Using reflective teaching journals through service learning for english majors a case study at thu dau mot university

The aim of this study was to examine whether the guidance of reflective journal writing instructors could help them improve their Englishwriting and reflection writing skills or not, and

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

USING REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNALS THROUGH SERVICE-LEARNING FOR ENGLISH

MAJORS:

A CASE STUDY AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

TỪ PHỤNG NGỌC

Supervised by

NGUYỄN HOÀNG TUẤN, PhD

HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2018

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNALS THROUGH SERVICE-LEARNING FORENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Thesis in Master’s program issued

by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not been submitted for the award ofany degree or diploma in any other situation

Ho Chi Minh, June 13, 2018

Từ Phụng Ngọc

RETENTION AND USE OF THESIS

I hereby state that I, Tu Phung Ngoc, being the candidate for the degree ofMaster in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retentionand use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these condition, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in theLibrary should be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordancewith the normal conditions by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of thethesis

Ho Chi Minh, June 13, 2018

Từ Phụng Ngọc

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor,

Dr Nguyen Hoang Tuan, Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thu Dau MotUniversity, who spent his precious time searching great resources for my literaturereview I appreciate his wide knowledge in research methodology and his kindness

to help me accomplish this work

I gratefully thank the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho ChiMinh City University of Human Sciences and Humanities, which provided me and

my classmates with professional and well-qualified professors to help us deepen ourknowledge and abilities in TESOL

I am very grateful to Ms Ta Hien Hoa, lecturer of Faculty of Foreign Languages,University of Dalat, who spent her time to help me evaluate the quality of reflectivejournal writing Her deep knowledge and experience in English writing teachinghelped my data collection procedure less labour-consuming

I would like to express my thanks to Mr Phan Thanh Huan, teacher ofInformatics and IT center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Human Sciences andHumanities, who kindly helped me with statistic skills, especially the tests used inthis thesis

My thankfulness also goes to Ms Nguyen Kim Hai, Deputy Head of theInternational Affairs Service, Thu Dau Mot University who provided me with allreflective teaching journals Also, I never forget the students who completed myquestionnaire Without their responses, I could not accomplish this thesis

I am grateful to my classmates: Kiem Ngan, Duy Y, Duy Thinh, A Tron, KimPhung, Thi Lien, and Huyen Trang for their discussions and encouragements thathelped me overcome psychological barriers to get this thesis done

Importantly, my greatest thankfulness goes to my parents, whose love andsupport are with me in whatever I pursue I am also deeply indebted to mysupportive sisters This work would not have been possible without their financialsupport

The study was conducted with 18 English majors at Thu Dau Mot university(TDMU) who were required to keep reflective teaching journals during theirservice-learning course The aim of this study was to examine whether the guidance

of reflective journal writing instructors could help them improve their Englishwriting and reflection writing skills or not, and whether there are significantlystatistical differences in depth of reflection according to the frequency of journalwriting and differences in writing performance based on depth of reflection after thecourse Using the explanatory sequential mixed method design, the author collectedquantitative data through narrative writing rubric (adapted from Glencoe, 2006) andreflective teaching journal rubric (adapted from Hatton & Smith, 1995; Pasternak &Rigoni, 2015), and qualitative data through an open-ended questionnaire to gainmore insights from participants’ perspectives The findings showed that participantsproduced less qualified reflective journals and did not improve their narrativewriting skills (particularly elaboration and grammar aspects) after the course Thefrequency of journal writing and English writing proficiency have an impact on thereflection writing skills The results have some main implications for syllabusdesigners, language teachers and those who conduct research on reflective journalwriting in EFL context

Key words: Service-learning, reflective teaching journals, narrative writing, depth of reflection, reflective journal writing instruction, frequency of journal writing

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I RETENTION AND USE OF THESIS II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III ABSTRACT IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V LIST OF FIGURES VIII LIST OF TABLES IX

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 4

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Organization of the thesis 6

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Introduction of journal writing 7

2.2 Journal writing practice for EFL learners in language education 8

2.3 Journal writing practice for EFL learners in language teacher education 11

2.4 Reflection in journal writing 13

2.4.1 Definition of reflection 13

2.4.2 Importance of reflection in journal writing 13

2.4.3 Nature of reflection 15

2.4.4 Reflective writing frameworks 16

2.4.5 Enabling and limiting factor of reflection: responses and feedback 19 2.5 Journal writing instruction for EFL learners in tertiary education 20

2.5.1 Developing language writing abilities 20

2.5.2 Enhancing depth of reflection 22

2.6 Summary 25

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 26

3.1 Research design 26

3.2 Context of the study 28

3.2.1 Service-learning course 28

3.2.2 Reflection writing activities 30

3.2.3 Reflective journal writing instruction 31

3.3 Participants and sampling approaches 33

3.3.1 Quantitative sampling 33

3.3.2 Qualitative sampling 34

3.4 Research instruments 35

3.4.1 Reflective teaching journals 36

3.4.2 Narrative writing rubric 37

3.4.3 Reflective teaching journal rubric 39

3.5 Data collection procedure 40

3.5.1 Evaluation of reflective teaching journals 40

3.5.2 Journal writing rating 42

3.5.3 Open-ended questionnaire 42

3.6 Data analysis procedure 43

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 46

4.1 Research question 1 46

4.1.1 Organization 47

4.1.2 Elaboration 47

4.1.3 Grammar and mechanics 49

4.1.4 Overall writing 50

4.2 Research question 2 52

4.2.1 Journal writing instruction 52

4.2.2 Frequency of journal writing 55

4.3 Research question 3 57

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 60

5.1 Conclusion 60

5.2 Pedagogical implications 61

5.2.2 Reflective journal writing instructors 62

5.3 Limitations of the research 62

5.4 Recommendations for further study 63

REFERENCES 65

APPENDICES 70

APPENDIX A 70

APPENDIX B 70

APPENDIX C 72

APPENDIX D 73

APPENDIX E 74

APPENDIX F 75

APPENDIX G 76

APPENDIX H 78

APPENDIX I 83

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: A hierarchical design literature map of this study 24Figure 2: A diagram of variables in this study 26Figure 3: A diagram of an explanatory sequential mixed methods design 27Figure 4: The process of the service-learning course (with 3 credits) at theFaculty of Foreign Languages of TDMU in 2016 28Figure 5: A diagram of the data collection procedure of this study 35Figure 6: A diagram of research findings 60

