implementing dialogue journals?

2. OBJECTIVES:

General:

- To observe and explore the role of Dialogue Journals in English foreign

language students writing skill.

Specific:

- To enhance students interactions in the foreign language in a written way.

- To analyze and understand students writing process in the foreign

language when implementing Dialogue Journals.

3. SETTING:


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The school where the current study took place is a formal female Institution in the

south-eastern part of the city whose name is IED Liceo Femenino Mercedes

Nario. This institution has spacious installations where they count on different

facilities through which they teach diverse subjects. It also offers French classes

for students up to fifth grade where they can develop their communicative skills in

the foreign language. The main deal here is that both English and French are

taught once a week for seventy minutes. The latter made more difficult the

development of students communicative skills.

It has students from pre-school, elementary school and high school. In here, they

have a huge green area where students are able to practice sports such as

athletics, basketball, and volleyball. They also have a language laboratory where

they have some listening material in order to develop students listening skills (i.e.

cassettes, CDs, and some videos). Moreover, they have a big library where

students have the chance to read some literature books: most of the books there

are literature ones.

On the other hand, the goal of the PEI of the institution deals with getting good

women citizens who can contribute to the societys current needs, and who can

innovate, somehow, by means of using either the knowledge or the strategies they

can come up with. Its main target is to create autonomous, creative, and

responsible human beings with an accurate sense of critic analysis of the reality

surrounding them. The vision of the institution aims to rise women who are able to


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participate fully in every single lifes domain. As a result, the institution seeks for

individual who participate actively in the transformation of our society. Therefore,

the same aims at developing students communicative competences in both the

mother tongue and the foreign language (English) in order to enable them to be

active participants of a bilingual society.

4. Participants:

The students that were considered for the developing of this current project were

students between 7 and 9 years old that have a basic level of English: they were

really beginners. That is to say that they had not had any contact with the foreign

language before. So, at the beginning of this study, they did not feel that confident

about using English for communicative purposes. What is more, due to the fact that

students had been taught in a traditional environment, students were really

concerned about conveying their ideas freely in class. But they rather responded

mainly to the things teacher asked them about. Consequently, no real

communication was virtually possible in this context. The participants were chosen

due to the fact that they came from different backgrounds and they responded to

diverse academical performances.

5. Type of study

This project deals with a type of study that follows the Action-research approach

because it focuses on a concrete problem in a deep way, namely, the problem that


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institution has found regarding the lack of writing as a means to communicate their

ideas and/or feelings. It takes into account a process. Here the process of written

English is what is aimed. Students were going to develop their writing skill by

considering a number of activities that were done as the class went along, which

were going to have a demanding level as the classes and time follow. This type of

study aims to amend students skill; in this case, writing skill, because as it was

mentioned above, this project is focus on students written English so as to develop

it for writing complete texts instead of lists of sentences.

The same has a problem-solving nature. However, it is meant to be in a long term

process. As this project proposes how to improve students writing skill by means of

dialogue journals, the author is conscious of the process learning a new code has.

For that reason, this implementation has to have stages in which the level will be

demanding the more students improve their English level in general.

The current research project is a qualitative research because, as stated by

Mackey (2005)7, this kind of study is based on descriptive data that does not make

(regular) use of statistical procedures. That is to say that this study does not aim

to give an explanation for quantities or amounts, but rather to describe students

writing process. As a result, most of the research instruments that were taken into

consideration were description-based. Now, Mackey (2005) added that qualitative

studies do not control any factors related to the context where the phenomena is

7MACKEY, A. & Gass, S.M. (2005). Second Language Research: Methodology and Design. Hillsdale NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers


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being studied. Therefore, all the occurrences are examined and evaluated in the

context and the variables in which they take place.

Instruments:

Now, in order to carry out the current research project, were implemented a series

of instruments through which I was able to collect data (see next chapter), namely,

field notes and students artifacts. The first one copes with the record I kept of the

most important events that took place in the class. This instrument was especially

useful in order to raise awareness of the most important aspects that were useful in

order to complete the characterization of students writing skill when implementing

dialogue journals.

Since the researcher is fully involved within the context in which the participants

take place, these recordings were particularly useful at the very moment of making

evident those elements that might get undistinguishable to the researcher at first

sight. Moreover, the former contributed to gather truthful and reliable information.

According to Burns (2003), (.) the observations recorded in notes can be

oriented in different ways, from the overall impressions of the classroom, to specific

aspects of the research, to recordings made about one or more students.

On the other hand, the artifacts that were taken into account in the current

research project correspond to the dialogue journals students crafted as this study

went along. The same were used in order to collect the information I needed to


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support this study. These artifacts shaped into dialogue journals which consisted of

a written conversation held between students and their tutors in which there is no

focus on form, but on meaning. The latter contributed to complete the

characterization of students writing skills under the influence of dialogue journals.

The latter served two main purposes in the current research project namely, the

implementation of the approach and as an instrument.

