THE CONSTRUCTION OF FRAME IN GROUP DIALOGUE JOURNALS: OPPORTUNITIES TO SHAPE CONTEXT

Abstract

This paper presents a qualitative study of the use of group dialogue journals in a first-year composition course for nonnative speakers of English. Students approach the journals with different, sometimes competing, interpretations of the discourse event. With every successive entry in the group journal, students engage in a process of negotiating their various interpretations, or frames. The study examines the mechanisms by which this social construction of frame takes place and sheds light on the ways students can determine their own purposes for writing.