The Effects of Freewriting Exercises on Adult Korean Students' English Learning
Elbow's freewriting (1989, 1998, 2011) is an exercise where a participant writes for a set period of time without stopping or editing. Data obtained from 102 Korean university EFL students were analyzed to explore the use of freewriting to enhance adult learners' overall English proficiency. Participants were divided into freewriting and non freewriting groups. Results show that the students in the freewriting group made significantly greater improvement than their counterparts in English speaking, writing, listening, and reading. Further evidence is found that qualitative improvement in the students' freewriting implied a parallel increase in their overall English proficiency. This study suggests that freewriting could provide a safe outlet for Korean EFL learners to practice English, and enhance their capacity to think in the target language. The study supports the use of freewriting exercises as a contextsensitive pedagogical strategy to promote adult EFL learners' linguistic development of English.