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Five groups of the second phase participants (N=18) 35Table 2: Intra-rater reliability coefficients between the first and second ratings 38Table 3: Kappa interpretation 41Table 4: Inter-rater reliability between Rater 1 and Rater 2 based on Kappa’sstatistics 41Table 5: Inter-rater reliability coefficients between Rater 1 and Rater 2 42Table 6: The paired samples t-test on the writing scores of week 1 and week 6journals (N=18) 46Table 7: The paired samples t-test on the depth of reflection in week 1 andweek 6 journals (N=18) 52Table 8: The Pearson's Chi-square test on the relationship between the depth ofreflection and the frequency of reflective journal writings (N=18) 55Table 9: The ANOVA test on the differences in writing scores based on thedepth of reflection (N=18) 57Table 10: The Tukey HSD post hoc multiple comparison test on the differences

in writing scores among reflectors (N=18) 58

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

The current chapter presents the introduction, which introduces thebackground to the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, thesignificance of the study, the scope of the study, and the organization of thethesis

1.1 Background to the study

In service-learning courses, reflective journal writing is one of the mostcommon learning activities that students describe, interpret and analyzeexperiences in a reflective way through their first-personal accounts.Moussa-Inaty (2015) highlighted that reflective journal writing is not gainedfrom mere experience It is encouraged intentionally, and requires supervisionand instruction In addition, it serves as a vehicle for reflection to developpersonally and professionally (Bringle & Hatcher, 1999; Dyment & O'Connell,2010)

Therefore, service-learning reflective journal writing is considered to be apotentially effective learning strategy for students of any teacher educationprograms (Wade, 1997) Students are instructed to invite others into theirclassroom to see what is going on there by reflecting on their teachingexperience and thinking about their failures and/ or successes The purposes arenot only to learn from the experiences but also to expand the world beyond theindividual classroom before entering teaching profession (Burton, 2009)

In the recent literature, reflective journals have been always seen as a tool

to qualitatively explore the effectiveness of service-learning courses onstudents’ outcomes For instance, service-learning courses help students toperceive higher self-esteem and self-efficacy as teachers (personal outcomes);

to increase their empathy, problem-solving and leadership skills, and awareness

of community (social outcomes); to deepen understanding of course content

language learners, especially younger learners (career development)(Hildebrandt, 2014; Kistler & Grosby, 2014; Moely & Ilustre, 2014).

Despite such various lines of qualitative research on reflective journalsthrough service-learning courses, very few researchers have investigated intoits influence on students’ learning outcomes, e.g English writing and reflectionwriting skills of students, especially EFL learners In fact, English writing andreflective writing skills are both challenging productive skills, especially forEFL learners as the flow of their thoughts may be stuck by the languagebarriers

In EFL context, service-learning reflective journals written in English byspeakers of other languages are not well-researched In Vietnam, severalpreliminary studies in this field conducted by Nguyen, H T & Nguyen K H.(2016), and Nguyen, H T (2016) focus primarily on English majors at ThuDau Mot university (TDMU) who voluntarily teach English to children fromlow-income families This service-learning reflective journal practice includes

1) reflective learning journal writing in which students write weekly entries

during their training process to describe personal thoughts and class discussionsabout the course content, and reflect on how the theory will be applied to the

service process as English teachers, and 2) reflective teaching journal writing

in which students write weekly entries to reflect on some aspects of theteaching experience (e.g the community, the disadvantage children, theapplication, the failures and successes.)

An ounce of experience is always greater than a ton of theory; as a result,the latter seems more significant and has received much attention from theseVietnamese authors’ research Reflective teaching journal entries are read andstudied to examine reflectors’ social and emotional competence development.These authors state that participating in service-learning courses helpsEnglish-majored students to “discover their personal power to make positivechanges in their community” (Nguyen, H T & Nguyen K H., 2016, p.447)

Nonetheless, although reflection activities plays an important role in reflecting

on and understanding experiences in teaching, there is very little evidence thatstudents’ reflection activities can result in students’ linguistic and professionalcompetence development To illustrate, in an article conducted by Nguyen, H

T (2016), he concludes that ‘we cannot find evidence of the impact of servicelearning on students’ academic attainment since the project is still in its earlystage” (p.12)

Following Nguyen, H T and Nguyen K H (2015), hence, the authordesired to research on reflective journal writing activities in thisservice-learning course to examine its influence on student’s learning outcomes(i.e language writing and reflection writing development)

In fact, in the journal writing assignment with instruction, students write atone level or different levels of reflection, moving from substantial tomeaningful (Dyment & O’ Connell, 2010; Moussa-Inaty, 2015) For the pastdecade, most studies in this field have only focused on identifying what level inwhich students reflectively integrate their knowledge and application, instead

of examining whether there is an increase or decrease in depth of reflectionafter instruction In addition, there has been a rapid rise in the use of journalwriting to enhance English writing abilities for language learners, especiallyEnglish majors in EFL context Researchers indicate that students’ Englishwriting abilities significantly improve, especially writing accuracy and fluency,even without any control from the instructors (i.e Instructors do not provideany feedback in terms of linguistic mistakes and errors committed by students)

In the context of this study, service students are required to write reflectivejournals and received responses related to their English writing and reflectionwriting skills It raises the question whether TDMU English-majored students’language writing and reflection writing skills will be developed throughreflective journal writing instruction in a service-learning course or not In

addition, the research attempts to find out enabling factors of reflection skills inorder to provide suggestions for ways of improving reflective proficiency.

