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LLT JOURN AL VOL. 14 NO. 1 ISSN 14107201
Using Journal Writing with Young English Language Lear ners
Yuseva Ar iyani Iswandari Sanata Dharma University
Abstract
Goodma n (1996) states that reading is a dynamic an d constructive process of making sense from print. No two readers will ever produce the same meaning f or a given text and the way they respond to the reading would be various. There are many types of reading activities; one of them is read aloud that is going to be discussed in this paper. According to justice and Pu llen (2003), read aloud activity is one powerful means to be taken into considera tion in aSSisting th e develop ment of ch ildren's emergent literacy. Further,jim Trelease (th e author of "The New Rea d-Aloud Handbook) argues that read aloud establishes goo d connection with j ournal writing as a response to it. Th at is why the writer uses response journal writing to make connection with read alo ud activity. The objective ofthis paper is to analyze how children create j ournal writing as a response to read aloud activity. The writer collected data by conducting observation and going through a series of read alou d activity with a bilingual In do nesian child, nam ed Piay. Finally, after analyzing the data and hig hlig hting th e theory oftextu a I con nections and emergent literacy de velopment, the writer would like to present three findings on how Piay creates her jou rn al writing as a response to read aloud activity: (1) by developing the alphabet writing, (2) by making in tertextual as well as intratextual con nections, and (3) by making autobiographica l connections to ward the story.
Keywords: read alQud activity, response j ourn al writing, young English language learners
A. INTRODUCTION
The idea of choosing this topic comes from the writer's personal concern on children's literacy developmen t in her home country, Indonesia. Based on the writer's experience, many pare n ts in the place where she grew up often have assumption that th eir children are ready to be exposed with readi ng and writing when they first enter elementary school. So, when children open a book and "read' it or write somethi ng in a piece of paper after being read a story, parents will not consider it as a real acti on of reading and writing. Writing, in their perception, should be in the form of letters and how those letters are sequenced into words and sentences. So, when children draw a line and letterlike, parents seldom respond to it. This is what Peregoy describes in Reading Readiness Perspective. According to this perspective,
"ch ildren will be developmentally ready to read when they reach a mental age of 6.6 years " (Peregoy & Owen, 2005, p.S). That is also one of the reasons why home literacy is not introduced and emnhasized as early as possible.
Using Journal Writin g with You ng English Language Le arners
and other environmental pri n ts beco me the media of child re n's reading. At home, pare nts also read a lot of story books. Childre n are encouraged to respond and comment on the sto ry more t ha n merely doing com prehen s ion question activity. Besides, any for ms of children's writing products a re also val ued, including a ve ry rough drawing, wavy lines, letterlike, and other forms of writing. The go od environm en t of literacy develop me nt, as a result, provides good effects on cpildren 's academic readin ess and perform ance.
Reali zing its im portance, the w r ite r is encouraged to a nalyze a good activity to help children to deve lop their literacy as Go od m an (1 99 6) arg ues that introductio n to li teracy must be meaningful. Many studies have shown that re a d aloud activity to ch ild ren has been en couraged both at home and at schools for many years since it is a hi ghly recomme nde d activ ity to assi st childre n's la nguage and literacy (Adams, 1990). Ln li ne wi th the importance explain ed, the writer fo rmulates one problem in this study, "How do childre n create t hei r jou rna l writing as a re spo nse to read alou d activity?"
B. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In ord e r to p rovide good perspe ctives of theories t hat will support this paper, the writer w ould like t o review s ome rela ted literatures w hich consist of thre e key top ics: (1) Read alo ud activity, (2) Res ponse jou rnal writing, an d (3) Young Englis h langu age learners.
1. Read Alo ud Activity
Accordin g to Morrow, Ra nd, and Sm ith (1995), rea d a lo ud activity is "th e single most important activity for bUilding the knowledge required for eventual success in reading" (p.23). It is a n activity where the adults, parents, or teache rs read a book for ch il d r en. Besides read in g, during the activity, the reader also help s the children to participate actively by as ki ng questions, respond in g to the story o r p ictures in the story, and ma king connection w ith the personal expe rie nce.
