The Effects of Electronic Dialogue Journal Writing on EFL Learners’ Writing Fluency, Accuracy and Motivation

Abstract

Dialogue journal writing (DJW) has been widely applied in various educational settings for a range of purposes. As a written conversation between the teacher and students, it is well suited to incorporate in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The current study aimed to apply electronic dialogue journal writing in a public school EFL classroom in Armenia to develop students’ writing fluency and accuracy. It addressed such facets as the students' attitudes towards DJW and their motivation to write as well as the teacher's opinion on the implementation of the tool. The participants were two classes of eighth-graders (11 and 12 students respectively) and their English teachers. Within the framework of action research, a quasi-experimental study was undertaken with the two classes of students: treatment and comparison groups. The treatment group engaged in electronic dialogue journal writing, while the comparison group wrote guided compositions based on their textbook. Both qualitative and quantitative strands were incorporated in the study. The qualitative data were collected through pre- and post-study interviews with the teachers and classroom observations, while the quantitative data were gathered through pre- and post-survey with the students as well as through pre- and post-test in the form of an essay. The statistical analysis of the quantitative data obtained from the tests revealed significant development in writing accuracy and fluency of the treatment group, while there was a significant gain only in the accuracy of the comparison group. The findings also shed light on the impact of DJW on the students’ motivation as well as revealed the participants' attitudes towards the tool.