1.2 Aims of the study

In an attempt to provide insight on the little-researched topic ofservice-learning reflection writing by English majors in the Vietnam highereducation context, the aims of the current study are to investigate:

1) the impact of reflective journal writing instruction on students’ Englishwriting performance;

2) the impact of reflective journal writing practice and instruction on students’reflection writing skills;

3) the relationship between their writing performance and depth of reflection

2) What factors affect the depth of reflection in students’ journal entries?3) What is the relationship between participants’ writing performance anddepth of reflection?

1.4 Significance of the study

Hopefully, this research is significant for the Faculty of Foreign Languages

in TDMU because it will bring attention to the need for implementing a plan ofaction to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the future

Moreover, the results of this study might be of interest to teachers,

educators, and those conducting researches on reflective journal writing in EFLcontext Answering above questions may be useful for language teachereducators in the search for strategies to promote and tools to assess Englishwriting skills and depth of reflection.

It is known that reflection is a key component of service-learning as itprovides faculty with the means to assess the learning that occurs outside theclassroom The findings would also contribute to the implementation of theservice-learning course and students’ improvement in English reflection writingskills in Vietnam higher education context In addition, it is necessary to helpuniversities and colleges have more flexible policies in foreign languageeducation

More importantly, this study will fill the gap in the recent literature onEnglish writing and reflection writing skills through service-learning

1.5 Scope of the study

The current research is carried out with a group of students who served asEnglish teachers in a service-learning course Every week, participants areasked to write their personal reflective journals, including learning journals andteaching journals, based on the prompts of guiding questions and feedback.This activity takes place under the guidance of journal writing instructors viae-mail These journal entries are personal narrative writings in which studentsdescribe their real experiences

The focus of this study is mainly on reflective teaching journals They areread and studied to identify students’ depth of reflection and assess Englishnarrative writing performance SPSS statistical tests are employed to examinewhether the guidance of reflective journal writing teachers could help themimprove their English writing and reflection writing skills or not, and whetherthere are significant differences in depth of reflection according to the

depth of reflection after the course Then questionnaire is administered to gainmore insights from participants’ perspectives to expand upon the findings fromthe quantitative data.

1.6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis comprises five chapters Chapter 1 presents the introduction,which introduces the background to the study, aims of the study, researchquestions, significance of the study, scope of the study and organization of thethesis Chapter 2 provides theoretical background as the basis for conductingthe study Chapter 3 deals with research design, sampling, researchinstrumentation, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure Chapter

4 consists of detailed discussions and analyses of the study’s findings Chapter

5 is to summarize the whole thesis, offer some educational implications andlimitations of the research, as well as recommendations for further research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In the previous chapter, background of the study has been given Thepresent literature is a comprehensive review of issues over the last two decadesthat are relevant to journal writing practice and journal writing instruction forEFL learners in tertiary education

2.1 Introduction of journal writing

Journals are notebooks or loose-leaf pages in which students keeprecording “ideas, opinions and description of daily life” (Luu, T T., 2010, p.82)

or “feelings and reactions to specific course activities” (Hiemstra, 2001) andreceive feedback from their instructor every week or at appropriate intervals(Bringle & Hatcher, 1999)

In the last two-decade article, Bringle and Hatcher (1999) suggest aclassification of journals including personal journals, dialogue journals,highlighted journals, key phrase journals, critical incident journals, thee-part

journals and double-entry journals The two most popular ones are: 1) personal

journals in which instructors read and comment what students write their own

experiences freely, and 2) dialogue journals in which students write freely

about their experiences, while instructors read, provide continual feedback tostudents in light of the experience and prompt new questions for them toconsider

The nature of writing and journal writing itself is completely dissimilarfrom each other Writing is a complex and demanding process where studentswrite with fear of being corrected both form and meaning, whereas journalwriting is considered a meaningful and interesting process of writing where thefocus is usually on the message the writers try to send and where their attemptsare praised (Taqi, Akbar, Al-Nouh & Dashti, 2015) Journals can be written in

journal writing via e-mail and journal writing via pen-and-paper (Foroutan,Noordin & Gani bin Hamzah, 2013).

2.2 Journal writing practice for EFL learners in language education

Over a few past decades, scholars, and researchers in EFL context havestrongly believed that the more students write, the more their writing skillsdevelop Therefore, the goal of journal writing is to provide EFL learners withopportunities to communicate through writing without worrying aboutgrammar or spelling They focus more on expressing their thoughts andfeelings and formulate ideas in an informal language and without muchconcern for audiences (Hemmati & Soltanpour, 2012)

Journal writing (also known as learning journal writing) gains moreimportance in language education programs not only for its various uses butmainly for its pedagogical values for both language teachers and learners.According to Luu, T T (2010), through assigning personal journal writing,teachers gain valuable insights to their students’ learning strategies anddifficulties in learning a foreign language, accommodate teaching methods tostudent’s preferences, as well as establish a close relationship between teachersand learners Congruent with him, Pham, V P H and Pham, N T D (2015)who find out the common errors on the personal journal writing of 115English-majored freshmen in HCMC Open University states that journals helpthem clarify students’ writing problems in order to improve the writingpractices in English writing classrooms

Regarding the usefulness of journal writing in learners’ languagedevelopment, a great part of the literature on English and non-English majorshas been devoted to a description of this issue over the last decade as follows

In 2010, Luu, T T conducts an experimental research and prompts otherresearchers to consider journal writing as a beneficial activity for writingcourses in EFL context In his research, the author engages learners in writing

journals at home within 15 weeks to examine whether personal journal writingenhances English-majored students’ writing skill in relation to writing accuracyand fluency or not Using a pre-test and post-test research design, he indicatesthat students are more motivated and increase their fluency and accuracy inEnglish writing.

