Journaling For Language Learning: Transform Your Progress By Writing

A reader named Andrew recently wrote in with an interesting question. He's from the UK, currently learning Lao because he works there and loves the people, culture and script.

His question was simple: what are the benefits of daily journaling in his target language and reviewing it with his teacher? His priority is speaking, but he also finds writing very enjoyable.

This is a great question, and I think journaling for language learning is one of the most underrated practices out there. Let me explain why.

If you prefer listening to reading, hit play on the podcast version of this post below. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this article:

If You Enjoy It, You Should Probably Do It

First, a few initial thoughts on journaling for language learning.

If you find any activity enjoyable that feels like a productive language learning practice – and I'm not talking about YouTube or Netflix here, but something like writing in a foreign language – that should be one of the key indicators of how you should spend your time.

People don't do enough of what they enjoy when learning languages. It's extremely important, very motivating, and makes things fun. Most importantly, it makes it more likely you're going to continue doing what you're doing.

So I could just stop there. Andrew, if you find writing enjoyable, then do it. That's exactly what I think.

But I won't stop there, because journaling for language learning isn't just enjoyable – it's also very effective.

Why I Journal Every Day

Let me say first that I write daily. I journal every day, though I actually do it in English because my daily journaling is about organising my thoughts.

I have so many ideas and thoughts flying around my head that I can't shut them up sometimes. I actually listen to podcasts to fall asleep often because if I just lie in bed, my mind stays racing until four o'clock in the morning.

So I have to distract myself from all my various thoughts – podcasts are actually really helpful for that. I'll put on some fairly calm, not particularly interesting podcast, and that helps me get to sleep.

But here's what I've discovered: one of the strongest causes of stress is unresolved thoughts and unresolved ideas.

This is different for everybody, but I've always found that one of the things that triggers stress or anxiety is having thoughts, ideas, things I want to do, issues in my life or work that are unresolved. It creates all these open loops in your brain.

The single best way to de-stress, to get your thoughts organised, to get a handle on what's going on in your life is actually to sit down and write. It forces you to organise your ideas.

I have a lovely leather-bound notebook that I got from Tokyu Hands in Japan. It's refillable, so you've got a lovely leather outside and then you can insert these beautiful off-white packs of nice big plain paper.

I just freeform, stream of consciousness, start writing. I can quite easily sit down of a morning and spend an hour just writing. I don't structure it – I just write whatever's coming out of my mind.

That process of writing is so helpful in terms of clarifying things and organising my thoughts. To be clear, I don't do it for an hour every morning because an hour in the morning is very valuable to me.

But I could very easily spend that time journaling because it's what gets my thoughts out of my head and onto paper.

All of this is to say that journaling is just a fantastic thing to do anyway.

5 Benefits Of Journaling In A Foreign Language

Now, if you're journaling in a foreign language, what happens?

Well, you slow down for a start. You're going to be writing a lot slower, and that's just something you have to deal with. You're also not going to be able to express yourself in writing the way that you want, so it's going to be an ongoing compromise.

You'll have to be happy living with the knowledge that the stuff you're writing is probably a dog's dinner.

But that's not the point.

1. Writing Helps You Review And Consolidate Learning

First and most importantly, journaling for language learning helps you review and consolidate the things you've been learning recently.

However you study, when it comes to writing, it gives you the opportunity to look back through what you've been learning and actually use that stuff.

It's not easy to be speaking all the time, right? But the great thing about writing is it gives you time to think, to stop and reflect. You can go back and search for a word, look over your grammar notes, wherever it may be. Writing is a great enabler of that.

So it helps you strengthen your memory, your understanding and your learning in general. It's a great way just to recap and consolidate.

2. Writing Helps You Experiment With Grammar

The next benefit is that journaling helps you experiment with grammar and pose questions to yourself.

When it comes to grammar, sentence structure and word order, people approach this by thinking: how do I learn it the right way? How do I learn correct grammar?

But it doesn't work like that.

The process of getting to correct grammar in a language is an ongoing process of trial and error – experimenting, getting things wrong, screwing things up, getting feedback, learning, trying again.

It's an iterative process of just trying stuff out. Eventually you gradually refine your understanding and usage of grammar to the point where it becomes second nature.

