Research suggests that the informal language of journals is very important. Language scholars such as J. Vygotsky (1962), J. Moffell (1968, 1982), P. Elbow (1973, 1982), and M. Shaughnessy (1977) believe that human beings find meaning through exploration in their own talking language. To add to the evidence in this area, a study conducted in an urban New Jersey School selected six third-grade students to engage in free written dialogue with their teacher; six other students wrote for the same period of time but not in dialogue. All the participants were of lower socioeconomic status; all could be classified as reluctant writers. Interestingly, results showed that dialogic journal writing did not enhance writing skills as compared to journal writing in the absence of a teacher. Dialogue with a teacher in a journal was not shown to be an effective means of instruction. (Includes 8 tables of data; contains 24 references and 2 appendixes of results.) (TB)