The Effect of the Dialogue Journal on Developing Engineering College Students’ Argumentative Essay Writing

The Effect of the Dialogue Journal on Developing Engineering College Students’ Argumentative Essay Writing

Majid N. Al-Amri, PhD

College of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction,

College of Education, Taibah University

Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah

Abstract. Effects of implementing the dialogue journal as a bridge from written conversations to the academic argumentative essay with 51 engineering bachelor’s students enrolled in an academic writing course were investigated. During a 15-week semester, the control group (n=26) and the experiential group (n=25) joined a three-semester-hour academic writing course which meets 3 times a week for 50 minutes each period.  One 50-minute period each week was assigned for teaching the argumentative essay. Findings indicated that (a) course instructors believed that they had covered the argumentative elements in class; (b) experimental students demonstrated significantly higher levels (p >.01) of perceived knowledge and achieved significantly better (p >.01) than did control students on written and videotaped participation assessments; (c) students and instructors showed positive perceptions of the dialogue journal; and (d) in general there is not too much difference between groups in attitudes towards academic wiring; the apparently slightly more favorable feelings of one group in one assessed area may be reversed in another.

Key words: Pedagogy; dialogue journal; argumentative essay; academic writing; EFL learners; English language centers; higher education