Journaling in English as a foreign language
Need inspiration for starting your English journaling journey?
Scroll down to download my free PDF 30 Days of Journaling Prompts - Prompts to practise your English.
Have you ever considered using journaling as a tool for developing your written English? Some of my students have found journaling to be a powerful and enjoyable method for improving their English language skills, as it allows them to practice writing, reading, and vocabulary in an autonomous, personal and meaningful way.
There are no rules. You get to choose what you write about, which means that you’re using English language that is useful to you. You’ll be exploring vocabulary and expressions related to your interests and that is relevant to your life. This freedom makes the whole process of writing in English a lot more engaging and enjoyable. Plus, you're not tied to any set curriculum or lesson plan, so you can explore the language in a way that feels natural to you.
Whether you are a beginner or an advanced learner, introducing journaling to your English learning can help you to improve your English in a variety of ways, so let’s look at some of the benefits:
Practice: Journaling allows you to practice writing in the foreign language, which can help you improve your grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure.
Reflection: Keeping a journal allows you to reflect on your language learning progress, which can help you identify areas that need more attention and aid in goal setting.
Immersion: Using the foreign language as the primary language when journaling forces you to think and express yourself in the target language, which can help increase your fluency and comprehension.
Reading and listening comprehension: Journaling allows you to include articles, podcasts, or videos in your entries and reflect on them, which can help to increase your reading and listening comprehension.
Personal and creative expression: Journaling is a personal and creative activity that allows you to express your thoughts, feelings, and ideas in a way that is not constrained by the formal structure of a classroom or language course.
Confidence building: Journaling in English can help you build confidence in your ability to communicate in the language.
‘Morning Pages’ for learning English.
The ‘Morning Pages’ journaling technique was introduced by writer Julia Cameron, in her 1992 book The Artist’s Way, as a tool for cultivating creativity on a daily basis. While you may not think of yourself as being particularly creative or artistic, this daily habit can still be adopted by English language learners to practice your writing without worrying about making mistakes or being judged.
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
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The idea behind Morning Pages is to write three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing first thing in the morning. This writing doesn't have to be coherent or make sense, it is meant to be a way to clear your mind and get your creative juices flowing. Adapted for somebody learning English as a foreign language you could aim to write a paragraph, or a page in your notebook concentrating not on perfection, but on discovery and expression. If you don’t have time in the morning you could set yourself the habit of writing an ‘Evening Sentence’ or a ‘Lunchtime list.’ It’s completely up to you. Most importantly you will be developing a daily English habit.
Journaling Prompts free download.
Faced with a blank page, it’s easy to feel slightly lost and to not know where to start, so if you’re lacking inspiration download my free pdf 30 Days of Journaling Prompts - Prompts to practise your English.
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30 Days of English Journaling Prompts.