The CATESOL Journal

In this pilot study, participating Hispanic and Southeast Asian freshmen took a writing-intensive history survey course with a weekly analytic journal task. The study examined the helpfulness of the weekly journal and the scaffolding steps provided by the professor and teaching assistants, by peers in their learning community, and by out-of-class tutors. Students completed a survey about their perceptions related to the analytic journal task, their self-assessment of their reading comprehension, their views about the helpfulness of the social learning opportunities offered from peers in the course and from tutors, and the time they spent on the journal task. The survey was administered early and late in the semester. The findings show that when students wrote every week in response to primary sources, they got regular practice in reading, critical thinking, and writing. This study suggests that regular reading practice along with scaffolding by a university history professor, while helpful in certain ways, does not seem to be sufficient to help the participating students overcome challenges with reading comprehension and vocabulary of assigned history texts. This pilot study offers practical ideas for instructors of college or university ESL, for those assigning reading and writing journals, and for tutoring center tutors and coordinators.