The exploration of English foreign language students writing skill was an activity

that complemented the process students had in the English classes within the

institution. It relied on the development of some students dialogue journals. Here

the interaction was possible because it implied one to one communication and a

threatening-free atmosphere in which students negotiated meaning and interact

with each other by making comments about what was written by the teacher. Also,

it is important to say that, since the Institution teaches grammar in an inductive

way, all the grammatical topics were placed on the syllabus each teacher receives

at the beginning of the course.

The idea was that teacher researcher took into account those topics to develop

dialogue journals in class. Here he used the syllabus in order to come up with new

activities in which the grammar or language focus had to be used. Based on that,

the activities were planned following the syllabus and the topics studied the last

classes. Thus, there were a connection between both classes and the dialogue

activities. However, in the dialogue journals it is the students, notthe teacher, the

one that are going to propose a general topic in which students had to write what


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they thought about it. For instance, if the topic was about sports, students were

supposed to write either a description of the sport they loved, practiced, and so

forth, or narrated if they practiced or not sports and why.


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CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS

This research project intends to characterize students writing performance when

implementing dialogue journals. In order to do so, I have collected the data I

needed through field notes and students artifacts8. The former were written as

soon as the class was over in order to keep track of the main situations which took

place within the classroom. This instrument was taken into consideration because,

according to Hopkins (1995)9, it provides the researcher with factual, reliable and,

somehow, objective insights on different classroom situations.

These field notes were employed to keep track of students written process within

the dialogue journals framework and the phenomena which appeared surrounding

or contributing to the development of it (see the next chart). Also, they were a

useful tool in order to make evident those elements which took place in the

classroom because, in accordance with Hopkins, D (1995), they can provide the

researcher with a continuous description of a specific phenomenon that is

amendable to interpretation and use in a case study. Moreover, these field notes

helped gather, as previously mentioned, factual and objective information since, as

8These artifacts were mostly extracted from the dialogue journals they work on during the class. These

journals were based upon students interests and worked as an informal, written conversation where they

were able to convey whatever they wanted to down on the paper.9

HOPKINS, D. (1995). Data gathering. In:A teachers guide to classroom research . Open University press,

London. (p. 117 - 137)


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stated by Burns (2001)10, (.) the observations recorded in notes can be oriented

in different ways, from the overall impressions of the classroom, to specific aspects

of the research, to recordings made about one or more students. Thus, since the

teacher researcher was in immersed within the same context as the participants,

these field notes contributed to reveal those elements which were not that tangible

at first sight: They provided a space for reflection and analysis.

In addition, I allowed for some students artifacts11. These artifacts were useful for

the current study because, in accordance with Halliday (1995), they would enable

me, as teacher researcher, on the one hand, to assess students writing

performance, to keep track of it and its development, and diagnose some areas for

further action as the project went along. On the other hand, it allowed me to

explore the role of Dialogue Journals in terms of negotiation of meaning and

interaction in English foreign language students writing skill.

Furthermore, it permitted me to analyze up to what extent Dialogue Journals

promoted the use of the foreign language for communicative purposes in English

foreign language students writing skill. All in all, these instruments were useful in

order to collect information to support the current study. Based upon them, I was

able to identify some specific actions recurring in my classes which came out of the

data. Then, I selected diverse symbols which were employed to analyze students

10BURNS, A. (2001). Research for English language teachers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

11These artifacts were the same dialogue journal students worked on during the class.


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writing performance. Following, I was able to select the relevant information in

order to answer the research question.

Now, all the process of gathering data bore fruit, and, as a result of it, I could come

up with a series of categories which are henceforth going to be elaborated on. The

same were grouped in accordance with the research question and taking into

consideration the instruments for data gathering. These categories are the

following: Students conceiving the paper as an outlet for spontaneous

expression and the influence of peers in students development of meaning.

The latter are shown in the next chart:

Research question

What are the characteristics of students writing performance when implementing

dialogue journals?

Categories Patterns

The paper as an outlet for self

expression

Students conception of the

journals as a space for

communication.

Resorting to the association of a

series of referens12.

12Here, I mean the thing or the idea that a symbol denotes.


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Studentsdynamics to understate

writing tasks

Decision-making stage.

Discussing ones ideas before

taking off:

Students repeating their peers

layouts

Students conceiving the paper as an outlet for self expression

To begin with, the name of this category comes out from some recurring

phenomena observed and extracted from the data gathering instruments when

students were conveying their ideas and/or thoughts. In this context, students use

the paper to get their meaning across in the class without running the risk of being

misunderstood due to the fact that all topics they write about are of mutual interest

for both students and teacher. These topics were socialized along with students at

the very beginning of the course and, as a result, students voted on the ones they

liked the most and teacher use this sort of survey to craftthe order of the lessons.

Therefore, their learning process becomes meaningful to them because, in

accordance with Hedge (1998)

13

, it is far more motivating for students if theirwriting can become genuine pieces of communication where they are in touch with

a real audience whom they can share their ideas with. In the dialogue journals

13HEDGE, Tricia (1998). Writing. Oxford University Press, New York.


