The dialogue journal procedure, which involves written turn-taking between a teacher and a student, is examined in terms of how the journal process can prepare students for later oral communication. The use of the dialogue journal with four distinct student populations (hearing impaired or deaf, learning disabled, bilingual, and English-as-a-Second Language) is described. Six types of dialogue journals (audiotape, cassette, oral, response, use on content areas, and computer) are discussed, including teacher procedures, sample dialogue questions, and potential problems. It is concluded that: (1) the dialogue journal does help stimulate conversation and at a deeper level than generally produced in a classroom; and (2) this tool reflects authentic verbal communication and contains many of the same processes that are utilized in real-world situations. The following information is appended: a discussion of seven conversational features used within dialogue journals; directions for responding to independent reading; a list of uses of the response journal; pointers on responding to who you are; a list of benefits of the dialogue journal in a content area (mathematics); teacher's responses within the dialogue journal; series of dialogue questions; a schematic showing the complete dialogue journal cycle; the questionnaire; a transcript of actual tape-recorded student conversations; tape-recorded conversation evaluation form; a summary of potential problems associated with teaching with the dialogue journal; and examples of the dialogue journal response form. Contains 31 references. (LB)