THE BENEFITS OF PAPER JOURNAL WRITING FORSTUDENTS IN ONLINE CLASSES
Matthew MinerKanda University of International Studies
THE CONTEXT OF JOURNAL WRITING IN READING AND WRITING COURSES
Research suggests that personal journal writing in a second language (L2) is beneficial tolanguage learners. Casanave (2011) calls it a “risk-free, personal, reflective, and responsive
writing activity done regularly in a style that suits the writer’s personality and proficiency level”(p. 5). Free journaling as a form of extensive writing also benefits the development of fluency
and confidence (Herder & King, 2012). Additionally, dialogue journal writing in the ESL
classroom acknowledges “the learner’s need to communicate with others in a meaningfulcontext” (Orem, 2001, p.74). The repeated practice of diary writing, kept fresh and engaging
with interesting and personalized topics, serves as a staple in fluency-building exercises in areading and writing curriculum.
THE DILEMMA: MAINTAINING JOURNALS IN AN ONLINE CURRICULUM
With the necessity of an online, distance approach to my reading and writing courses thissemester, I had to consider whether journal writing was still feasible. With students no longer
localized in a classroom, I would be unable to time and monitor their journal writing and collect
their journals for assessment and comments. One possible solution was to adapt the activity to
be done entirely online by utilizing Google Docs, allowing students to type their diaries into
cloud-based documents shared with me. However, I anticipated a decline in quality if I
switched to online entries based on my observations that student typing speeds vary widely,both due to different levels of experience and different technical affordances such askeyboards. As a compromise, I decided to continue paper-based journal writing and have thestudents attach digital photos of the pages into shared Google Docs. Those files featured
detailed instructions, model diary entries, and a field for comments or questions. After I
explained and demonstrated the task during the first week of class, the students began writing
five-minute timed journal entries at the end of each class based on topics that they had
discussed in groups beforehand. This paper serves as my reflection on three perceived benefitsof maintaining paper-based journal writing.
THE THREE BENEFITS TO PAPER-BASED WRITING DURING ONLINE CLASSAn Increase in Reflective Writing Opportunities
Specht (2019) says that reflective learning allows students to take a step back from theclassroom experience “to develop critical thinking skills and to improve on future performanceby analyzing experiences” (p. 61) in order to improve skills and practice. This means reflective
writing is not simply a writing exercise to review previous experiences: it is also the chance to21.	  The	  Beneﬁts	  of	  Paper	  Journal	  Writing	  for	  Students	  in	  Online	  Classes.	  Matthew	  Miner.	  Pages	  82-­‐85.	  Literacies	  &	  Language	  Education:	  Research	  &	  Practice,	  2020	  Special	  Section:	  Teaching	  During	  a	  Pandemic.	  English	  Language	  Institute,	  KUIS.

