Dialogue journal as a significant technique in teaching writing composition

Abstract EN

This study tries to investigate the impact of using a new strategy (Dialogue Journal) (DJ) in teaching writing in English as a foreign language.

It is a broad composition book in which each student carries on a private written conversation with the teacher for an extended period of time (school year, semester).

The (DJ) is intended to improve the students' skills in writing through providing them with opportunities to learn by writing and be in touch with their teachers and peers.

It is hypothesized that there is no statistical significant difference between the achievement scores of the students who are taught by using the paragraph pattern method (PPM) (traditional method) and those who are taught by using (DJ) according to their-and post-tests results.

To achieve the hypothesis of the study, the researcher designed a pre-test to comprehend the level of the students in writing and a post-test to discover the impact of using the new technique in writing.

The second year students of the English Department, College of Basic Education / University of Babylon are the subjects of the study.

The experimental design of the study comprises two groups, i.e, a control group and an experimental group.

Each group consists of (40) students.

The experiment has started on the 15th March, 2010 and ended on the 15th May 2011.

The experimental group is taught by the researcher himself.

T.

test formula is used to analyze the data.

It is found that there is a significant statistical difference between the two groups in favour at the of the experimental group i.e the students of the experimental group are better than those of the control group.

This indicates that teaching writing by using (DJ) is more effective than teaching by traditional ones.