Dialogue journals are discussed as a valuable component in developing writing and reading competence in both first and second language classes. A simple way for students to carry on a private written conversation with their teachers, journals may be written in daily or weekly for the entire year or course. Both student and teacher agree to write back and forth in a bound composition book about topics of interest to each of them. Not only is the teacher no longer responsible for thinking up topics for writing, but it has been found that the topics include a wide range of academic, interpersonal, and personal concerns. Both students and teacher are free to use the full range of language functions characteristic of face-to-face conversation, including questions, complaints, promises, denials, and apologies. It is suggested that although dialogue journals involve written language, the content and structure of this kind of discourse is more like face-to-face communication than like traditional school essays or reading texts. Examples of journal entries from children and adults studying English as a second language and from deaf students studying English are included. (NCR)