Instructional Directions through Students' Self-Assessment on Their Own Writing

This study examined how the college students who took an English composition class assessed their own writing, based on what they have learned in the class, what changes they have experienced, and what writing areas need to be improved for the future instruction. 39 students participated in this study, and data were collected by conducting a survey with both closed and open-ended questions. As results of the analysis, 66.7% of the students perceived themselves as not a good English writer, and they provided the reasons. Interestingly, the most comment they offered was that their limited vocabulary led them to prevent from expressing themselves. In grammar, they were confident in using subject-verb agreement the most; in contrast, they presented the least confidence in the use of articles. In terms of sentence levels, they showed the least confidence in connecting sentence to sentence smoothly. In idea development, the students still need more effective ways to develop a topic sentence and create supporting ideas, and they further need to practice how to express their ideas in a logical way. The students also utilized diverse strategies when developing their ideas; especially, writing ideas in Korean was a medium to move on to the L2. In addition, multiple drafts helped them change their attitudes in writing and elaborate writing with a topic sentence, supporting ideas, and a concluding sentence.