Poster Presentation

Diary Writing for Science Majors:

Students’ Perception of the Potentialfor Language Improvement
Mohammad N. Maleki
Kanazawa Institute of Technology
Brent Wright
Kanazawa Institute of Technology
In preparation to study abroad, 10 science and engineering major university students wererequired to keep a daily diary for three months. Topic choice was left up to students, andthey often chose to write about research they were conducting related to their major. Eachstudent met weekly with an English tutor and the diaries were a starting point for thesetutoring sessions. Positive attitudes towards the effectiveness of diary writing to improve
English were evident from the results of a questionnaire administered to the participants.
Overall, the science and engineering students perceived diary writing to be an effective way
to improve their English abilities, and in particular, their vocabulary knowledge.

A diary is “a set of notes about what one is thinking, doing, feeling at aparticular moment” (Rubin, 2003, p. 10). Also it can be “a written account of aperson’s thoughts, activities and experiences recorded daily or every few weeks”( Johnson, 2002, p. 46). It is a technique that has been used in language classes
for decades. The EFL teachers at the school where this study took place useddiary writing to help prepare science and engineering candidates for an extended
study abroad program. Both graduate and undergraduate students at this school
can apply for this program to study in the United States for one semester. Before
being accepted to become a candidate for the program, students are required todisplay their desire to study abroad and talk about how they plan to use English129Maleki & Wrightfor their future careers. They do this by writing an essay and participating in aninterview, both in English. The researchers were not part of the selection processfor candidacy. Once students are accepted as study abroad candidates, they must
successfully complete the following requirements:• Write a daily diary in English and submit it to tutors• Participate in weekly tutoring sessions with EFL tutors• Give a refereed presentation in English about their prospective schools
In addition to these requirements, students must complete a three-monthcourse covering English language and American culture topics. The course andother requirements took place over the same period of time but were not directly
related to one another. The tutors were all EFL instructors at the same university
as the students.
Several studies conducted in the EFL context have measured learners’
perception and attitudes towards learning English using diary writing. Barjesteh,Vaseghi, and Gholami (2011) found that attitudes toward writing in English
improved for those who kept a diary compared to those who did not. Kırkgöz(2009) had prospective English teachers keep a diary for the duration of avocabulary focused course and concluded that keeping the diary helped them
to become more autonomous in their learning as they discovered their own
learning strategies.
The goal of this paper is to investigate these study abroad candidate students’
perceptions regarding the usage of diary writing as a technique to improve theiroverall English ability.

MethodStudy Abroad Program Requirements
The participants in this study were 10 non-English major students (firstyear graduate students and third-year undergraduates) at a Japanese four-year
university. They were motivated in the sense that they wanted to improve theirEnglish enough to go through the time consuming process of applying to become
candidates for the program and then completing the program.
Students were asked to submit either a hard or soft copy of a daily diary to130

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their tutors. Students were instructed that each entry should be about half a pagein length and that the content could be about anything that was going on in their
daily lives. Students wrote about a variety of topics, ranging from daily activities
and their hometowns to the research they were conducting for their major.
Tutors used the diaries in the tutoring sessions to discuss any necessary languagerelated points with the students. Student received a pass or fail grade based on
giving a presentation in English about the university they would be studying at in
the United States, their completion of the course work, participating in tutoring
sessions with EFL tutors, writing daily diary entries, and a recommendationfrom their tutor.

Data Collection and Instruments

A five-point Likert scale questionnaire (roughly modeled after Pintrich, Smith,Garcia, and McKeachie,1991) was designed to measure students’ perceptions
toward using diary writing to improve their English abilities (see Appendix).
Students completed the survey questionnaire at the end of the course, and since
it was given in English, they were encouraged to ask questions for clarification.
There were 19 items on the questionnaire which dealt with a variety of language
learning areas. For the purpose of this study, we used seven questions related
specifically to students’ perceptions regarding diary writing as a way to improvetheir English. The data was compiled from the questionnaire results and analyzed
using an Excel spreadsheet to identify trends in students’ perceptions.

Results

Students were asked to rate the items of the survey questionnaire by circling
1~5(Not true ~ Always true) .
Results from the questionnaire indicate that overall (average of all items:
3.8 out of 5),students perceived diary writing as a slightly positive influence on
improving their English language ability. The above table shows that students
thought their vocabulary knowledge can be improved (x = 4.3) and that they
were able to use new grammar and vocabulary (x = 4.2) as a result of writing
diary entries. Since students often wrote about their major research, the entries
131Maleki & Wrightoften included technical terms. They would then talk about their research in
the tutoring sessions. As students do not often write or talk about their areaof specialty in normal English classes, this was an opportunity for them touse technical vocabulary, both in writing and speaking. This is why we believethese two areas scored the highest. Moreover, the results also show that somestudents (x = 3.8) believed diary writing enabled them to improve their skills inidentifying their mistakes and correcting them on their own.

