The Role of Reflective Writing in Fostering EFL High School Students Self-Regulation

Abstract

Self-regulation is a key skill to scholastic achievement and independent and sustainable learning. Unfortunately, not all EFL students display higher self-regulation skills in their learning. To address this problem, a reflective writing strategy was proposed to help these students develop their full potential in self-regulation. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the role of engaging EFL students in reflective learning journals in cultivating their language-learning self-regulation skills. To this end, a mixed design was used. A convenience sample of 28 EFL students enrolled in first-year baccalaureate consented to participate in this study. They were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Reflective learning journals were used to collect data about students’ self-regulation. Findings demonstrated that after using reflective learning journals, the experimental group had significantly developed self-regulation compared to the control group who used traditional essays. Also, a statistically significant change over time in the experimental group self-regulation skills was observed. Therefore, as it can be inferred, reflective writing is an effective tool which could be used to build students’ self-regulation skills. Accordingly, the results of this present study encourage the adoption of a reflective pedagogy to stimulate EFL high school students’ self-regulation skills.