JOURNALS AND THE LANGUAGE LEARNER

Daniel Martín del Otero

Daniel Martín del Otero is an English teacher at Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Astorga (Spain). He favors a theme-based approach to language learning while integrating multiskills, and enjoys creating his own teaching materials.
E-mail: danielmartin67@yahoo.com

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Introduction

My 1994 edition of Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language tells me that a journal is “a daily record, as of occurrences, experiences, or observations. She kept a journal during her European trip. ” As for the definition, I already had a mental picture of the meaning of the word as well as a “working” picture or “word at work”. I have been using journals –to be more accurate, my students have- for a while in English class. What is particularly interesting for the purposes of this article is the accompanying exemplification: “She kept a journal during her European trip”.

Background

What a fantastic analogy! The English class, whether a two-week summer course or the regular full academic year, viewed as a trip, a foray, a journey. The teacher will drive the students to places not visited before. The teacher will make sure that areas of certain familiarity get revisited. The teacher will negotiate the twists and turns of the language maze with knowledge and expertise to provide an easier ride. The teacher will take the students to different or well-known destinations but cannot see, understand or experience for the students. The teacher will be in charge of the trip but will not be the very recipient of it. The student –the traveler- will be the one giving testimony by keeping a journal of this rather peculiar trip.

From the teacher’s perspective, journals are an invaluable instrument to get to know your students and establish a rapport with them. The purpose of journals is not to intrude into someone else’s life or to push anyone into writing something they are not comfortable with. However, you are genuinely interested in your students not as your –so to speak- customers but as human beings. You legitimately want to know your students better so you can reach them better. On top of that, the better relationship and mutual understanding; the more pleasurable, productive and effective the learning. From the students standpoint, journals are a great way for them to reflect on their learning process and goals. They are a powerful channel to record personal emotions and values. When written in a second language, it is glaringly obvious that they are a manifestation of the ability to use another language by targeting writing skills. Stir these three mentioned elements –intellectual reflection, emotional impact and language use and practice- into a melting pot and you will get a highly productive mechanism for personal and academic growth.

At the beginning of the school year; not right away but once the first layers of ice have been broken, I ask my students to buy a notebook, the cheapest one they can find. They will leave the first page blank, since I will be needing it to write a few personal comments at the end of the school year –something personal, meaningful, enlightening, encouraging, positive or all of the above. As for the following pages, they will be filling them up both in class and at home as the school year progresses with class assignments to meet specific goals alongside with ideas, observations and emotions: they will be keeping the journal for the duration of the trip. Sometimes they will leave their journals in class so the teacher can read them. Should the teacher correct mistakes, style or suggest vocabulary just like he or she would normally do in students’ writing assignments? I do not have a definite answer myself for this very relevant question. Having been born under the zodiac sign of Libra, I take a middle of the road approach. Not too much, not too little. We need to look at each and every individual: the strong students should get corrected more than the weak ones. If somebody is deficient in writing there is nothing more discouraging than their sample of writing marked down all over the place in red ink. Apply common sense: you want each of your students to improve gradually. You do not expect miracles. You are a teacher, not a magician. By the same token, we would not constantly interrupt a student because he or she is making far too many mistakes while speaking. You would give them some respect and space, then select one or a few key areas; take it from there. Students want to be corrected but not intimidated. An important issue: it is not imperative that the students write about their emotions. They cannot feel obligated in any kind of fashion. The students are the ones that set their own boundaries as to what and how they want to express themselves. They may perfectly use the journals exclusively for assignments that do not require a high degree of emotional impact.

Examples

What does not go in the journal.

- Note taking.
- Dictations –at least the conventional ones.
- Grammar drills –at least the conventional ones.
- Vocabulary lists.
- Your native language.
- Listening transcripts.
- Anything the student is not comfortable writing about.
- Whatever your common sense or teaching style determines should not go in them.
- Journals should not be grading tools.
- Journals should not be an avenue for intruding into someone else’s privacy.

What goes or could go in the journal.

These are just a few samples of the many exciting possibilities of the journal. Practically all of the following activities can be done either at home or in class. The teaching professional should be the judge but from personal experience journals are most effective when used both in class and at home.

- The student takes the journal home and writes entries periodically. Thoughts, ideas, emotions, reflections, observations, daily accounts of actions, suggestions, criticism, praise, anxieties, problems, joys and sorrows may be collected.

