Levels of Reflection in Reflective EFL Learning

Reflection is perceived as important and advantageous to raising learners’ awareness and promoting learner involvement within the learning process. It is also emphasized in the field of English education, but there are few studies of EFL about reflection and its unfolding in the classroom. This study is concerned with how EFL learners progress in their learning, to investigate levels of reflection and the process of reflective learning of adult Korean EFL learners, based on Mezirow (1990) and Kember et al. (1999). This study was conducted specifically when the participants were engaged in journal writings and reviews of their performances. In order to look at how reflection evolves for six months for four participants, the researchers made assessments of the quality and quantity of reflection for each case. It was concluded that their reflections were getting deeper along their journals. Reflection helped provide the opportunity for students to understand their language learning identity and become more responsible learners. This study suggests that, in adult learning of EFL, teachers need to foster more student involvement with reflective activities and thus lead them to become more responsible with critical thinking.