Pe regoy and Owen add the definition by ma king connection with writing. They state tha t listening to read aloud by adults and/or peer s introduces ch il dren to the conventions of w ritten English (2 005: 408). It goes in line wi th Fountas & Pin nell (1996) who share similar thought of the connection of read alou d and written language:
Reading aloud is the foundation ofthe early literacy fra mework. By being immersed in a variety of well-chosen texts children not only learn to love stories and reading but they also learn about written language. Children assimilate a sense of structure of written langu age and can produce it in a way that sounds like reading and app roximates text. It allows the teacher to demonstrate ways
to make person al connections and comparisons with books that children use fo r in teractions in literature circles and fo rm s a foundation for other reading an d writing activities.
Tal king abo ut the benefits of read aloud, the writer w ill underline some good points from Morrow and Smith (1990). They state that re a d al o ud can benefit children in: (1 ) Buil ding vocabulary, (2) developing oral la ngu age, (3) developing written language, (4) developi n g social sknI, (5) developing p ho n ological skill, (6) being able to make connections betwee n the text and their ow n life expe rie n ce, (7) Being able to think cr itically. In a d ditio n, Trelease (2001) states th e impo r ta nce of read aloud to children. Some of them can b e noted as follows :
a. Read a lo u d a ctivity helps children to know a n d va lue books. When they can value books, th ey will be motivated to read their own books later on.
b.
Read aloud helps children develop their vocabular y since it guides them to make co n ne ction and sense of what they hear and see.c. Read aloud gives children opportunity to explore places, people, and events with their imagination.
L rSSN 14107201 d. Rea d alo Ll d inlroduces the book
la nguage w hich is, most of the time, differe nt from the daily language they use every day.
e.
Read aloud helps children develop their written knowled ge as it facili tates them to have w ri tten respo ns e t o what they hav e been read.2. Response Journal Writing
Journal, in this study, refers to a form of notebook or collection of w riti ng in which daily writing is recorded in order to clarifY the writer's th ought. According to Mad eline Kovarik (200 6, p .1 79), there are five effe ctive types of journals for respondin gthe literat ure: (1) diary, wh ich facilitates hildren to have personal reaction and it is usu ally secret, (2) response journal writing, wh ich allows children to refl ect and react to w hat they have read, (3) dialogue journal, which allows children to com municate their thought to the teacher, parents, adults, an d/ or pe er then the others w ill respond, (4) double entry journal, which facilitates child re n to write th e idea of a text on the half page and reaction on the other half page, an d (5) learning log, which allows chil d ren to record what they have learned th roughout the story. Of those five types, the one w hich is the most suitable to be the foll ow up of read aloud is response journal writ ing.
As it has been stated before that re sponse journal writing has connecti on with read alo ud in the way it fac ilitates children to respond to what they have listened fro m the reading in the form of writing. N oe & Jo hnson (1999) state that re sponse journ al wr iting encourage children to think critically toward the books being read and to relate t he story to their prior knowledge and experience. In relation with making con n ection with the children's personal experience, Sm olki n & Donovan (2001a) ci te d by Burgess &
Tracey (2006, p.7) m en 'on that the re are a number of ways for ch il dren to make te, tual connectIOns as a respo nse to read alo ud. The first one is intertextual con nectio ns which
re fer to connections that are made fro m one text to another text. Second, intratextual co nnecti ons t hat re fer to connections made wi thin the same text (Panta leo, 2004). Th e last is autobiograp hical connections that refer to connectio ns that relate th e text to li fe and life to text.
