Dialogue Journals for ELL students - Strategy Poster Summarizing the following research article: Nassaji, H., & Cumming, A. (2000). What's In A ZPD? A Case Study Of A Young ESL Student And Teacher Interacting Through Dialogue Journals. Language Teaching Research, 4(2), 95-121.

1. Dialogue Journaling for ELL Students Elementary Education Early Grades (1, 2, 3)
INED7781 Summer 2014 By Meghan Lee
Article Summary
- Case study of ZPD (zone of
proximal development)
- Focusing on language
learning and instruction
- 95 entries of interactive
dialogue between ELL student
& teacher
- Student was 6 year old Farsi-
speaking student
- Teacher was English-speaker
- Examines merits of extended
written conversation through
scaffolding
- Lack of research regarding
Vygotsky’s ZPD in language
instruction
- Case study focused on the
sociocultural dynamics of
language learning
- Involves a case study of
dialogue journal writing to
analyze ZPD
- Collected 95 continuous written
dialogue
entries between teacher &
student
- Written over 10 months span
- “Ali” was 6 years old when the
process began
- He had emigrated from Iran to
Canada with his family
- Teacher used a whole language
approach to instruction
- Journals spanned last part of
Grade 1 and first half of grade 2
Case Study Details
- Written every few days as routine activities in the classroom
- Single notebooks used for each student’s
dialogue journal with the teacher
- Topics created by students reflecting their unique
interests & experiences
- Each exchange was two entry turns or three entry turns
- Entries responses were gradually expanded over time
- This made it easier for the student to read and understand
- Vocabulary is kept at the student’s level & is expanded
Journaling Strategies
- Written communications were used as a
way to comprehend and appreciate
- Teacher & student gained mutual
understanding of each other
- ZPD was cultivated progressively over
time through the journaling
- Teacher scaffolding allowed “Ali” to
progress in English language proficiency
- Explicit and implicit learning was
demonstrated by the journal dialogues
- Journaling provided motivation for
engagement in English language learning
- More longitudinal studies of pedagogical
practices relating to ZPD needed
- Ethnographic study and use of other
contexts will be need to be done also
- Further study needs to be done on the
whole dimensions of actual education
- Do not feel limited only to handwritten journals
- Web 2.0 tools offer various ways to interact
- Allow students to determine their journal topics
- Keep the journaling activity student-centered
My Suggestions
- Do not explicitly correct mistakes
- Engage in implicit ways to correct
- Allow classmates to also respond
- Dialogue journals can follow them
Nassaji, H., & Cumming, A. (2000). What's In A ZPD? A Case Study Of A Young ESL Student And Teacher Interacting Through Dialogue Journals. Language Teaching Research, 4(2), 95-121.
Conclusions