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Junior High School Learners’ Ability to Reflect in the Process of Keeping a Diary in a Foreign Language

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Studying Second Language Acquisition from a Qualitative Perspective

Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT,volume 27))

Abstract

Teaching English at a junior high school revolves to a great extent around preparing pupils for the final exams. It is speculated that considerable attention that is paid to effective exam preparation may lead to a backwash effect. A specific closed form of the exam which mainly consists in indicating a correct answer may reduce the role of a foreign language to a set of expressions and rules necessary to pass a test because it does not leave too much space for creativity. Therefore, a need arises to motivate learners to use the language as a means of genuine communication and to reflect on this process. As a response to this need, a research was designed in order to facilitate creative and reflective foreign language writing at the stage of junior high school education. In the study, the participants were asked to keep diaries in English for a period of 3 months and use their native language to reflect on this process. The results show what themes were most frequently described by the learners, what was the nature and quality of their reflection in diaries written in English and to what extent they were able to reflect on experience of diary keeping.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this paper, the terms “journal” and “diary” will be used interchangeably with the awareness of the fact that some authors distinguish them. Wallace, for instance, states that “[…] diary is private, diary-writers can confide to it whatever thoughts or feelings occur to them. […] Journals have many attributes of diaries, but the main difference is that they have been written to be read as public documents” (1998: 62).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland

    Agnieszka Turzańska

Authors
  1. Agnieszka Turzańska
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Correspondence to Agnieszka Turzańska .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of English, University of Silesia, Sosnowiec, Poland

    Danuta Gabryś-Barker

  2. Institute of English, University of Silesia, Sosnowiec, Poland

    Adam Wojtaszek

Appendix. Original Versions of Learners’ Entries

Appendix. Original Versions of Learners’ Entries

S1: Today I was with my mum and grandpa at my cousins birthday. Hm..everything was great there, we talked a lot because it was more family meeting than a birthday party but it was OK. Untill we hadn’t drove back…My grandpa shouldn’t drive car anymore. I would drive better than him…I know he is old and all but he is changing gears so slowly that when we stayed in a traffic jam (nie wiem jak jest pod górkę, ale staliśmy pod górkę) each time we could move 5 metres we went back 5 because he had to change gear…

S2: This Saturday was special because this is the “Children’s Day”. Parents gave me a present, it was a cash of course and I could anything what I want.

S3: Dear daries, I meditation… I like it… Reflect on the sky. That is, on whether the death of everyone we meet in heaven. When my dad was dying of cancer, my mother told him: to give a sign how you got there…Up to now hasn’t given a sing. It seems so impossible and yet most of us believe in it…Hopes that one day he will meet with your loved ones, whose lost her for life…It gives us strength. Me too I hope so…that one day I will talk to my dad again. Surely you can’t cry forever, right? You can’t still live the memories of the loved one and remind myself of his appearance only with photos, I miss him…

S4: Kasia and Szyszka [friend’s nickname] are at a trip in Wisla and I’m a little bored, because I have to sit at home. I don’t know what can I do. I’m going next week for drawing lesson and Sebastian will tell me if I’m good enough for studying it. I’m little nervous, because I really wanna go for this lessons. I think that drawing is really interesting. And last week I was with Kasia at the black room and we were making photos. They are great! It’s only 5-6 pictures but I really like it. They are very pretty. And Kasia liked making photos the way like. She told that she want to do it again in nearly future. That’s nice for me :)

S5: Dear daries, today stretches a very long time…Yet I feel bad it. What do I do? I sit, I listen to Beyoncé (my favourite singer :) ) and I think…Today I met such a situation: the boys laughed at one girl because she is a little overweight. I’ve seen just as she had tears in her eyes…It was horrible! I really don’t understand these people who make fun of others! How they just can not! I just feel sorry for this girl…Perhaps she complains of himself…But I think that everyone is beautiful :) Everyone does have such a feature that no one else has in the world. Other people should think the same way…

S6: Saturday like Saturday, nothing special…Mostly I played computer games :P When my mum was cooking or working in the garden, I was playing football with my little brother.

S7: (6 kwietnia) Jak wczoraj nie czuję nic specjalnego…Nie umiem zawrzeć w pamiętniku jakichś szczególnych opisów przeżyć, przemyśleń, traktuje to bardziej jako taki opis dnia. Może potem spróbuję pisać coś więcej o tym comyślę jak to piszę, niżeli tylko opisać mój dzień.

(2 czerwca) No jakoś to działa, staram się z każdą kartką pisać bardziej otwarcie o uczuciach itd. Ale i tak ciężko mi jakoś tak pisać co czuję i bardziej wychodzi z tego taki opis dnia. Nie wiem, może kiedyś mi się uda pisać tak… lepiej.

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Turzańska, A. (2014). Junior High School Learners’ Ability to Reflect in the Process of Keeping a Diary in a Foreign Language. In: Gabryś-Barker, D., Wojtaszek, A. (eds) Studying Second Language Acquisition from a Qualitative Perspective. Second Language Learning and Teaching, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08353-7_6

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