Using Dialogue Journal to Improve Students’ Writing Proficiencies

Abstract

<p>Dialogue journal is perceived as an effective technique for teaching writing. This article aims at reporting a study on the use of Dialogue journal to improve students’ writing proficiencies. The objectives of the research were to know how dialogue journal can be implemented effectively to improve students’ writing proficiencies and to know to what extent dialogue journal can improve their writing proficiencies. A classroom action research was conducted in a group of students in one of state junior high school in Surakarta. The data collected were qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data were obtained from observations and interviews, while the quantitative data were collected from tests. The findings of the research show that (1) dialogue journal can be implemented effectively by taking some considerations; and (2) the implementation of dialogue journal could improve the students’ writing proficiencies and the classroom situation. This was proven by the improvement of the students’ writing mean scores and their attitude toward the learning. They became more active and motivated.</p><p align="left"> </p>

Transforming Dialogue Journal Writing Into Pedagogy of Online Setting: A Preliminary Study

“…Although this study did not distinguish students' proficiency levels as conducted by Madeng and Palanukulwong (2019), the increasing number of words on students' writing production from regular writing activities to ODJW revealed that the students were more willing to write. Nevertheless, since few students were found to have either a stagnant or less number of words, it can be assumed that there were some factors underlying the phenomenon, which might be proficiency level, or more specifically, limited vocabulary (Hapsari et al, 2018).…”

“…The traditional implementation of DJW seems to affect students' productivity in such a way that they boost the number of words in ODJW. The absence of correction to their writing might be one of the factors causing the increase of productivity and students' pleasant feelings, as revealed by their responses toward the writing prompt in a nonthreatening atmosphere (Hapsari et al, 2018). However, students mentioned that they still pay attention to the grammar and other rules of writing.…”

“…However, the most frequent uptake made for the elementary and intermediate level students was explicit corrective feedback. The research conducted by Hapsari et al (2018) also showed that grammar was one of the language components positively affected by the feedback given in the dialogue journal writing. Their action research showed that students' grammar score measured at the end of the first cycle increased 7% from the result of the pretest, and then the students' score measured at the end of the second cycle increased 13% from the first cycle.…”

“…3-4, emphasis original) Currently, a number of studies (e.g. Al Kayed, Alkayid & Alsmadi, 2020;Dabbagh, 2017;Hapsari, Susilohadi & Elyono, 2018;Safari, 2020) investigated whether or not DJW was effective in increasing students' writing skills. For instance, Al Kayed et al (2020) investigated the effect of DJW on the writing skills of Jordanian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL).…”

“…As a result, the contribution of the regular writing practice was seen in the improvement of learners' writing performance. In their action research, Hapsari et al (2018) applied DJW, and the students' journals were responded to regularly. They found that DJW played a role in improving students' writing proficiency as well as their participation as long as several considerations were taken into account.…”