Promoting Undergraduate Students’ Writing Ability Using English Writing Active Learning Activities

This research aims to examine the results of using English writing active learning activities to promote students’ writing abilities and to explore the students’ perceptions of the learning activities. The participants were 62 third-year English major students taking the Academic Writing course in the 1st semester 2022 at a university in Thailand. The research instruments included 1) English writing active learning activities integrating ThinkPair-Share, collaborative writing, peer review, and self-assessment activities into the writing process, 2) two writing tasks with rubrics, and 3) open-ended questionnaires for the participants’ suggestions and perceptions on advantages and disadvantages of the learning activities. The participants’ writing scores analysis indicated that active learning activities could promote students’ writing ability. The writing scores of all participants reached the minimum requirements of the tasks, and most gained scores higher than 70 % of the total scores. The findings of the participants’ perceptions from the open-ended questionnaires echoed these results. The English writing active learning activities were perceived as an effective learning process to promote their writing quality. Interestingly, it was revealed that English language proficiency affected peer review and self-assessment activities. Also, the participants reflected on some disadvantages of the activities that the teachers should realize when employing these activities.