Investigating Indonesian EFL students’ writing strategies: a framework for self-assessment

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the writing strategies across the three key stages: pre-writing, writing, and post-writing. Using a mixed-methods approach, the data were collected through a survey questionnaire of writing strategies that consist of 30 items about students’ writing strategies, which include self-regulating strategies, cognitive strategies, and metacognitive strategies. Sixty-two undergraduate students were involved as the participants of this study. The findings indicate that overall strategy use across all stages was moderate. In the pre-writing stage, students frequently set goals (M = 2.13) and organized ideas (M = 2.74), but seldom used exploratory strategies such as source searching (M = 1.69) and mind-mapping (M = 2.02). During the writing stage, students applied moderate self-regulation strategies, such as setting draft deadlines (M = 2.66), but showed limited focus on accurate grammar and mechanics (M = 2.02) and reflective practices (M = 2.23). In the post-writing stage, reviewing for content and organization scored the lowest (M = 1.66), while rubric use (M = 2.53) and draft finalization (M = 2.66) were more frequently practiced. These findings highlight the needs of metacognitive engagement and reflective practices to enhance students’ writing skills. Pedagogically, this study suggests integrating reflective practices, collaborative activities, and technology tools like AI-driven writing platforms to put it all together to promote learner autonomy. In addition, this research involves a small number of participants and is applied in a narrow context; future studies should be applied to larger groups of participants from various EFL settings.