Junior High School Learners’ Ability to Reflect in the Process of Keeping a Diary in a Foreign Language

Abstract

Teaching English at a junior high school revolves to a great extent around preparing pupils for the final exams. It is speculated that considerable attention that is paid to effective exam preparation may lead to a backwash effect. A specific closed form of the exam which mainly consists in indicating a correct answer may reduce the role of a foreign language to a set of expressions and rules necessary to pass a test because it does not leave too much space for creativity. Therefore, a need arises to motivate learners to use the language as a means of genuine communication and to reflect on this process. As a response to this need, a research was designed in order to facilitate creative and reflective foreign language writing at the stage of junior high school education. In the study, the participants were asked to keep diaries in English for a period of 3 months and use their native language to reflect on this process. The results show what themes were most frequently described by the learners, what was the nature and quality of their reflection in diaries written in English and to what extent they were able to reflect on experience of diary keeping.