Self-expressions, socialization and learning in dialogue journals: Features of beginner writers in second language writing

Collaborative learning involves learners working together as a group in maximizing their learning experience and in developing the learners ’ sense of belonging to the group. This paper discusses the features of a collaborative writing activity, the dialogue journal, that exist during a writing activity. The features were discussed based on literature and a case study on a group of second-year ESL learners of Universiti Teknologi MARA Perlis, Malaysia. The selections of the students ’ dialogue journal writing were found to display features of the learners ’ self-expressions, learning and interactions among their classmates and teacher