Audio journal in an elt context

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that one of the most serious problems students of English as a foreign language face is their deprivation of practicing the language outside the classroom. Generally, the classroom is the sole environment where they can practice English, which by its nature does not provide rich setting to help students develop their competence by putting the language into practice. Motivated by this need, this descriptive study investigated the impact of audio dialog journals on students’ speaking skills. It also aimed to gain insights into students’ and teacher’s opinions on keeping audio dialog journals outside the class. The data of the study developed from student and teacher audio dialog journals, student written feedbacks, interviews held with the students, and teacher observations. The descriptive analysis of the data revealed that audio dialog journals served a number of functions ranging from cognitive to linguistic, from pedagogical to psychological, and social. The findings and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed in detail.