Article Review

Click here for the article.

A. Citation of the Article

a. Title: The Use of Dialogue Journal Through E-Mail Technology in Developing Writing Interest and Skills

b. Journal: Malaysian Online Journal of Instructional Technology (MOJIT),
Vol. 1, No. 2, pp 14-23,
December 2004 [ISSN: 1823-1144]

c. Authors: Rafiza A Razak & Adelina Asmawi, Department of Language and Literacy Education,
Faculty of Education, University Malaya.

B. Summary of the Article

The article chosen is a literature review that focuses on the benefits of the use of 'dialogue journal' through e-mail so as to improve students' writing skills in English Language classroom. It also focuses on how its application can increase teaching and learning of English in Malaysian secondary schools. Additionally, the article discusses on the potential of e-mail, and how it can be an attractive teaching and learning medium that can help generate interest among the students and help to improve their learning.

According to Rafiza and Adelina, dialogue journals are written conversation in which a student and teacher or other writing partner communicate daily, weekly or on a schedule that fits the educational setting over a semester, school year or course. Students are given the freedom to choose on the topic that they are going to write and the styles and genres of writing are not restricted. The teacher plays an important role as an ongoing participant of a written conversation with the students instead of being an evaluator who corrects and comments on the students' writing. The teacher is required to give feedback regularly so that the students know of their progression.

One of the dialogue journals chosen is e-mail. E-mail, one of the many technologies that promote computer-mediated communication (CMC), is a computer-mediated format. It works asynchronously that allows interaction / communication at different times. Meanwhile, CMC refers to any communications that occur through the use of two or more networked computers.

CMC has several advantages. Firstly, CMC facilitates communication. Writing through CMC cultivates autonomy, equality and learning skills among students. Students have the freedom to choose what they want to write, thus encourages them to develop and revise their opinions. The writing now operates as a communication rather than a task that would be assessed by the teacher.

Secondly, CMC empowers students to take the initiative in determining their learning paths. They would gain a sense of personal power when they are given the chance to take hold of their learning style. In a way, the computers somehow help them to overcome their vulnerability for they can rely on their virtual correspondence.

And last but not least, CMC improves learning. Students nowadays merely write when asked to, simply for the sake of examination. Therefore, with CMC, particularly e-mail, it can attract the students' interest to write. When the writing has become appealing to the students, the learning would be more meaningful. Furthermore, the learning becomes interactive because they are required to deal and associate with people from the actual world.

According to Rafiza and Adelina, a number of researches have identified several benefits of using e-mail in language classroom. As stated by Warschauer (cited in Lee, 1998), e-mail enables the students to communicate with native speakers or other English learners from all over the globe. Hence, e-mail promotes real and natural communication.

Apart from that, e-mail motivates independent learning. When students are given the autonomy to take hold of the direction of the discourse, the freedom stimulates them to learn with a non-threatening manner.

Writing e-mail also encourages students' interest in communicating because they have authentic audiences that will respond to their writing. Some students find it difficult to meet the teacher for consultation prior to their shyness or lack of time. Thus, e-mail enables the teacher to interact with the students without having to meet each other. This way, students would find it easy to express their thoughts and communicate with the teacher.

A study conducted by Gonzales-Bueno (1998) on Spanish students reveals that e-mail dialogue journal serves as medium for students to practice English and communicate without fear of making mistakes. Nevertheless, the emphasis is more towards the contents and the development of the ideas in writing while the mistakes are tolerated.

In the review, the authors add that dialogue journal via e-mail promotes critical and creative thinking skills. When writing, the students are not only communicating with the authentic audiences, but also they are able to apply skills such as generating ideas, making generalization, drawing inferences or conclusions, arranging and sequencing. These skills meet up with one of the objectives of KBSR/KBSM in the school curriculum, which is to develop the students' ability to think critically and creatively.

Overall, e-mail dialogue journal exposes students to authenthic discourse. It serves as a tool for students to initiate their communication skills in a non-threatening environment as their mistakes would not be condemned or evaluated. Students get to develop their writing skills and expresses their thoughts freely.

C. Reaction

I find the article is relatively interesting. Unlike most of the school work assigned to the students, which is often being evaluated, dialogue journals give less stress to students. I strongly believe that when students are not being pushed in a threatening manner, the chances for them to be intrinsically motivated to learn are high.