- After a session of speaking practice your students may want to add in their journals some further points or summarize the ones expressed orally. Some students may be too self-conscious to speak in public but may be more willing or more skillful to express themselves in writing. Also, writing gives them more time to think and rules out intimidation that may otherwise be experienced while they speak in front of other students. By putting thoughts together again in a different light our brains can absorb and digest the language components more rationally. The teacher will have definitely suggested extra specific vocabulary, idiomatic expressions or grammar patterns during the course of the class discussion. What a wonderful opportunity to enrich, at least from a language standpoint, what the student voiced, whether it was ten minutes ago or yesterday. The teacher possibly cracked a joke or two as a result of the speaking interaction taking place in class and used it to his or her teaching advantage by sneaking in a few relevant words. Students will remember that. They will want to use those words. Those moments do stick in their minds. Humor in class is an essential linguistic and emotional therapy which, as far as journal writing is concerned, will result in greater student output. In addition to this, it is important to give students choices. For example, out of, let us say, eight discussion points students may be given the freedom to choose two or three. Or perhaps one. They may add their own related questions that were never on the worksheet or textbook and provide answers. Things make more sense and are better done in connection, not in isolation.

- Grammar. Grammar? Textbooks contain to a greater or lesser degree grammar drills. Workbooks, definitely so. Worksheets are full of them. You can find them on the Internet. On the chalkboard. In overhead transparencies. In Power Point. In exams. In speaking games. In photocopiable resource packs. In ESL magazines. They are everywhere and I love them. The English teacher next door loves them too. But integrated in the teaching practice. They are what they are: drills. Decontextualized chunks. “He has never been to London”. Cool. Why? Who is “he”? Has “he” been to Paris yet? Perhaps next year. Well, we don’t really care much, do we, we got the “been” part right, that’s what it was all about. Drill number too, please. Journals are in for meaningful grammar. “Grammar letters” are just an example of meaningful or living grammar that can be integrated in the journals. I learned “grammar letters” from Mario Rinvolucri at a workshop at Pilgrims in the summer of 2005. Grammar letters have been part of my students’ journals since September 2005. Grammar letters are addressed to real people and are about real people and contain exaggerated use of the relevant grammatical component to be practiced. As a teacher, I model the grammar letter first and give my students a handout with it. Then they write their own grammar letter in their journals. They may share their letters by passing out the journals or reading them out loud. If the task is overwhelming for some students they can simply write an email or a text message exemplifying the grammar. Here is an example of a grammar letter I wrote for an advanced class to provide use and practice on conditionals:

GRAMMAR LETTER TO THE CLASS

CONDITIONALS

Wazzup class? I need you to lend me your ears (“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…”, Julius Caesar by Shakespeare) and bring to your attention an unfortunate series of events that has been troubling me for some time.

As you probably know by now –and if you don’t, you are just finding out here- I am a die-hard football fan that cannot simply miss a football game. Well, only two weeks ago I got injured while I was playing my regular pick-up late Saturday afternoon game. I had to see a traumatologist, who told me that unless I rested my knee for at least a month, I would be unable to play football ever again. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to play football yet as I’m still nursing the injury. The thing is, I had been invited to a Halloween party that very same day I got injured at around the same time. I politely turned down the invitation due to “other commitments”. Who would have thought what fate had in store for me on the football pitch! See… if I had attended the Halloween party, I wouldn’t have injured my knee while playing football. On the other hand, if I had attended that party, I wouldn’t have known that I was going to get injured as a result of playing football and not attending the party. Therefore, I would have been very frustrated at the fact that I was not playing football but doing something else instead. I would be a trouble-free man now provided I hadn’t got injured on that infamous day. I would be diving and tackling and shooting and sprinting as long as I had attended that Halloween party. But what if I had decided to go to that party and had taken a bad tumble while going downstairs on my way out? I would have sprained my ankle or, perhaps even worse, have a leg in plaster. Not a very likely thing to happen, but still possible. I would be growling and grunting and not forgiving myself for having gone to the party and not having played football instead.

Anyway, life still goes on, with or without football. At least I can find some solace in televised football and I must confess I thoroughly enjoyed Spain’s 5-1 victory over Slovakia on Saturday night. Should you write me back, please provide some psychological support for me to weather this football drought the best way I possibly can.