The above types of connectio ns will be considered in analyz ing how childre n create respo nse journal writing after read aloud activity in this paper. Besid es, the writer will refer to Peregoy and Owen's concept in viewi ng how children in young age create journal wri ting. They state that children who are in the emergent literacy per iod wi ll develop th eir writing through some categ ories, n amely: (1) writing via drawin g, (2). Writing via scribbli ng, (3). Writing via lette rlike forms, (4). Writing via reproduc ing welllearned unit or lette r strings, (5 ) letter via inve nted spell ing, and (6) writing via conventio nal spelli ng. In the ea rly d evelo pment th ey will mostly d velop the al phabet writi ng through drawi ng, scribblin g, and letterlike form s (200 5, p.169). It is indeed amaz ing to know how ch ildren of young age try to make sense of th eir response toward the sto ry being read to them .
3. Young English Language Learners
Using Journa l Writi ng with Young English Language Learners
spoke a lan guage other than Engli sh at ho me (Crawford, 200 1). This, th erefore, increases the number of limited Englis hp rofici ent students at schools. Th ere fore , introduci ng literacy both reading a nd writing sh ould be emphasized and should be in a me aningful way so t hat th ey can rea lly develo p it well.
C. METHODOLOGY
a. Subject
Th e subj ect is Piay, a 4yea rol d bilingua l chil d since her first language is Indo nesian a nd her second la nguage is English. Sh e was born in Illino is and has been living in t he U.S. sin ce then . In h e r daily commun ica t ion, sh e uses b oth Englis h a nd Indo nes ian to talk to her com m unity. She ofte n speaks Ind onesia n only to he r mothe r' s frien ds becaus e her moth er is Indo n esia n. The only tim e she s p ea ks English is w hen s he is with her fathe r a nd her fr iends at sch ool. The reason the writer chooses her departs from h er a dmiration to t his gi rl's abili ty to speak bot h la nguages well. Besides, th e writer fou nd out that she likes to rea d many story books, both Indo nes ia n stories a nd the English o nes. That is w hy the w riter wa nts to an a lyze h ow Piay w ill react an d create response to the read a lou d in th e form of writi ng.
Based on t he early observati on, th e writer notices t h at Piay h as stro ng fa m ily's literacy behavio rs. Accord ing to Peregoy (200 5:179) , family lite racy's behavio rs are activitie s do ne by home family to suppo rt t he deve lopment of ch ildren's literacy. At h ome, Piay an d he r mother always have read ing aloud t ime b e fo re going to bed. Besid es, she is provided with many good English story books an d En glish movies to watch.
b. Data Collection
To collect the da ta, two step s were done. First, the w riter int erviewed Piay's paren ts to kn ow her lite racy a n d cul tu re
background. Se cond, the writer, then, visited her 10 tim es and w ent through some rea d aloud a ctivity and res ponse journal writing. Of those 10 t im es, t he writer could not start working with Piay for the first five meetings because she di d not want to have read aloud activity wit h the writer. So, the writer decided to build a good relation with her first on those meetings. The writer b egan to work with her on the last five m eetin gs.
In working on the read aloud activity with th e subject, th e w riter used five children story books con sisting of three English story b oo ks and two In don esian story books. The title s ofthe story books are: 1. Unhei (English), 2. Snow White (En glis h), 3. Liong and Pau Pa u (E nglish), 4. 5i Ra kus (IndoneSian), and 5. Per p ustakaanku (In donesian)
D. RESULT AND DISCUSSIO N
In th is se ction, the writer would li ke to d iscuss the answe r of the formulated proble m "How do childre n create th eir jo u rnal writing as a respons e to read alo ud activity?" Based on the observation and analysis of her recorded response journal writing after rea d aloud activity, the writer p resents th e fin djng w h ich is related to how the subject create s her response journal writing after r ead alou d act iv ity. The subject creates h er r espo n se journal writing through some ways ment io ned by Peregoy, Smolkin and Donovan, and Pantaleo:
a.
