The CATESOL Journal

Teachers of students from sociocultural backgrounds different from their own must, on the one hand, recognize sociocultural influences on their students and, on the other, remember that students are also individuals. This article examines the role of individual differences in the journal writing of adult ESL students. The study was conducted in an extended education ESL writing class team-taught for two 10-week semesters at a large urban university. The primary writing activity of the class was personal journal writing requiring description and examination of the writers’ past experiences. Case studies were conducted of nine students from six countries. Data for the study consisted of student questionnaires, fieldnotes, and audiotapes of classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and teacher and student journal writing. After describing the conventions of the genre and the backgrounds of the nine subjects and summarizing students’ responses to the journal writing, the article focuses on influences on those responses. The findings illuminate the roles of past writing experiences, personality, and cultural background in influencing students’ responses to classroom writing.