E-Journaling

In the article the authors describe how students used e-journals to respond to a speech acts assignment in Japanese. In this study students experienced different types of speech acts with CALL tools and provided feedback by using e-journals. The researchers used the present study in order to collect information and draw some conclusions regarding the learners' perception of the new technology including its benefits and challenges, the urgency of timing feedback, the drawbacks related to non-individualized feedback and the effectiveness of assessment tools.

I think that e-journaling could prove to be a powerful tool in writing courses. E-journals could be used by students in order to give peer feedback to each other. Students could be assigned in groups of three and asked to review each others work and provide feedback through e-journals. Students could leave comments and make suggestions for improvement. One benefit of using e-journals for peer feedback is that the comments are written and students at any point can go back, read their peer's comments and make the appropriate changes. In addition some international students who still lack the advantage of oral fluency that peer workshops require and/or who come from societies where interdependent views of the individual are emphasized may feel uncomfortable to express their opinions orally and feel better with giving written feedback.