By deve lop in g the alphabet writing th rough d rawing, scribbling, and letter-like fo r ms (Pe regoy & Owen, 2005, pp. 168169).In her firs t response journal writing after b ein g rea d to the story of Unh ei,
s he d rew an d co mbined some lines in w hich accordin g to her those combined lin es were Chinese characters which meant "I the king". She tried to write Ch in ese chara cters because the story w as a bout a chinese girl n a med Un hei. Th erefore, it is clear that she
LLT JOUR NAL VOL. 14 NO.1 ISSN 14107201
tries to develop h r alpha bet writi ng letterlike forms as it is in her "Chinese by draw ing s ome pictures, creati ng character", a nd scrib bl ing forms.
pj ct ure 1. Piay 's Chi nese characters "I the ki ng"
b. By making in tr textual as well a intertextual co nnections
As it is sta ted by Smolkin and Donovan (2001), intratextual connections are con nections made within the same text and/or sto ry. She makes intratext ual connectio ns in the fourt h story of Snow White. In her response journal, first, she drew Snow Wh ite picture by looking at the pict ure in the story. After that she wrote lette rlike form "snow white cry she sad" because sh e saw in the book th at Sno w White did not smile. She shows her understanding of the rea di ng al oud and tries to ma ke connection between the story an d her resp ons e journal. Besides, she also makes intertextual connection in which she tries to make connection from one text and/ or story to another
.f
text and/or story. Th is happened when she wrote her response journ al to resp ond to the fifth rea ding. In the fifth reading th e w r iter read an Indonesian story Perp usta kaan ku. In one of th e pictu res , th ere was a picture of a li on in front of the li brary. After looking at that picture, she directly took her bo ok an d wrote "Li ong" severa l times in scribble writing for m. Scri bble writing form is "wavy lines tha t do not look like letters,
but look li ke w riting" (Peregoy & Owen, 200 5, p. 169). It is clear that sh e makes connection of the story to th e previous story "Liong and Pau Pau" in the thi r d read aloud activity. Instea d of writing "lion", she wrote "Liong" beca use in the story of "Liang and Pau Pau" the lion's name was Lio ng.
Pi cture 2. Third b oo k being read "Lia ng an d Pau Pau" and one page in
Using Journal Writing with Young English Language Learners
c.
By making a u tobio gra phic a l co nnections toward the storyAccording to Pantaleo (2004), auto biograp hical connection s are con necti o ns that relate the text and/ or the story to one's personal life an d per so nal life to text and/or sto ry. This onnectio n appeared in the re spons e of the story of"Unh ei". In her res ponse, she mentioned th at her "Chinese character" meant "I the. ki ng". The reason why she menti oned "kin g" was becaus e according to her "kin g" was identical with lion (from t he movi e "Ki ng of the Jungle") an d lion was brave an d great. She said t hat she was great becaus e she did no t as k her mo ther to cha nge h er name into American's na me as other nonnative studen ts in he r scho ols did. This personal connection proves t he writer wha t Goo dman has believed that personal con nect ion to th e text and/ or story helps children make m ea ni ng.
E. CONCLUSION
Clearly from the case of Piay, the w riter co ul d s ee that journal writin g b ecomes a good response media toward "read aloud" activity because it can fos ter children to devel op th eir w r iting. After they are read to a story, they try to re spond it in the form of journal writing. It is very interesting to know th e fact t hat ch il dre n w hom pare nts or teach e rs consider them in th e early stage of writing deve lopment can really make good connection between the story and what they w rite in journal w riting. How ever, as Justice & Pullen (2003) state that pa rents, adults, or teachers need to give t he time that the childre n need so t hat they can really explore and express their response toward "read aloud" activity thro ugh journal writing better.
Anoth er good poi nt to co ns ider is related to how parents or teache rs ch oose good a nd app rop ri ate bo oks. In order to best
70
implement read aloud activity, it is suggested that parents or teachers choose books that a r e suitable with the children's age and interest. Besides, parents or teachers are also encouraged to choose books that can facilitate children to th ink critically and construct meaning making. Finally, books that provide some good mo ral values to children are also recommend ed.
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