There are a number of good reasons for bringing writing into a more central position in language learning. In contrast to oral classroom work, writing can offer students the opportunity to work at their own place and to think while they are producing language. Many students feel very anxious when they are called upon to speak in front of others and this anxiety effectively blocks their ability to think clearly. Handled correctly, writing can be less stressful. It can give students a chance to retrace their steps, to check and correct what they have written before they are required to show it to another person. This can allow more room for students to develop confidence in their language abilities.
A writing journal is a less usual way of effective language learning in average courses. The potential role of it is to develop general language proficiency. According to an exact methodological term it is an indirect strategy to take the learner's emotional temperature in order to overcome limitations in language knowledge. A study journal records the learner's thought and feelings about events significant to him/her. An entry can be about ordinary or extraordinary events in a person's life and the person's mental and emotional reactions to them. The journal writer selects and concentrates on an incident and tells what the event meant to the writer. A journal entry explains something personal about the writer because it is a self-
-expressive form. (Lorch 1984:38)
The III/2 group of Russian-retrainers at Janus Pannonius University took part in a special study journal writing as a part of language practice lessons in the spring semester 1996. It was special, because journals were written by each student and the tutor. Their personal dialogues as continuons, written feedback were collected every other week and the main function of them was "... for both parties to share their views on the content and activities of previous sessions, and for students to practice fluent writing". - the syllabus says. The journals could be tailored to suit the individuals. The topic, form and extent were only partly directed; Students were not afraid of grading or other kinds of evaluation of their notes. Everybody could chose the most optimal day and hour of the week for writing and could feel this activity quite free. These journals can be analysse from several points of view: they can be observed as a piece of literature; in methodological aspect it was a funny and useful language practice process which opened a new relationship between two people, therefore it had a lot of psychological / sociological benefits.
Literature in its broadest sense, is everything that has ever been written. In a narrow sense there are various kinds of "literatures", and diaries, journals also can be included with the chief forms. Most of them are "nonfictions" actually because they are factual writings about real-life and situations. Writing, to become literature requires a reader who helps create literature by responding to the writer's thoughts, emotions and beliefs. In the case of these study journals the tutor and the students were writers and readers alternately. So these entries could bring about different impressions, feelings and memories from the writer's or the reader's side. The reader brought his/her experiences of life to the experiences the writer presented. This type of "creative" reading led to enjoyment of diary notes, because people read literature mostly because they enjoy it. Besides this, several elements of literary work, such as characters with motivations; theme or statements, plots and style could be discovered in these journals. Also, different types of discourses - as types of communication - realized between the two people: expositions, arguments, descriptions or narrations. (Zeleny 1990:353)
It was a completely new approach to writing but to the teacher - student relationship too. Even the most reticent person needs to contact somebody and to share his/her ideas and feelings. Also, each learner should feel the teacher's individual attention in the interest of proper motivation. Students were encouraged to produce "creative free writings". Everybody could give the real him/herself in any respect. The journals had powerful effects in personal contacts because the teacher and the students knew lots of new things about each other. They could become nearer to each other, and the mutual interest made their relationship more humanistic which is the base of sussesful co-operation.
This type of regularly writing could be a useful way of development of self-knowledge. To relive and rethink events again, mainingful or less mainingful to the person, inspire also a kind of constant self-examination and self-observation. Writing about one's own ideas, attitudes and emotions helps one to be more self-aware. Facing oneself impartially is sometimes not easy but necessary several times in life. Therefore, acquisition of this ability should be very important. To listen to each other, to be interested in, or at least to be sensitive to another person's problems, demands an emphatic ability. These dialogues with the tutor in written form helped both of them to think of a lot of things in connection the set topics. Searching for common features in each other's life or ideas, which is natural when people interact, made these journals exciting and enjoyable for both.
At the and of the retraining program this writing activity - besides the considerable psychological/sociological effects - gave opportunities to arrange and systematize the obtained language knowledge. The tutor could see and summarize the results of his work over several semesters. And the students could look back on what they have done, improve, check things and refresh their memory of what they learnt in class. They could increase their vocabulary, refine their knowledge of the grammar and develop their understanding of how things are best expressed and how well their message is understand. "Four hundred years ago Bacon said that writing made people "exact", and that is still true today". (Lorch 1984:41) Journal keeping provided excellent practice in becoming more precise. Students - as further English teachers - could get useful experiences also from a methodological point of view, which they could put into their further practice effectively. Hopefully, as teachers, they will enjoy similar journals in the same way as students now.
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