Journal Writing: A Means of Professional Development in ESL Classroom at Undergraduate Level

Abstract

The duty of the Teacher of English is not merely teaching English texts but he/she should help the students in enhancing various other skills like communicative, analytical, logical and soft skills. To compete with the growing demands on the English teachers, timely orientation towards professionalism is of dire importance. For over three decades now, it has been found that methodology, training and concept alone will not make a teacher competent enough to train the students at college level to meet the students’ requirements. In this fast changing global scenario, no other processes excepting reflective practice, which is highly exploratory is the best and could serve the ever growing needs of the English language learners and teachers by integrating both theory and practice. This paper focuses on the potential of journal writing as a reflective professional development tool, which is purely a personal low-tech way of incorporating reflective practice in day-to-day classroom teaching by individual teachers. My attempt through this paper is to advertise the use of journal writing not only to the experienced but also to the novice teacher to make his/her class effective.