Using the same research design with Luu, T T (2010), Hwang (2010) inThailand investigates the effectiveness of in-class personal journal writing onwriting fluency and writing quality of 8 EFL freshman college students whoenrolls in an eight-week intensive English academic writing class Thequantitative data shows that journal writing increases students’ writing fluency,and their test scores, as well as their self-confidence in writing

With similar purposes and research method with Hwang (2010), Barjesteh,Vaseghi and Gholami (2011) investigate 44 Iranian EFL college students’attitudes towards personal journal writing and evaluates their grammaticaldevelopment and writing fluency Based on students’ views, they conclude thatjournal writing can be “a very productive and creative pre-writing activity”(p.143) However, while the above studies have shown a positive impact ofpersonal journal writing on students’ writing accuracy, Barjesteh et al (2011)show the complete opposite finding that there is a decrease in student’sgrammatical accuracy

Contradiction with this finding, many scholars have proved that writingjournals, particularly dialogue journals, positively affects the grammarknowledge of EFL college students For instance, Abdolmanafi Rokni and Seifi(2013a) who conduct a study with 68 Iranian students who take GeneralEnglish course Participants write journals both at home and in the classroomwithin 12 weeks and are asked to take an English grammar proficiency test.These authors are successful in proving the positive influence of journalwriting on students’ grammar knowledge as well as their confidence in writing

same research design to examine the effectiveness of journal writing onstudents’ vocabulary knowledge 46 EFL students at an intermediate level arerandomly selected from an English language institute and write journals for 20sessions both at home and in the classroom The findings indicate that there is

an increase in their knowledge of English vocabulary and writing fluency and adecrease in writing anxiety Abdolmanafi Rokni and Seifi (2013ab) providestudents with lots of support; for example, in the first one, they give studentssome special attention regarding grammatical errors In the second one, theyprovides appropriate words for students being stuck in expressing ideas due tothe limited vocabulary That can be a justification for their success ininvestigating the positive influence of journal writing on non-English majors’grammar and vocabulary knowledge

Regarding English majors, in a recent experimental research in Kuwait,Taqi et al (2015) ask 52 students who enroll in Advanced Writing classes andkeep journals on any topic of their choice at home for 14 weeks Participantswrite four different styles of essays used to evaluate their languageperformance in the classroom The quantitative results show that students’knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is significantly improved

Furthermore, recent empirical research findings proved that keepingjournals can improve not only students’ knowledge of target language but alsotheir performance in writing genres, particularly descriptive one To illustrate,Dabbagh (2017)’s study focused on the usefulness of dialogue journals as awriting tool in mastering descriptive writing Through using experimentaldesign, it was revealed that integrating journal writing activity into writingclasses can enhance learners’ performance in descriptive writing, especially incontent, organization and vocabulary This author also states that no research isconducted on how personal journal writing affect writing genres such asnarrative writing, argumentative and explanatory writing, etc

To conclude, the above studies have three things in common Firstly,these authors measure learner’s writing performance by using quantitative datacollection and analysis as the main analysis technique which was the case inthe present study Secondly, they provide no correction in journal writing or nofeedback in terms of grammatical and language uses in order to help learnersachieve a high degree of self-sufficiency and autonomy (except AbdolmanafiRokni & Seifi, 2013ab) Lastly, they all explores the promising influences ofjournal writing on EFL learners’ writing achievement and other internal factors(e.g writing motivation, anxiety, confidence and satisfaction) within a longperiod of journaling (lasting 8-20 weeks).

In addition, with the evolving world of technology, in a recent study with

42 English majors in Malaysia, Foroutan et al (2013) compare e-mail journalwriting with its paper-and-pencil counterpart in developing writingperformance Using quasi-experimental research design, they indicate thate-mail journal writing outperformed paper-and-pencil one not only in overallwriting but also the language use aspect However, the greatest drawback oftheir study is lack of inter-rater reliability of writing test scores which can maketheir result unreliable As a result, in the literature, there is no strong evidencethat e-mail journal writing is greater than paper-and-pencil version in Englishlanguage education

2.3 Journal writing practice for EFL learners in language teacher education

Journal writing in language teaching studies (or teaching journal writing;Nurfaidah, Lengkanawati & Sukyadi, 2017) is not a new practice In addition,Borg states that “journal writing itself requires a lot of energy and effort, i.e.linguistic, cognitive and socio-cultural demands” (cited in Nurfaidah et al.,

2017, p 82) Hence, journals are often written in a first language to make theflow of thoughts not be blocked due to the language barrier Accordingly,

well-research concept.

Very few researchers have examined the importance of journal writing inteaching career development of language student teachers as EFL learners Arecent study with 28 students in Vietnam (i.e Nguyen, H T & Nguyen, K H.,2016) has described the faculty experience of using reflective journal as apedagogical tool Their participants who participate in a service-learning course

to teach English to local children are encouraged to critically examine theimpact of their teaching experiences and communicate their feelings about thecommunity They claim that reflective teaching journal writing is a powerfulpedagogical approach that not only helps student better understand themselvesand others, but also provides them with opportunities to ‘live’ with thelanguage, not to learn the language

Furthermore, journal writing is a tool to help student learn from their ownteaching practices and come to a better of their work through such practices byreflecting on their learning and teaching activities or reporting their difficulties

or problems in the classroom For example, Roux et al (2012) conduct a casestudy to examine the usefulness of reflection papers written by 15 MexicanEnglish language teachers taking a Master’s Degree course in English as aforeign language The result is that reflective journal writing is useful since itfacilitates students’ participation in class discussion, adoption of a stancetowards SLA theories, and improvement of writing ability Another case study

is carried out by Mack (2012) to examine the types of problems that 5 Englishwriting EFL tutors from China, Thailand, and Vietnam facing when tutoringEFL students and the role that reflective journals play in understanding theseissues The finding reveals that reflective journal writing provides them withmany opportunities to express particular frustrations and positives experienced

in EFL tutoring as well as to have a greater understanding and awareness ofEFL tutoring issues

Roux et al (2012)’s participants just show how the theory is applied to

practical situations, and no evidence of a change in perspective over afundamental belief of the understanding of a key concept or phenomenon.However, Mack (2012)’s participants express and explore the insights that wereuseful to their professional development A reasonable explanation is thedifferent level of English proficiency, i.e Roux’s participants self-rate theirEnglish language proficiency as B1 and B2 according to Common EuropeanFramework of Reference for Languages ‘CEFR’, while Mack (2012)’sparticipants are those whose IELTS scores are around 8.0 to 9.0 as C2according to CEFR As a result, it raises the question that whether the Englishwriting proficiency affect the depth of reflection in journal writing.