Yours unconditionally,

Your English teacher

- Students may use their journals in combination with a reading passage. My Pre-Intermediate students use them alongside the reading passages in John and Liz Soars’ The New English Headway Course Pre-Intermediate. Every unit has a reading and speaking section that in itself has a “what do you think” section at the end. Unit 2 ,“The way we live”, contains an article with the title “Living in the USA” and these two questions in the “what do you think” section:

What do you like best about living in your country? What would you miss if you lived abroad? Do you know any foreigners living in your country? What do they like about it? What do they find different?

It is hard to imagine anyone who cannot think of anything to say for these questions. At any rate, the students may choose the ones they feel more comfortable with. On top of or as a replacement of the speaking component the students could use their journals to answer these questions either in class or at home. If your textbook does not provide further integrated activities accompanying reading passages –good textbooks do- you or your students could create the questions. This teaching practice is also ideal for early finishers: as they finish reading the passage and answer the comprehension questions, they take out their journals and start writing their opinions, irrespective of whether they will be discussed orally later on in class. Furthermore, it gives them preparation for the speaking discussion. Journals here give you choices: they can save you time if you assign the task as homework, they can buy you time if you decide to do the task in class, you may keep all students busy at all times, you may reinforce in different ways your objectives.

- Listening and journal writing could also walk side by side. We only have to apply the same principles already seen earlier on while discussing integrating journals with speaking and reading activities. Here is another possible activity: Choose any listening comprehension passage from your textbook that has two or more speakers or, at any rate, if there is only one speaker, a listening extract where reference is made to other people. You may also choose any other audio or audiovisual material that is available to you (extracts from soap operas work wonders for this activity). Best passages are the ones that present some kind of conflict or disagreement but this can be applied to practically all listening exercises. Follow your lesson plan normally. Next, divide your class into 3 groups. Groups A and B will have as many people as the number of people involved in the listening passage and will meet in different corners of the classroom. The teacher then gives them a role play task as a follow-up on the conflict created. They are given some time to prepare. After the preparation time, they come to the front of the class and will dramatize the assigned role play. They make take notes while preparing and definitely the teacher will be available for help and suggestions but there should not take the notes or written parts with them as they perform eventually. While groups A and B prepare, the students in group C –the largest group- take their journals out and write predictions as to what they are going to see when groups A and B perform and why they think so. When groups A and B are ready, group C students read their predictions out loud. Finally groups A and B perform. Theatrical apparel from the classroom closet would definitely come in handy and would build up more excitement in the class. This kind of activity presents multiple benefits, including, but not limited to being theme-based, addressing different kinds of intelligences, keeping all students busy, involving the students in different tasks simultaneously, dealing with multiple integrated skills, encouraging critical thinking, group work, interaction and reflection and, last but not least, being enjoyable. You may choose your stronger students to perform, the choice may be random like, the students themselves may determine which student personality is more suitable for the different roles or the students may choose which group they want to be in. I have used a few times the following listening exercise for this activity. It goes by the title of “Meeting the parents” (S. Kay & V. Jones, Inside Out, level IV, MacMillan) . Andy is meeting Sarah’s parents for the first time and in the interview he confesses being very nervous about making a bad impression –he gave up studying to become a DJ and he dyed his hair-. Students listen to the interview and then the class is divided into three groups. Groups A and B have 4 members each (Andy, Sarah and Sarah’s parents). Group C is made up of the rest of the students in the class writing predictions in their journals as to how the meeting is going to go. After the predictions are read, the students in group A and B perform assuming the roles of the four characters.

Further considerations

My teaching experience with journals tells me that it is a proven fact that the students are less afraid of making mistakes while writing in their journals. An additional proven fact is that the students write faster. Just like we encourage our students to speak naturally without being afraid of the mistakes they may make, we can also ask them to do so in writing. Some of the assignments could be very specific tasks that do not require ample time and concentration . Nevertheless, they provide a golden opportunity to practice paragraphing, vocabulary use or grammatical structures in small doses with a unifying context. This writing practice can be later directly applied in other writing assignments, such as exam compositions. The teacher can model in some instances the assignment. Just like we don’t expect our students to be speaking for an hour non stop, we can also create some time and space for our students to write in their journals for some time everyday we meet them. Journals provide both practice and a safe environment for students to improve their writing skills. The students use English more spontaneously and gradually feel more confidence as they fill up the pages in the journal. For that reason, journals have a positive snow-ball effect: the more pages filled up, the more sense of accomplishment and the higher level of self-motivation to continue writing as the students surprise themselves with what they are capable of doing in another language.

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