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How Diary Writing or Journaling Can Improve Your English

Updated: Jul 21

1. Improve Your Spoken English With A Diary / Journaling


Learning English takes a lot of practice, time and effort to be better.


Ideally you should be practising everyday, at least about 15 minutes.


Maybe review your grammar, learn some new vocabulary or perhaps do your homework.


Doing things like watching English language films on Netflix, Apple TV+ or reading English subtitles of a foreign language movie or listening to songs do help too.

Journaling to improve your English.
Write down your daily thoughts & experiences in English.


Vocabulary Check!

journal (noun) = a daily record of personal experiences, thoughts, feelings

journal (verb). = write in a journal or diary​

journaling (gerund)


English Learning TIP!

When you learn a new word, take note of the different parts of speech it has.

Always learn a new word in context. And note down the example sentence.









2. Diary Writing to Improve Your English


Write in your journal or diary about your daily experiences or thoughts and feelings in English!


This is a good practice & daily routine for you if you don't get the chance to use English in your everyday life.


E.g. Tell the journal about your day at work, at home or anything that happened with your senses:

Record your thoughts, experiences & feelings in English daily.
Achieve personal growth as an English language Learner .

What you:

- see,

- hear,

- feel,

- taste

- smell.




You get to describe:

- the scene,

- your feelings,

- the lunch you had in the park etc.


Check out our English Learning Diaries series:




3. Why Make Journaling in English a Daily Practice


Two things are happening here. When you journal in English your are using the language to review & practise what you already know and have learnt:


- grammar

- topic vocabulary,

- adjectives,

- common expressions, phrases

- different tenses

- etc.

It's like having a conversation with your journal.


So helpful if you don't get much chance to chat with another English speaker for practice. Or you get to use English only during lessons. That's not enough practice.



Do not worry about making Grammar or Vocabulary mistakes.

Keep up this habit to help you become more confident .
Learn, Practise & Review your English as regularly as you can. Make it a daily habit to write in your journal.

Write quickly as the thought or words come to you.


Pretend like you're having a conversation.


In real life you don't have a chance to think that long to say your sentence.



Write in your native language if you can't think of the English word for it.


Don't break the flow. Carry on writing your sentences...



4. How Daily Journaling Improves Personal Growth


Daily journaling can help you in your personal growth in some of the following ways :

- Reach More Goals

- Be More Productive

- Track Your Progress

- Work Through Problems

- Expand Self-Awareness

- Improve Focus

- Reduce Stress and Anxiety

- Improve Your Spoken English


Grammar Check!

Note the above sentences are in the Imperative Form. We use the Imperative to give instructions etc.




5. Vocabulary List - Words Related to Journaling For Self-Growth

WORDS/ PART of SPEECH / MEANING​

1. analyse (v) = study something in detail to understand more

2. issues (n) = problems

3. perspective (n) = thought

4. address (v)​ = to deal with it

5. figure (v) = think

6. boost (v) = improve

7. self-aware(adj)​self-awareness (n) =to know & understand yourself very well

8. aware (adj) ​ = know that something exists

9. *unaware (adj) = ​opposite meaning of aware



Tip#1 Journal to set and reach your goals.


To better yourself, you need to know exactly what it is that you need to change.


Journaling lets you identify what changes you need to make and set goals to make that change happen.


Make your goals small and achievable. Let's say your goal is to be more

Small goals motivate you to bigger ones - finishing line.
Make small goals

confident.


Then, greeting a neighbour you don't know but regularly share the lift with in English is definitely something achievable.



Tip!

Smaller goals will motivate you to keep working towards the bigger ones.



Tip#2 Journaling regularly will make you more productive


Studies show that people who journal experience a 25% increase in productivity than those who don’t.


When you write things down, you see clearly what you need to do or prioritise.


Your goals remain clear and this ramps up your motivation.


A check list to monitor your tasks.
To do lists


Tip!

Write to-do lists. As you tick off the things on your list, it motivates you to tick off the other tasks.






Tip#3 Journaling makes it easy to see your progress


Whatever you are looking to change you can track your progress.


As you continue to journal you'll get to see the changes and how far you've come.


Seeing your progress in your journal helps keep you motivated and stay on track.


Tip!

As your English gradually improve you'll be able to look back and spot the grammar or vocabulary mistakes you've made on your learning journey.




Tip#4 Getting the negative thoughts out of your head.

Journal your negative thoughts.
Write down your thoughts.

Write down your thoughts in a journal helps to get them out of your mind.


It also helps you to better analyse them.


Our negative thoughts often sound much worse in our head than when written down.



Tip!

Clear your thoughts and mind by writing them down into your diary / journal.







Tip#5 Journaling is a great tool that can help you work through problems


We all go through problems at some time in our lives.


When you write down your problems, you have an opportunity to see them clearly.


You can then analyse all the things that you could do to overcome the problem.


If a friend came to you with the same issues, what would you tell them?


Looking at it from a different perspective can help you identify solutions.



Learning Tip!

Write sentences and practise using the verbs, adjectives or expressions you're learning or already know.




Tip#6 To better yourself, you are going to need to be self-aware.

Keep practising to improve your English.
Don't worry about making mistakes.

With self-awareness, it allows us to better understand our thoughts and actions.


Keeping a journal can help us to develop a stronger sense of self-awareness.


You will have a written record of your thoughts and feelings. This will allow you to analyse patterns of behaviour.


By becoming more self-aware, it enables you to change your habits.


This is key to personal growth.



Tip#7 As you write in your journal daily, your focus will improve.


You will get a clear idea of the things you need to do to better yourself.


Having your goals right there in front of you helps you to constantly focus on what it is that needs to be done.



You will be more focused in all areas of your life when you journal daily.


Give it a go and see just how much more focused and determined you will be to change your life.



Now you have a good idea how diary writing or journaling can help improve your English and experience personal growth, why not give it a try?




We hope you find this post useful in helping you in your English learning journey.



Remember to check out the related posts on more journaling tips below.



Thanks so much for reading & Happy Learning.


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