Benefits of Freewriting in an EFL Academic Writing Classroom

This study explores possible benefits of freewriting for EFL students' writing anxiety and fluency. Thirty university students who were enrolled in an academic writing class participated in the study. Pre- and post-writing anxiety surveys, freewritings, pre- and post-essays, and student reflections were collected as data. The study found that EFL students experience varying degrees of writing anxiety, and anxious students tended to perform poorly on the writing test. Analysis of 540 freewritings revealed that all students' fluency improved as the semester progressed, showing a similar trend. Students generally reported positive attitudes toward the freewriting activity. They largely agreed that it improved their confidence, lessened their fear of evaluation, and deepened their thinking skills, but they disliked the absence of feedback, the topic selection, and the activity's time limits. Benefits, possible adaptations, and the pedagogic value of freewriting were also discussed in the study.