Abstract
Journaling is a writing technique widely used to develop critical thinking and writing fluency. Through journaling students express their thoughts, reflections, opinions, and experiences without fear of making mistakes. This techniqueis believed to be useful for the development of writing skills in EFL learners. Consequently, this study aims to examine the effect of the reflective journaling on the writing skills of A1 level EFL learners in a school in Latacunga. A mixed-methods design was carried out with a control and an experimental group including a pre and posttest, and a questionnaire to assess the influence of journaling on learners’ writing fluency and their insights. The experimentalgroup received journaling prompts three times a week for six weeks while the control group engaged in regular classroom writing activities. The findings demonstrate a statistically significant growth in the number of words produced by the experimental group compared to the words produced by the control group. Qualitative results also revealed that students noticed improvements in their confidence, vocabulary use, and organization of ideas. These findings suggest that the application of journaling had a positive effect on the development of writing fluency.
References
Abrouq, N. (2024). The effect of reflective journal writing on Moroccan EFL master students’ reflective thinking: A mixed methods study. British Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 45–62.
Ajabshir, Z. F., & Ebadi, S. (2023). The effects of automatic writing evaluation and teacher-focused feedback on CALF measures and overall quality of L2 writing across different genres. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 8(1).
Amalia, N. A., Syahid, A., & Ali Mirza, A. (2024). The effect of reflective journaling on writing skills of English as a foreign language students: A quasi-experimental study. Journal on Education, 6(2), 12680–12693.
Chen, A. H. (2022). The effects of writing strategy instruction on EFL learners’ writing development. English Language Teaching, 15(3), 29–37.
Cheng, X., & Zhang, L. J. (2022). Teachers helping EFL students improve their writing through written feedback: The case of native and non-native English-speaking teachers’ beliefs. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.
Creswell, J. W. (2011). Educational research. PHI Learning.
Dörnyei, Z. (1998). Motivation in second and foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 31(3), 117–135.
Elley, W. B. (1991). Acquiring literacy in a second language: The effect of book-based programs. Language Learning, 41(3), 375–411.
Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. (2022). Task-based language teaching. In H. Mohebbi & C. Coombe, (eds.). Research questions in language education and applied linguistics (pp. 133–136). Springer.
Han, S. (2023). The contribution of blog-based writing instruction to enhancing writing performance and writing motivation of Chinese EFL learners. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.
Harmer, J. (2004). How to teach writing. Pearson Education.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132.
Hunt, K. W. (1965). Grammatical structures written at three grade levels (NCTE Research Report No. 3). National Council of Teachers of English.
Jamoom, O. A. (2021). EFL students’ needs for improving their writing skills. Scholars International Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 4(4), 106–111.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Pergamon Press.
Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Laredo Publishing.
Macías, A. G. D., & Dack, T. F. (2023). The impact of reflective journals on the writing skills of EFL sophomore students. RUNAS. Journal of Education & Culture, 4(7).
Maneepakhathorn, R. (2023). An exploratory study of reflective dialogue journal writing of EFL graduate students in the English as a foreign language context. REFLections, 30(1), 38–58.
Mogesse, A. T., Degefu, H. W., & Degaga, E. G. (2025). Effects of dialogue journal writing on EFL learners’ writing performance: A focus on content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Ampersand, 100249.
Nation, I. S. P. (2022). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge University Press.
Oxford, R. L. (1996). Language learning strategies around the world: Cross-cultural perspectives (No. 13). National Foreign Language Resource Center.
Pusey, K., & Butler, Y. G. (2024). Exploring the interaction among writing fluency, writing processes, and external resource access in second language writing assessment. Computers and Composition, 74.
Rahimi, M. (2024). Effects of integrating motivational instructional strategies into a process-genre writing instructional approach on students’ engagement and argumentative writing. System, 121.
Simkus, J. (2022, 16 de december). Convenience sampling: Definition, method and examples. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/convenience-sampling.html
Swain, M. (2005). The output hypothesis: Theory and research. In E. Hinkel, (ed.). Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 471–483). Routledge.
Talikan, A. I., Salapuddin, R., Aksan, J. A., Rahimulla, R. J., Ismael, A., Jimlah, R., ... Ajan, R. A. (2024). On paired samples t-test: Applications, examples and limitations. Ignatian International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 2(4), 943–995.
Taufiqulloh, T., Nindya, M. A., Sulistyawati, A. E., & Sumekto, D. R. (2025). Investigating Indonesian EFL students’ writing strategies: A framework for self-assessment. Language Testing in Asia, 15(1).
Tsiriotakis, I. K., Grünke, M., Spantidakis, I., Vassilaki, E., & Stavrou, N. A. (2020). The impact of an explicit writing intervention on EFL students’ short story writing. Frontiers in Education, 5.
Wijaya, K. F. (2025). Optimizing EFL learners’ writing skills through reflective journaling. Journal of English for Academic and Specific Purposes, 8(1).
Wu, L., & Halim, H. B. A. (2024). Task complexity and foreign language writing emotions as predictors of EFL writing performance. Frontiers in Education, 9.
Yancey, K. B. (2009). Writing in the 21st century: A report from the National Council of Teachers of English. National Council of Teachers of English.
Yulianawati, I., Saleh, M., Mujiyanto, J., & Sutopo, D. (2022). The effectiveness of writing techniques in improving students’ writing ability with different self-esteem. Studies in English Language and Education, 9(1), 30–44.
Zhang, Y., & Chieh, Y. (2025). The effects of two self-regulated learning interventions on Chinese EFL students’ self-regulated writing-strategy use, motivational beliefs, and writing performance. System, 129.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nicole Lovato, Melita Vega