It's a bit like those ice sculptors who chisel away around the edges of a block of ice. You've got no idea what they're doing, but they patiently work away, and eventually after a very long time, the sculpture emerges from the ice. This is what it's like to learn grammar.

By writing, you're engaging in the thought process. You're engaging in the task of thinking about grammar.

• What is this grammar?
• How does it work?
• What's correct?
• Where is the truth?

You're just trying your best and gradually moving towards a place of really internalising and understanding that grammar.

It's this interactive process of questioning and answering that writing is good for.

3. Discovering New Vocabulary Through Writing

Writing also throws up new vocabulary that you'll have to look up.

You'll find yourself writing something like “yesterday I went to the shop and I thought…” and then realise: oh, what's that word? I don't know that word. So you have to look it up.

It's a great way to learn new vocabulary naturally, driven by your own need to express yourself.

4. What Is Interlanguage And Why Does It Matter?

Writing also exposes what's known as interlanguage. What's interlanguage? It's your current state of learning.

Imagine there's stuff in the language that you already know well, and then the stuff that you don't know yet. Everything in between – that grey, nebulous cloud of confusion, thoughts and ideas – that's your interlanguage. It's where you're at right now.

By writing, you're forced to just do your best and give it your best shot. After you've done that, what you're left with on the paper is proof of where you are – a very clear record of where your language learning currently is.

This isn't just good for posterity. It's incredibly useful for your teacher, because they can look at it and very clearly say: “You know what? You're making this mistake over and over again. Let's work on this.”

If I was teaching you and I was looking at your daily journaling, I would think this is a goldmine. I can see in black and white exactly what you're struggling with and where you are in general.

So journaling for language learning makes your interlanguage very clear and gives your teacher something accurate to feed back on.

5. Tracking Your Progress Over Time

Journaling also provides evidence of progress. It's super important to recognise progress, and we don't do enough of that.

If you journal daily, you can look back to previous weeks and months and see how far you've come.

Language learning often feels very intangible – you don't know when you're making progress. But by writing, that evidence is right there in front of you.

6. Matching Your Learning Style

The last thing I'll say is that if writing matches your learning style – if you're someone like Andrew who really likes writing and enjoys journaling – then this is a great way to combine one particular skill with something you genuinely enjoy.

Whenever you can do that, it's going to enhance your learning.

So there are lots and lots of benefits to journaling for language learning. You don't have to do it. I'm not a big writer in other languages myself, just because I find it too slow and frustrating. But that's not to say I shouldn't – I almost certainly should.

It's got to be something you do consciously because you like it, and you can see and feel the benefits when you do it.

How To Actually Learn From Your Teacher's Feedback

Let me end with a tip, because when I've done this in the past, here's what I found: I'd do some writing, take it to my teacher, and they'd go through it giving me notes and feedback. Then more often than not, I would take that away and not really act on that feedback.

It's very easy to get feedback on writing and then not learn the lessons from it if you don't take the time to sit down and go through it properly.

So once you've done some writing and had feedback from your teacher, I think it's really important the next day (or later on) to go back through it and make sure you understand and internalise the feedback you're getting.

• Why has this correction been made?
• What are the errors you keep making that your teacher is pointing out?

Really take stock of that. Then right away, sit down, do some writing and implement the stuff you just learned.

It's got to be an ongoing circular process of feedback. You've got to take that feedback and put the time in to really absorb it. It's really on you. Writing forces you to take responsibility, and there are many layers of responsibility you can take.

But to really make the most of it, you've got to not only do the writing in the first place, but also take the time to absorb the feedback from your teacher.

Journaling For Language Learning FAQ

Final Thoughts On Journaling For Language Learning

For someone like Andrew learning a language like Lao, where you don't have a lot of resources in general and you're probably reliant on speaking disproportionately, writing would be a great way to vary things up a little bit.

At its core, journaling for language learning works because it forces you to slow down and engage actively with the language in a way that speaking sometimes doesn't allow. Writing gives you that space to pause, reflect and experiment without pressure.

The real magic happens when you combine this practice with teacher feedback and then actually do something with that feedback.

And if writing is something you genuinely enjoy, you've found something precious. Language learning is a long road, and the activities that bring you pleasure are the ones you'll stick with year after year. That consistency matters far more than finding the “perfect” method.

So if journaling feels right to you, lean into it.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.