Discussion

We believe that several aspects of diary writing are conducive for improving
learners’ vocabulary knowledge, and that this is why students reported it as
having the most benefit of writing regular diary entries.
In the traditional language classrooms, the teacher decides which vocabulary
students will learn. This may be based on the text material being utilized in theclassroom. In the case of a diary entry, the task is to generate a personal text
which is based on the writer’s experiences. We can assume that since the topic isdirectly related to the learner, he or she is intrinsically interested in the topic andis motivated to express the content in a meaningful way. If the learner lacks thevocabulary to express this, he or she will have to look the words up in a JapaneseEnglish dictionary. The target vocabulary is determined by the students becauseof its direct relevance to their immediate communication needs. Students try toproduce the new words in a meaningful way. In the classroom, students may try
to learn the words from a list that was provided by the teacher and then applythat knowledge only in an assessment which is determined by the teacher.
In the context of diary writing and the tutoring sessions, a student desiring
to express something, but lacking the vocabulary knowledge to do so, had tosearch for a new word to express his or her thought, and then received feedback
from the tutor. No feedback would indicate that the word usage was correct
and that the thought was accurately expressed. Specific feedback in the form ofcorrection would guide the student toward using the word correctly. Assuming
the student is motivated, which was the case in our study, this process provides
a rich opportunity for students to increase their vocabulary knowledge as they132

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write and also as they use the new words in subsequent entries.
The findings from this study suggest that motivated students recognize
the potential for improving various aspects of their English ability, particularly
vocabulary acquisition and use, through diary writing. It can be beneficialto tailor diary writing activities to target vocabulary learning, as is shownin Kırkgöz’s (2009) study which investigates prospective English teachers
keeping a diary to record their learning in a vocabulary class. However, if weview vocabulary improvement as a byproduct of diary writing, then we should
continue to encourage students to write more and to try using new words. It
may be beneficial to have students point out the new words they used, perhaps
by underlining, and then to acknowledge their efforts. Corrective feedback onword usage should be given in tandem with recognizing students’ efforts to use
new words. We also believe that providing students with regular written and oral
feedback on their entries might lead to students becoming more independentand recognizing their mistakes.
Overall, students showed a positive attitude toward using diary writing to
improve their English, which is in line with findings by Barjesteh et al. (2011)
which concluded that diary writing can have an influence on students’ attitude
toward writing. Writing, in general, is considered “a complex skill that requires
practice for improvement” (Hull, 1981, p. 135). Diary writing can be a starting
point for EFL learners to improve their English ability, especially in expanding
their vocabulary knowledge.

Limitations

Due to the relatively small number of participants in this study and only basic
statistical analysis (finding the means) the results must be interpreted withcaution. We are relatively confident that the positive results stated above apply
to the 10 science and engineering students in this study. Further studies will benecessary to come to more general conclusions about students’ perceptions ofdiary writing. Also, investigating the contents of students’ diary entries and theconversations that took place during the tutoring sessions could provide rich data
about whether students’ vocabulary usage actually improved. Unfortunately, thatwas beyond the scope of this study.
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References

Barjesteh, H., Vaseghi, R., & Gholami, R. (2011). The effect of diary writing on
EFL college students’ writing improvement and attitudes. In International
conference on language, literature and linguistics, IPEDR, (vol. 26, pp. 4347).
Hull, G. A. (1981). Effect of self-management strategies on journal writing bycollege freshmen. Research in the Teaching of English, 15(2), 135-148.
Johnson, A. K. (2002). Journal writing for an audience. Modern English Teacher,11(2), 46-50.
Kırkgöz , Y. (2009). Exploring growth in vocabulary learning through learnerdiaries. In Proceedings of the 10th METU ELT Convention. Retrieved fromhttp://dbe.metu.edu.tr/convention/proceedingsweb/proceedings.htm
Pintrich, P. R., Smith, D. A. F., Garcia, T., and McKeachie, W. J. (1991). A
manual for the use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire(MSLQ). Ann Arbor, MI: National Center for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning.
Rubin, J. (2003). Diary writing as a process: Simple, useful, powerful.
Guidelines, 25(2), 10-14.

Author bios

Mohammad Naeim Maleki is an Essential English Center instructor at Kanazawa
Institute of Technology. He has taught English language in Afghanistan, the USAand Japan. His research area has been focused on English writing methodologies andlearner autonomy. He was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and completed an M.A.
degree in TESOL from Saint Michael’s College, USA. malekinaeim@gmail.com
Brent Wright is an Essential English Center instructor at Kanazawa Institute ofTechnology. He has taught Japanese in the USA for 10 years and English in Japanfor three years. He received his M.A. in Japanese Language and Pedagogy from theUniversity of Oregon. brentwright.kit@gmail.com
Received: November 16, 2014
Accepted: September 11, 2015134

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AppendixStudent Questionnaire
Write a number based on your opinion about the diary writing activity.
Not true
Sometimes true
Not true1234
5
1. Diary writing enables me to improve my grammar.
2. Diary writing enables me to improve my writing speed.
3. Diary writing enables me to learn new vocabulary words.
4. Diary writing enables me to improve my reading ability.
5. Diary writing enables me to improve my speaking ability.
6. I think I will be able to use diary writing to learn basic communication
skills.
7. Diary writing will improve my confidence in using English.
8. I found it easy to think of things to write about.
9. It was not a burden to write every day.
10. After the teacher gave me feedback, I corrected my mistakes.
11. Diary writing will help me prepare for studying abroad.
12. Diary writing is useful as a reflection tool.
13. Diary writing is helpful for learning English.
14. I think my English has improved as a result of this diary writing activity.
15. I regularly keep an English diary, even before beginning this activity.
16. I read over my diary to check for mistakes.
17. I would like to keep an English diary, even after this activity.
18. I try to use new grammar forms and vocabulary words in my writing.
19. After this activity, I became able to correct some of my own mistakes.

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