Using Journals in the ESL Classroom

Abstract

Teaching writing to ESL students may be problematic for various reasons. For instance, many students have mental blocks against writing. This may be because they perceive writing to be a meaningless task. Some may fear their teachers' close examination and correction of their writing. Others may be at a loss to write because they feel they lack lexical and syntactic control of the language.

In addition to overcoming students' mental blocks, ESL teachers often have to deal with their students' preoccupation with grammar, spelling and punctuation. These students perceive such mechanics to be so important that they get bogged down and forget the communicative functions of language. In such cases, ESL teachers need to encourage their students to write for a specific audience and purpose so that getting their message across to this audience becomes their primary aim in writing.