2.4 Reflection in journal writing

2.4.1 Definition of reflection

The term “reflection” is defined as an incrementally thinking processencouraged intentionally (by instructors’ assessment and feedback) throughwhich experience and knowledge are carefully examined and evaluated toultimately arrive to new perspectives (Abbasi & Khodi, 2015)

2.4.2 Importance of reflection in journal writing

We are living, studying and working in this highly technical world It issignificantly essential for us to be “productive and informed members of thisworld, which changes continually, invent new ways of solving problems,connect new knowledge to the information they already have and apply theirknowledge in new situations” (as cited in Laqaei & Mall-Amiri, 2015, p.176).Back to the aspect of journal writing, various scholars and educators havestrongly believed that learning and teaching journals used to deepen students’learning must require at least a certain degree of reflection Hence, in thecurrent study, this kind of journals is called reflective journal writing

In language learning programs, reflective journal writing is a written form

learning process which means the start of boosting autonomy As an illustration,Çapar (2014) conducts a study with 12 EFL learners taking writing classesfrom a public university in Turkey The data are collected through journalwriting and an open-ended questionnaire The results reveal that learnersproduce more qualified reflections and achieve autonomy in writing after thetraining.

More importantly, there have been more and more researchers regardingthe impact of reflective journals on writing achievement and critical thinking ofEFL learners recently For example, an experimental research is carried out on

60 EFL learners from Tehran University of Medical Sciences by Laqaei andMall-Amiri (2015) in Iran The main purpose of their study is to examinewhether reflection in journal writing improves EFL learners’ writingachievement, vocabulary achievement, and critical thinking or not Theexperimental group is provided with reflective journal writing instructions,while the control group received the routine writing practices After utilizingMANOVA, the findings reveal that the treatment significantly improvesvocabulary, writing and critical thinking of the learners

The above studies emphasize that reflection plays a significant role in thedevelopment of EFL learners’ autonomy and journal writing skills only whenstudents gain an adequate training

In language teacher education, reflective journal writing is a written form

of a complicated and deliberate process of thinking that help student teachersthink about and interpret an experience in order to learn from the experience(Atkins and Murphey, 1995; as cited in Moussa-Inaty, 2015) To illustrate, inMack’s study (in 2012), reflective journal writing is deemed to be a tool thatgives meaning to teaching experience by raising teachers’ conscious of variousproblems More recently, in Nurfaidah et al (2017)’s phenomenological casestudy in Indonesia, 4 EFL student teachers describe, analyze and evaluate theirinstructional practices in their journal writing The finding indicates that

reflective teaching journal writing helps teacher facility the integration oftheory and practice, as well as generate knowledge from practice In this paper,reflection is considered to be concordance with Atkins and Murphey (1995) It

is a form of mental processing that student teachers consider a specificexperience for the purpose of learning from the experience

In addition, many scholars, e.g Dyment and O'Connell (2010), andMoussa-Inaty (2015) state that writers reflect at one level or at several differentlevels of reflection in a piece of writing in general Each level is distinctive inthe quality of reflection, moving from substantial (merely reproduce knowledgepresented by others) to meaningful (produce a change in perspective of a belief

or understanding)

From this point, it is crucial to learn about not only what reflection is andwhat it is not, but also the framework of reflective writing due to the tworeasons as follows First, it is the only means through which teacher educatorscan search for strategies to promote higher order reflection and tools to assessstudent teachers’ level of reflection (Nurfaidah et al., 2017) Second, it helpsstudent teachers examine the levels in which they integrate knowledge andapplication (Roux et al., 2012), and be well aware of the kinds of reflectionthey want to include in their narratives (Pasternak & Rigoni, 2015)

2.4.4 Reflective writing frameworks

Over the last four decades, a number of frameworks have been developedthat define different levels of reflection They are applicable to the reflectivewriting which link practical experience to course materials and contents or thatobjectively recording what students actually participated in an activity, workexperience, or event

Kember (2008)’s framework is designed to be used in reflective writinglinking practical experience to course contents (as cited in Roux et al., 2012).Kember and his colleagues propose 4 levels of reflection in texts written in

English as a foreign language as follows: 1) non-reflection (i.e searching for

material on a topic and placing it on a piece of writing without trying to really

understand the underlying concepts.); 2) understanding (i.e using a deep

approach to learning in the search for the author’s underlying meaning); 3)

reflection (i.e interpreting concepts in connection to personal experiences, and

personal insights go beyond book theory); 4) critical reflection (i.e undergoing

a change in perspective by conducting a critical review of assumptions fromconscious and unconscious prior learning)

Regarding the frameworks applicable to the reflective writing whichobjectively recording what students actually participated in an activity, workexperience, or event, Van Manen is believed as a trailblazer when categorizingthe levels of reflection into three (Moussa-Inaty, 2015; Nurfaidah et al., 2017)

They are: 1) technical rationality (also called empirical-analytical level), which

contains context free generalizations about teaching and learning which are notconnected to any specific incident from the classroom experience but rather

about teaching or classroom in general; 2) practical rationality (also called

hermeneutic-phenomenological level), which contains context specificreflection, about teaching and learning based on the example of classroom

experience, incidents, and specific students’ actions; and 3) critical rationality

(also called critical-dialectical level), which contains multi-contextual coveringspecific incidents or actions across other teaching context.

