{"title":"Dialogue journals and traditional writing assignments: A comparison of writing in L2 German classrooms","authors":"Nick Henry, Hannes Mandel, Vincent VanderHeijden","doi":"10.1111/flan.12752","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Dialogue journals (DJs) are a type of extensive writing assignment, in which students write for the purpose of communication with their instructor. Previous research has shown that DJs can help students develop writing skills; however, few studies have analyzed how DJs compare with traditional prompt-based assignments (TAs). The present study, therefore, presents a quasi-experimental comparison of texts from first- and second-year German classrooms that used either DJs or TAs. Analysis focused on five metrics: (1) word count, (2) sentence count, (3) words per sentence, (4) text-type ratio (TTR), and (5) measure of textual lexical diversity (MTLD). Results for word and sentence count indicated that TA texts were longer. However, DJs resulted in more complex writing, as measured by sentence length, MTLD, and TTR. Taken together, results suggest that journals can promote writing that is both communicatively oriented and linguistically complex. The article concludes by offering suggestions for practical implementation of DJs.</p>","PeriodicalId":47560,"journal":{"name":"Foreign Language Annals","volume":"57 2","pages":"339-361"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Foreign Language Annals","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/flan.12752","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Dialogue journals (DJs) are a type of extensive writing assignment, in which students write for the purpose of communication with their instructor. Previous research has shown that DJs can help students develop writing skills; however, few studies have analyzed how DJs compare with traditional prompt-based assignments (TAs). The present study, therefore, presents a quasi-experimental comparison of texts from first- and second-year German classrooms that used either DJs or TAs. Analysis focused on five metrics: (1) word count, (2) sentence count, (3) words per sentence, (4) text-type ratio (TTR), and (5) measure of textual lexical diversity (MTLD). Results for word and sentence count indicated that TA texts were longer. However, DJs resulted in more complex writing, as measured by sentence length, MTLD, and TTR. Taken together, results suggest that journals can promote writing that is both communicatively oriented and linguistically complex. The article concludes by offering suggestions for practical implementation of DJs.
期刊介绍：
Dedicated to the advancement of language teaching and learning, Foreign Language Annals (FLA) seeks to serve the professional interests of classroom instructors, researchers, and administrators concerned with the learning and teaching of languages at all levels of instruction. The journal welcomes submissions of the highest quality that report empirical or theoretical research on language learning or teaching, that describe innovative and successful practice and methods, and/or that are relevant to the concerns and issues of the profession. FLA focuses primarily on language education for languages other than English.
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