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Dialogue Journals in Short‐Term Study Abroad: “Today I Wrote My Mind”
Author(s) -
Dressler Roswita,
Tweedie M. Gregory
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
tesol journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1949-3533
pISSN - 1056-7941
DOI - 10.1002/tesj.254
Subject(s) - popularity , feeling , study abroad , conversation , pedagogy , class (philosophy) , psychology , variety (cybernetics) , journal writing , bridge (graph theory) , higher education , term (time) , intercultural communication , mathematics education , teaching method , social psychology , political science , communication , computer science , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , law
Short‐term study abroad programs are growing in popularity, and educators and researchers are exploring effective tools to enhance the learning and cultural experiences of students in these programs. Dialogue journals, writing journals in which students respond to instructor prompts and in turn initiate topics for further written discussion, are a useful pedagogical tool in a variety of educational contexts, but their use in the short‐term study abroad setting remains largely unexplored. This article looks at the dialogue journal writing of eight Japanese students in a 4‐week visit to a Canadian faculty of education. Themes that emerged from their writing in conversation with their English for academic purposes instructor reveal that the dialogue journals provided a venue for students to express their feelings, draw upon their learning outside of class, and bring their intercultural learning into the dialogue. The use of dialogue journals facilitated the building of rapport between teacher and students and served to bridge cultural differences.