Afterwards, from 1990’ to 2000’s, according to Pasternak and Rigoni(2015), and Moussa-Inaty (2015), there have been various researchers using,adapting and developing Van Manen’s, for instance, Schön, Zeichner andListon, Sparks-Langer, Yancey, etc One of the most well-known ones wasHatton and Smith (1995)’s They develop Van Manen’s taxonomies by

generating an analytical framework including 4 types of writing: 1) descriptive

writing or non-reflective writing, which is a description of events with no

attempt to justify the events ; 2) descriptive reflection, which is a description of

events with some attempts to provide justification for events but in a

descriptive way; 3) dialogic reflection, which is a form of analytical discourse

with oneself using qualities of judgment and possible alternatives for

explanation; 4) critical reflection, which is an awareness that actions and

events are located in and influenced by multiple historical and socio-politicalcontexts

As mentioned in Moussa-Inaty (2015), the greatest advantage of thisframework is that it offers specific characteristics of reflective writing thatallow one to determine whether or not and at what level reflection is beinggained Furthermore, Hatton and Smith’s is considered the most favouredframework for categorizing reflective proficiency, mostly in the professionaldomains since it offers students guidance to writing higher level of reflections

in the field where they are required to reflect For instance, in 2017, Nurfaidahand his colleague delineate a study to investigate the development of levels ofreflections in reflective teaching journal practice of 4 Indonesian EFL studentteachers during their teaching practicum The findings are garnered throughusing Hatton and Smith’s work and indicate that participants reflectiveproficiency is in the range of dialogic reflection, which is a form of analytical

discourse with oneself using qualities of judgment and possible alternatives forexplanation.

As continuing the search for the reflective writing frameworks in 2010s,the author discovers Pasternak and Rigoni (2015) who develop Hatton andSmith (1995)’s framework Pasternak and Rigoni have strongly believed that

reflective writing could occur in four levels: 1) descriptive writing, which is a description of the events without providing justification; 2) analytical

reflection, which is an analysis why the events occurred based on qualities of

judgment; 3) hypothetical reflection, which is a consideration of multiple

perspectives to predict how the event might have turned out different; 4)

critical reflection, which is an explanation how the events were impacted by

the social-cultural-political contexts in which the events occurred

A notable strength of their framework is that it provides writers withguiding questions, keywords and sample texts to easily identify what level ofreflection writing is being reached This framework can help student teachersexamine the levels in which they integrate knowledge and application and beaware of the kinds of reflection they want to include in their narratives.Especially, the most striking strong point of Pasternak and Rigoni (2015)’s isthat they make a clear distinction between analytical reflection and hypotheticalreflection, considered to be dialogic reflection level of Hatton and Smith’s.However, a remarkable weakness of Pasternak and Rigoni (2015)’s is that theycombined descriptive writing with descriptive reflection, while the nature ofthe two types of writing is distinctive

Thus, after carefully and critically examining Hatton and Smith’s, andPasternak and Rigoni’s frameworks, the author concludes that reflective

writing can concur in five levels They are: 1) descriptive writing, which is a report of events without justifying the events ; 2) descriptive reflection, which

is an interpretation of events based on personal perception of experience; 3)

analytical reflection, which is an analysis why the events occurred based on

qualities of judgment; 4) hypothetical reflection, which is a consideration of

multiple perspectives to hypothesize how the event might have turned out

different; 5) critical reflection, which is an explanation how the events were

impacted by the social-cultural-political contexts in which the events occurred

2.4.5 Enabling and limiting factor of reflection: responses and feedback

As mentioned above, reflection in writing has received much attention inthe last four decades Numerous educators (e.g Dyment & O'Connell, 2006;Roux et al., 2012) have sought to ascertain the levels of reflection found instudents’ journals in higher education and discovered that the majority ofstudents were writing at very basic levels such as just reporting events, makinggeneral observations, telling how the theory was applied to practical situations,etc This section addresses instructor feedback as a two-edged weapon: itencourages some students to be more reflective, while it demotivates some to

Congruent with these claims, Bleicher and Correia (2011) carry out a studywith 130 students who go online and reflect on their teaching experiences inservice-learning course to examine the effect of immediate feedback on thequality of journal writing During the study, they access participants’ stories,posted comments and provided immediate feedback to students They alsointroduce students to the concept of making connections to their personal

reflection assignment, more than 95% of the 130 students understand the basicelements of making connections The result is that there is a difference betweendescription and reflection in journal entries Furthermore, in 2002, Bain and hiscolleagues conduct research on 35 student-teachers to investigate the influence

of instructor’s feedback on journal entries The result is that feedback related tothe level of reflection have a more positive influence on the quality of journalsrather than that related to the experiences mentioned in the reflection

In conclusion, a feedback that actively contributes to the development ofreflection can be defined as a thoughtful, constant, consistent, fair andimmediate response related to the reflective thoughts rather than thedescription

2.5 Journal writing instruction for EFL learners in tertiary education

A decade of researches have now indicated that journal writing assignmentcombining with an adequate instruction represents a new way of learning forstudents that contrasts greatly with the traditional learning approaches It notonly helps students enhance their language writing performance but also affectstheir perspectives or fundamental beliefs This part presents how teachersprovide students with adequate training in how to promote target languagewriting abilities and reflect more deeply

2.5.1 Developing language writing abilities

In foreign language classes, especially writing courses for both English andnon-English majors, journal writing is viewed as outside classroom activitiesfocusing on the meaning rather than the form, instructor plays the role as thereader who only read journal entries, instead of the judge who providesfeedback in terms of grammatical mistakes or errors

- Correction feedback

Literature on the influence of the feedback regarding grammar andmechanics mistakes on students’ writing explicitly claims that teachercorrection has a detrimental effect on students’ writing (Dabbagh, 2017; Luu, T.T., 2010; Pham, V P H & Pham, N T D., 2015; Taqi et al., 2015) Studentsare more likely to enjoy writing when they are not overwhelmed by monitoringtheir grammatical and vocabulary errors When that barrier of form is broken,they start to express themselves with a higher level of fluency According toStraub, as cited in Taqi et al (2015), the only thing that instructors need to do

is providing indirect feedback related to topic, organization coherence andcohesion

Regarding writing accuracy development, in the study of Luu, T T (2010)who successfully enhance students’ writing accuracy via personal journalwriting, he suggests that instructors should avoid over-correction and onlyconcentrate on the errors “that have global rather than local effects” (p.83)

