The object of this study is to examine the effect of dialogue journal writing on the writing anxiety and functional language when returning Korean students from study abroad learn Korean. How their writing anxiety changed was studied, as well as the a...
The object of this study is to examine the effect of dialogue journal writing on the writing anxiety and functional language when returning Korean students from study abroad learn Korean. How their writing anxiety changed was studied, as well as the aspect of their functional language through dialogue journal writing using email in a real writing activity.
The content of this study is as follows: In Chapter One, the object and the necessity of the study were described, and other preexisting studies related to dialogue journal writing using email were reviewed. The object of this study is to examine experimentally whether a dialogue journal writing using email decrease their writing anxiety or not in real writing when they learn Korean as a foreign language; also, the aspect of the functional language in their dialogue journal writing was studied in order to identify in multiple aspects which writing method would be effective and appropriate in their real writing. Most preexisting studies about a dialogue journal writing were review articles based on the teachers’ direct, personal experiences during class. Most other articles were qualitative studies to analyze students’ writing themselves. Experimental studies about the change of emotional aspect in students’ writing are currently rare.
In Chapter Two, the theoretical base and general design of this study were explained. As its theoretical basis, a dialogue journal writing is based on process oriented approach, the interaction hypothesis, communicative context and learner oriented theory. As a theory related to anxiety, foreign language anxiety and writing anxiety following it were discussed. Email is theoretically based on constructivism. The suggestive core content of constructivism is that the human being’s knowledge is created and composed rather than being discovered or remade. It insists that objective truth or knowledge is made from a learner’s experience, not from the learner’s external environment.
In Chapter Three, the study method was described. Subjects were a single group of high level learners who returned to their home country and attended foreign schools in Korea. The method of dialogue journal writing was explained to those subjects with simple booklet in advance before the study. The total duration of this study was twelve weeks and an email as a dialogue journal writing was sent twice a week between the subjects and the researcher.
The object and the method of this study were explained to those subjects in the first week. In the last week, a survey was conducted. Another survey about learning attitude, learners’ reaction to dialogue journal writing, and writing anxiety was done before and after the writing in order to know the learners’ response. Another survey was done in the middle of the study and made an interview individually two times during the study to encourage participation.
To study functional language, all subjects did dialogue journal writing. The length and context of it was controlled (adjusted) according to the learners’ ability and interest. The teacher also did dialogue journal entry through questions and answers along with her students. However, the teacher didn’t evaluate or make a connection directly, and guided the students to realize and to correct their own mistakes.
The type of sentence written in the dialogue journal writing was informal spoken sentences used in general talking. Students were instructed to write a dialogue journal writing freely at anytime and any place, determined by themselves, and to send it in via email.
In Chapter Four, there were study results and discussions about them. Survey results showed dialogue journal writing was an effective method in decreasing the students’ writing anxiety and enhancing self-confidence in writing. It also showed that a dialogue journal writing has a positive effect on learning attitude and learning achievement and is highly effective in multi aspects. The final result was that functional language was used with many varieties in a dialogue journal writing with all above results, my conclusion was that dialogue journal writing was an effective learning method of writing in communication and could be used very effectively.
In Chapter Five, the conclusion and suggestion were described. This study experimentally showed that dialogue journal writing using email decreased the students’ writing anxiety in real writing when they learn Korean as a foreign language. This study also showed that dialogue journal writing was an effective and appropriate writing activity in their real writing by studying the aspect of the functional language in their dialogue journal writing. This study is valuable because this is an experimental study by survey how a dialogue journal writing changes students’ definition of writing anxiety. Based on this, if other studies of writing Korean as a foreign language are accumulated, it will be helpful to upgrade the level of Korean education internationally.
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