Promoting Student-Teacher Interaction via E-Dialogue Journal Writing

The aim of the study is to examine the role of e–dialogue journal writing in promoting student–teacher interaction. The study focuses on whether a) e–dialogue journal writing is a viable medium to foster closer student–teacher relationship, b) students are more personal and expressive in their use of the language. The study was conducted at a teacher training college in Sabah. The samples selected were three teacher trainees majoring in Teaching of English as a Second Language who were at different stages in their teacher–training programme. A total of 23 journal entries were collected over a period of three months. These journal entries were then examined and scrutinized. Besides that, a semi–structured interview was also administered to complement the journal entries. The findings of the study show that the student teachers were very informal when interacting with their teachers through the e–dialogue journal. The informal interaction between the students and teacher gave students the confidence to be more personal and expressive in their language use in sharing both academic and personal problems with the teacher