- Informal meeting and the clarity of expectation

Abdolmanafi Rokni and Seifi (2013a) who prove their instruction can helpstudents learn more grammar knowledge pinpoint that an informal meetingbefore starting journal sessions is vital to make them familiar with journalingand non-threatening environment They propose that instructors should explainabout journal writing and provide the clarity of expectation In line withAbdolmanafi Rokni and Seifi’s proposal, Dyment and O'Connell (2006)suggest a list of requirements including the purpose of the journal, thefeasibility of this activity, the audience, and others (e.g the type of the journal,the number of entries, the length of each entry, the deadline, etc.) thatinstructors should clarify before assigning journals to their students

2.5.2 Enhancing depth of reflection

In recent articles, many suggestions given by Dyment and O'Connell (2006,2010), Pasternak and Rigoni (2015), and Moussa-Inaty (2015) with the purpose

of improving the quality of reflective journals are summarized as follows

- Models and theories of reflection

Scholars and researchers have agreed that instructors must teach studentsabout a model or theory of reflection to help them journal deeply Asmentioned in Dyment and O'Connell (2006, 2010), there are many models thatcan be applied to reflection such as Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher OrderThinking; Schön’s Reflective Practitioner framework; Kolb’s ExperientialLearning Theory; Hatton and Smith’s Framework; Valli’s Typology; Dewey’sProcess of Experiential Learning; Ash and Clayton’s Articulated Learningmodel; Kember’s four stage model of reflection, etc

Due to many strong points as mentioned above, Hatton and Smith’s isconsidered the most favoured framework for reflective journal writinginstruction Recently, in a longitudinal study of reflective teaching journals,Pasternak and Rigoni (2015) offer the reflection guideline proposed bythemselves based on the work of Hatton and Smith (1995) to a group of teachercandidates The finding is that their candidates raise their awareness of thedepth of reflection in their narratives This result provides an adequatereflective writing framework in the 2010s that can be applied in this study

- Templates

Obviously, students should be given samples of journals to analyse themodels of reflection since various types of writing can be used to help themdeepen their understanding For example, as cited in Dyment and O'Connell(2010), Spalding and Wilson teach their pre-service teachers Valli’s Typologyand then use some narratives written by Barbara Kingsolver to help theirstudents learn about reflection However, there is little research regarding

theories of reflection combining with templates to increase reflectiveproficiency.

- Guiding questions

Literature on providing guiding questions as a way to develop reflectiveproficiency explicitly claims that it is essential to have a series of questionsaddressed to students who have not previously written reflectively

For example, Kistler and Crosby (2014) integrate service-learning into acourse of Teaching English and provides participants with a series ofopen-ended prompts about teaching strategies At the end of the course, theirparticipants not only reflect their use of a variety of techniques but alsoreflectively evaluate their implementations of these techniques The resultsproved that question prompts help reflectors more thoughtful

The similar result is found in Mack (2012)’s study on EFL tutors whofollow some guiding questions on teaching issues Participants are able tointegrate their learning and critically analyze their actions to become moreeffective tutors Similarly, Moussa-Inaty (2015) analyzes the reflective journalswritten by a group of interns who are provided with a reflection guideline Thisauthor finds a significant increase in the quality of written reflections afterreflection guideline questions were presented

Obviously, previous researchers have proved that it is necessary to providestudents with prompts such as guiding questions to support them in becomingdeeper reflective writers

To conclude, the comprehensive review of all issues over the last decade ispresented in the literature map on page 24

s

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WRITING

INSTRUCTION

Models of Reflection

(Hatton & Smith, 1995;

Pasternak & Rigoni, 2015’

Kember, 2008;)

Correction

(Dabbagh, 2017;Pham, V P H &Pham, N T D., 2015;Taqi et al., 2015; Luu,

T T., 2010)

Increasing depth of reflection (Moussa-Inaty, 2015)

Language learners

Reflective Teaching Journal

(Roux, 2012; Mack, 2012) Reflective Learning Journal

(Luu, T T., 2010; Hwang, 2010;

Barjesteh et al., 2011; AbdolmanafiRokni & Seifi, 2013ab; Taqi et al.,2015; Pham, V P H & Pham, N T

D., 2015; Çapar, 2014; Laqaei &

TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

INSTRUCTION

LANGUAGE LEARNING PROGRAMS

Interpret and learn

from experience

Need for further study:

1) Effectiveness of Journal Writing Instruction on Writing Abilities

and Depth of Reflection

2) Enabling Factors of Reflection: Frequency of Journal Writing and

Frequency Language Proficiency

Levels of Reflection:

(Roux et al., 2012; Nurfaidah et

al., 2017)

Improving writing abilities

Increasing reflective thoughts

(Capar, 2014; Laqaei and Mall-Amiri,

2015)

Improving writing abilities

(Luu, T T., 2010; Hwang, 2010; Barjesteh

et al., 2011; Rokni & Seifi, 2013ab; Taqi etal., 2015; Pham, V P H & Pham, N T D.,

2015; Dabbagh, 2017)

Affecting internal factors

(Luu, T T., 2010; Hwang, 2010; Barjesteh

et al., 2011; Rokni & Seifi, 2013ab)

Express feelings and be aware of learning process

2.6 Summary

This chapter has reviewed reflective journal writing practice andinstruction for EFL learners in tertiary education: language learning programsand teacher education program Apparently, in this practice, students need to begiven an adequate instruction and appropriate feedback to create effectivereflective journal writing In the field of language education, previous scholarshave examined the depth of reflection in the written work of language teachersbased on models and theories of reflection However, there is very littleresearch conducted to investigate the enabling factors of reflection in reflectiveteaching journals in order to improve student teachers’ reflective proficiency

In EFL context, a decade of researches has tended to focus on developingstudents’ writing abilities (including writing accuracy and fluency, and writinggenres) and other internal factors such as writing motivation and writingconfidence through journals in English writing classes rather than the effect ofthis instruction on students’ writing achievement (particularly reflectionwriting) in teacher education programs