predict application of those experiences in the future while building writing proficiency andlanguage fluency. Orem (2001) says that students reflecting through journal writing engage
with the act of writing itself “and its implications for social change and personal empowerment”(p. 76). With its benefits to student language practice and personal growth, reflective writing istherefore a crucial component of the learning cycle in a reading and writing course.
In a reading and writing course course, students often reflect through journal writing, whether
as a formal, cumulative review of a unit project, or a casual recollection of their weekend
experiences. Implementing paper-based journal writing in the online course opened additionalreflective writing chances for participants both in response to their lived experiences and asanalysis of their writing processes. To elucidate, while many of the journal prompts were
naturally reflective, it was the addition of the “comments and questions” field in the GoogleDocs file (in which they attached their journals) that allowed for an increase in reflective writing
occurrences this semester. About half of the students in my classes utilized that space to write
written reflections without prompting. Either throughout the week after uploading theirjournals or at the end of the week before they turned the Google Doc in, many students would
reflect on their engagement with the course content such as what they enjoyed or what wasdifficult for them. They would also reflect on the journals they had written that week,
responding to them with new thoughts, asking questions to me about my experiences with thejournal topics, seeking clarification on what they had written (such as a word used or grammarpattern) or analyzing their own changes in proficiency, noting increases or decreases in total
words written, journal prompt ease or difficulty, and so on. Between the inherent reflective
benefit of journal writing and the new chance for reflection through post-commentary,
maintaining traditional journaling in an online course essentially doubled opportunities forreflection.
A Reduction in Technological Pitfalls
Having taught different writing courses at KUIS over the course of four years, I have noticed atrend amongst many of the students: their fluency and speed suffers significantly when theyuse iPads to construct written texts compared to using pen and paper. I believe that the prime
factors for this discrepancy include the lack of a built in keyboard, the lack of a typing
prerequisite course for the aforementioned classes despite the iPad being a required tool, andassistive features of the iPad including auto-complete, auto-correct, and predictive text. Iconsider these to be roadblocks to fluency-building activities requiring speed, and they can be
detrimental to encouraging fluid L2 thought processes. Students often hesitate at word-level
as they tap on the screen to type two to three letters then stop to check what the iPadsuggests. Additionally, students are often distracted by suggestions for subsequent words andpop-ups with spelling corrections, causing many of them to lose their thought or at least theirpacing. Maintaining pen-and-paper writing exercises this semester helped to balance out these
distractors, and participant journal entries demonstrated more fluent construction and higher
word count than comparable typed texts completed within similar time limits.
A Reprieve from Screen TimeA common concern among online learning stakeholders is the amount of time participants are
expected to spend engaged with digital devices compared to a standard classroom experience.
A review of literature exploring the adverse effects of digital media on adolescents reveals that
excessive screen time negatively impacts sleep patterns, increases risk for cardiovasculardiseases, impairs vision, impacts psychological health, and can affect social wellbeing (Lissak,2018). Aware of the potential harm of extensive screen time, KUIS administration has
requested that teachers shorten Zoom virtual class sessions when possible to reduce the harm
resulting from overuse of technology this semester. Nevertheless, with the semester length
reduced by three weeks, teachers were expected to provide for fifteen weeks’ worth oflanguage learning opportunities for students, which means an overall increase in assignments
which are, of necessity, mostly online and in digital format. My decision to maintain an analog
learning activity was partially in response to this dilemma. Because writers need to write
continuously in order to improve, doing so offline during a regularly designated time four times
a week provides a consistent language learning and usage opportunity as well as a guaranteed
break from the screen. I have found that paper-based journal writing is a simple yet significant
way to provide a short respite from iPad use while still engaging students in meaningful L2
development.
SUMMARY AND SUGGESTIONS
The level of engagement that most students have demonstrated in paper journal writing and inpost-writing commentary suggests that participants appreciate the chances to reflect, develop
their fluency, and unplug from technology. Finally, while I advise online writing teachers toconsider incorporating paper-based journaling for the inherent benefits, there is room forresearch into the issues this paper explored. First, what are student perceptions of paper
journal writing in an age of digital communication? Second, what credence is there to theobservation of a disparity between written text composed on an iPad compared to that
produced with pen and paper? Finally, could there be more significant application of offline
language learning activities, such as the distribution of paperback books for fluency reading in
an online course, to better alleviate stress and fatigue caused by screen-time? The
considerably unmapped territories of online ESL courses at Japanese universities require more
analysis and consideration in order to best benefit students and teachers alike.

REFERENCES
Casanave, C. P. (2011). Journal writing in second language education. Ann Arbor, MI: Universityof Michigan Press.
Herder S., & King, R. (2012). Extensive writing: Another fluency approach for EFL learners.
(2012). Extensive Reading World Congress Proceedings, 1, 128-130.
Lissak, G. (2018). Adverse physiological and psychological effects of screen time on children
and adolescents: Literature review and case study. Environmental Research, 164, 149–157.
doi:10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.015

Orem, R. A. (2001). Journal writing in adult ESL: Improving practice through reflective writing.
New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, 2001(90), 69-78. doi:10.1002/ace.22
Specht, D. (2019). The media and communications study skills student guide. London, UK:
University of Westminster. doi:10.16997/book42