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students worked on throughout the current study, they were free to express

whatever they wanted to regarding the topic they had previously selected. As a

matter of fact, students wrote with a communicative purpose because in their

dialogue journals they talk about the aspects they were interested in. Now, as

stated by Nunan (2003)14, student writers are enabled to develop their

communicative skills dramatically because they are able to use the target language

in a factual context and with authentic purposes. This is the case of the third grade

students who participated in the current research project. They were able to

elaborate on the items they were concerned about. Here, students could

communicate and negotiate meaning by writing their dialogue journals in which

they are going to express their ideas and thoughts freely.

Thus, the student writers employed the paper as a channel for spontaneous

expression. Within this category, I found two patterns which I am going to work out

in detail: Students conception of their journals as a space for communication

and resorting to the association of a series ofreferens.

In the former, students use the paper as a means to release their urge to express

themselves. In this manner, the paper works as a catalyzerfor their creativity. They

sail along its surface in a swiftly way: they explore freely the surroundings and

boundaries of their meaning. Accordingly, students knead their meaning through

14NUNAN, David (2003). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge UniversityPress, United Kingdom: Cambridge.


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the paper which takes the form of images and intricate mixtures of L1 and L2 (see

the next item). It is worth mention here that students use these referens

spontaneously probably as a source to release the above-mentioned urge for

communication. Hence, students take their time to convey the meaning the aim to

communicate to the reader. This particular case is illustrated in the following

excerpt from one of the field notes:

> (Field

note # 4; artifact # 1)

> (artifact #3; field note # 5)

Here, I could see that this participant was deeply concerned about being

understood by the reader of the entry she was writing in her journal. This element

clearly shows an aim to get her meaning across. Thus, this student is making use


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of her communicative competence in which, in accordance with Hymes (1972)15,

an individual brings into play his/her tacit social and interactional abilities to get a

message across. Here she is taking the role not only of a speakingmember of the

class but also plays as a subject who actually wants to convey something to her

feasible reader who is, in this case, the teacher researcher. This aspect is made

evident when she says: Teacher, yo quiero que tu sepas cmo es Carla y dnde

le gusta estar en la casa.In here, she expects the reader to be able to understand

what she meant when she craftedthe paper.

In the second sample, one can notice that students were expressing their feelings

through their dialogue journals. In here, this participant was particularly anxious

due to the fact that her cat had died in recent days. She said she missed her cat

very much but it just did not matter because she knew she had to move on with

her life because her mother had promised her to get a new cat for her (field note

#5). The latter leads us to consider the use of the paper as a tool to communicate

their sentiments with whom the student writer had developed an affective bond.

Thus, the paper is no longer regarded as a rigid element which cannot be shaped,

but rather as a supple material which can be easily kneaded. Therefore, students

acknowledge the paper as an instrument though which they are able to express

their ideas and/ or thoughts about the things they are interested in without running

the risk of being judged. They felt free to embody whatever they wanted to in their

15HYMES, D (1972). On communicative competence. Sociolinguistics. Eds. Pride, J.B. and Holmes

J. London: Penguin books.


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journals. One can see this aspect in the next extracts which is part of the answer to

an entry I had written (here I include my own entry in the second one):

> (Artifact #6)

The latter is part of a note I received when I was in the middle of a lesson. In here

a student came closer and gave a piece of paper which contained a precise

requirement. As one can notice, this entry had a particular structure and a specific

purpose. The former shaped into praise for my work and then, the student writer

jumped into the next step: asking me to name her the class monitor. This

phenomenon showed that students were now using the language for

communicative issues. In this context, the student writer tries to convince me to

make her my monitor because she considers I had been the best teacher she ever

had. In this aspect, this participant is bringing into play the above-mentioned tacit

social and interactional abilities to get her meaning across: she used the social

rules she knew in order to make a formal request. Now, in the next excerpt, one

can notice that students felt free to express whatever they wanted to in the

journals:

(Hi, Mara Camila, / I think Joshua is a very beautiful dog. / I love dogs too. Please, tell me

more. / Teacher Jhoinis)


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hojo rosado y el otro caf tambin es bobito y tiene una mirada muy

hermosa y yo juego mucho con el. >>(Artifact # 2)

(field note #

5; artifact #3)

As it can be noticed, this participant expresses her ideas in a natural way up to

such an extent that her ideas are not connected or separated by any means but by

the use of y. In here, one can also point out the fact that this student writer

recourse to both the mixture of Spanish and English, and the implementation of her

mother tongue to get their messages across. This phenomenon leads us to our

next pattern: (students)resorting to the association of a series ofreferens16.

16I am introducing here this concept which represents the thing or the idea that a symbol denotes.


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This pattern is made up by the correlation of a set of referenswhich are the end

result of the free exploration process the participants went through as they were

crafting their papers. Now, as stated above, this freedom of exploration of ones

meaning takes place inside the subject when the individual itself interacts with his

mind and his cognitive elements (see the first chapter under the title the Present

Research Perspective). At this point, students make different connections and/or

associations between the elements they are familiar with. Thus, these so-called

associations might make no sense for the common spectator at first sight, but for

students the relationships between one element and another are very evident. This

is, then, the result of their personal quest, among diverse ingredients, to convey

writing development through dialogue journals

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