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, the literature on journal writing practice and

journal writing instruction for EFL learners in tertiary education has been

reviewed The current chapter describes the research design, and participants

and context of the study, as well as deals with sampling approaches, research

instrumentation, and data collection and data analysis procedure

3.1 Research design

This study used case study methodology A case study is “an in-depth

exploration of a bounded system (e.g., activity, event, process, or individuals)

based on extensive data collection” (Creswell, 2012, p.465) Case study

methodology was considered appropriate as it allows a detailed analysis and an

intensive view of a group of individuals and the different factors impacting

their behaviors The case of this study was a group of students in a particular

university, who wrote service-learning reflective journals taking place under

the guidance of instructors The goals of this study were to investigate 1) the

impact of reflective teaching journal writing instruction on students’ writing

performance; 2) the factors affect reflection writing skills, and 3) the

relationship between their writing performance and depth of reflection It

required the researcher to develop an in-depth understanding of the case by

collecting multiple forms of data (e.g writing scores, depth of reflection and

interview responses)

Figure 2: A diagram of variables in this study

Reflective journal writing

instruction

Frequency of reflective journal writing

Writing performance Depth of reflection

As showed in Figure 2 (on page 26), writing scores and the depth of

reflection that were the main quantitative database were not enough to answer

the research problems adequately To achieve this, the researcher used the most

popular form of mixed methods design in educational research, i.e an

explanatory sequential design (also called a two-phase model; Creswell and

Plano Clark, 2011; as cited in Creswell, 2012; see Figure 3, p 27) The

researcher would “obtain quantitative results from a population in the first

phase, and then elaborate these findings through an in-depth qualitative

exploration in the second phase” (as cited in Creswell, 2012, p.543)

Figure 3: A diagram of an explanatory sequential mixed methods

design (Source: Creswell, 2012, p.541)

In this study, the researcher first conducted quantitative analyses of

independent and dependent variables, as well as the intervening variable and

make questions for the second phase Afterwards, the author classified and

identified individuals based on different frequency of reflective journal writing

as the intervening variable, and then employed this classification for

determining candidates of the qualitative data collection using questionnaire In

other words, their perceptions of reflective journal writing were collected and

explained in more detail the findings from their writing scores and depth or

reflection This design was appropriate and preferable since it provided a

comprehensive picture of reflective teaching journal practice in a particular

university The quantitative data phase gathered data from participants and

generalize results, while the qualitative one presented an in-depth exploration

of a few individuals (Creswell, 2012)

Quantitative

Data Collection

and Analysis

Qualitative DataCollection andAnalysisFollow up

3.2 Context of the study

The context of this study was the Faculty of Foreign Languages of TDMU(henceforth ‘the Faculty’), established in 2010 The academic curriculum of theFaculty is oriented towards applied research closely linked to the professionalpractice of teaching method innovation according to the CDIO initiative One

of the Faculty’s training programs was English language teacher education, inwhich the students who desire to be English teachers after graduation.Generally, they learn two courses of English teaching methods and take aninternship in the last year at university

With the philosophy of education - “effective learning through effectivecommunication”, the Faculty concentrates on completing the construction ofEFL training programs with human value development A a result, the Facultyhas recently integrated service-learning into an internship course to allowstudents to gain real teaching experience working with children fromlow-income families

3.2.1 Service-learning course

Service-learning was a new course, implemented because of the need togive students a holistic approach to language teaching and a form ofexperiential learning that combines reflective thoughts ans social actions(Nguyen, H T., 2016) Offered initially in the 2016-2017 academic year, theservice-learning course was considered an internship course (with 3 credits).This course mainly based on the enthusiasm and volunteer spirit of the students,who desired to teach English to a number of poor and disadvantaged children

in Thu Dau Mot city (namely Phu Loi, Phu Hoa, Phu My, Phu Tan, Phu Tho,Tan An, Hiep Thanh, Chanh My, Dinh Hoa and Hoa Phu wards)

According to Ngoc Nhu (2016), this course is considered as potentiallyeffective experiential learning course It provides student teachers with greater

autonomy and creativity in teaching, as well as with an opportunity to enhance

their English language skills

Reflective teaching journal writing

Figure 4: The process of the service-learning course (with 3 credits) at

the Faculty of Foreign Languages of TDMU in 2016

As presented in Figure 4, at the beginning of the course, the service

students had one classroom-based preparation day and three training days

under the skilful guidance of the Student Union Leader, also being the lecturer

of the Faculty The classroom-based preparation day was a session on the

introduction of service-learning course, its requirement, and the benefits it will

bring to students and the community Students were provided all necessary

information about the implementation plan, service-learning supervisors and

other voluntary teachers During the three hands-on training days (lasting 2-3

hours per day), students learned and explored English teaching techniques for

children, classroom management, tips on using the textbook entitled Super

Kids Afterwards, they were equipped with knowledge of child psychology (e.g

how to curb obstinate children’s behaviors, how to control anger when dealing

with stubborn kids) Finally, they worked in teams and were wholly responsible

for teaching English to these children since then At the end of the course, they

were asked to submit a final reflective report as a summary of their overall

3.2.2 Reflection writing activities

Each servicing student had never been exposed to field teaching experiencebefore It also was their first experience to face students in low-income families.Reflection is significantly vital for servicing students to reflect on the life ofpoor children to adjust their stances (as cited in Nguyen, H T & Nguyen, K.H., 2016; Nguyen, H T., 2016)

In addition, during the process of servicing as English teachers, studentswere given freedom and choice in reflection through personal journals written

in English The main reason for choosing journal writing as the main reflectionpractice activity was that it is “easy to assign and provides a way for students toexpress about the service experience throughout the semester” (as cited inBringle & Hatcher, 1999, p.115) Furthermore, reflective teaching journalswere announced to be a means of encouraging participants to reflect on theirevents or experiences, as well as to communicate their feelings about thecommunity

Some guiding questions were provided as follows

1 Did the project help you perceive your strengths and weaknesses?

2 What were the challenges you met in your teaching?

3 How did you handle classroom situations?

4 What kinds of social interaction skills do you think you have gained or improved?

5 What values do you think you have created in teaching the disadvantaged children?

Furthermore, regarding the assessment of the products of reflection, Roux

et al (2012) claimed that:

We believe that written reflections should be evaluated only whencertain conditions have been met for student teachers Theseconditions include: at least an upper intermediate level of proficiency