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ILEIID 2025 | International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS)

ISSN: 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS

Special Issue | Volume IX Issue XXIV October 2025

From Reflection to Resolution: University Students’ Voices on the

Role of Self-Assessment in Guided Writing

Diana Othman,

Dia Widyawati Amat 1,

Siti Zarikh Sofiah Abu Bakar 2,

Norhafizah Amir 3,

Zuraidah Sumery 4,

Haniza Sarijari 5

1,2,3,4,5,6

Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Johor

*Corresponding Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.924ILEIID0081

Received: 23 September 2025; Accepted: 30 September 2025; Published: 01 November 2025

ABSTRACT

In the process of English learning, writing has always been known as an important component to be acquired

especially for students of English as a Second Language. The exploration of playing with words and language

in writing has always been challenging for the students. Writing is put in a complex and significant level

especially in academic contexts because it ‘serves as a primary means of assessment, knowledge construction,

and scholarly engagement’, (Ariyanti, 2016). It involves not just running down the ideas on papers but the

style of composing the elements of writing well. As such, in this process of writing, students should walk

through the process thoroughly to produce meaningful and logical ideas. However, the process seems to be a

problem for ESL students to understand because they have not been familiar with the step-to-step process of

writing. They face difficulties in writing especially when it involves vocabulary, grammar and text

organization and most of the time, it hinders their ability in producing effective writing. Thus, this paper is

focusing on how self-assessment tool can help in the process of academic writing especially for ESL students.

The need for ESL students to know the mechanic of writing is important in encouraging learner autonomy,

reflection and strategic learning. As a result, with the understanding of English writing is not merely a skill to

be mastered but a developmental process that shapes students’ academic and professional identities.

Keywords: Guided Writing, Self-Assessment, ESL Writing Challenges

INTRODUCTION

English is considered as a source of self-improvement and career success for university students as it provides

access to local and global resources. Also, it is seen as an official language that is used in documenting

especially in business, education and communication. Therefore, various theories and hypotheses have been

found to facilitate both students and educators to impact the knowledge of second language learning (Selvaraj

& Aziz, 2019). A paradigm shifts in language learning from teacher-centered to student-centered lies on the

concept of autonomous learning whereby it gives the authority for the students to take ownership of their

educational journey and actively participate in their assessment. However, learning a second language is never

an easy road especially when it comes to writing.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Guided Writing in ESL Learning

In guided writing, modelling, prompts, and structured activities are some commonly approach used in ESL

writing activities to encourage students to develop independence in writing. It provides them with explicit

instructions on various writing strategies while offering individualised feedback and supports. Dieni (2022)

stated that having to apply guided writing in class can help the students in improving their writing skills too as

they can learn to construct good sentences with correctly written grammar based on the educator’s feedback.

They may also improve their vocabularies dealing with the topic of their writing.

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ISSN: 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS

Special Issue | Volume IX Issue XXIV October 2025

Dieni (2022) also added in her findings that this kind of writing helps students to produce any kind of texted

preceded with the modelled paragraph given by the educators. Thus, students can improve their vocabulary

mastery through the exercises guided by the educators. However, despite the structured assistance, many

students continue to struggle with writing issues such as grammar, vocabulary choice, idea development,

organization and time management. This suggests that guided learning alone may not fully address the

challenges ESL students face in academic writing.

Self-Assessment as a Tool in ESL Writing

Self-assessment has come to gain the attention as a complementary tool in language learning, particularly in

ESL writing instruction. This enables students to reflect on their own performance, identify strengths and

weaknesses and setting goals for self-improvement. As supported by Mohd Hafizuddin & Razali (2019), ESL

students can be excellent sources of feedback when self-assessment is employed in the learning process,

through which they can provide accurate and useful information to promote meaningful learning. By

integrating self-assessment in ESL writing, students can take charge of their writing journey moving to

autonomous learning. Though existing studies highlight the potential of self-assessment in fostering learner

independence, there is still limited research that focus on ESL students’ voices on how self-assessment can be

used to confront writing challenges especially in improving their performance in guided writing.

Therefore, the focus of this paper is to address the gap by exploring the challenges faced by the ESL university

students in their guided writing process. Also, to delves into how self-assessment tool can help in the process

of guided writing especially for ESL university students.

DISCUSSION

Challenges of ESL Students in Guided Writing

In language learning especially for ESL students, students are expected to be good in all aspects of language

skills which include speaking, listening, reading and writing. The abilities to acquire the skills will set certain

expectations in developing their communicative competence in both spoken and written language. It is

believed that through writing activities especially, students will have the opportunity to apply the process of

thinking using effective words and convey ideas appropriately according to the setting (Yunisha, Sriati Usman

and Abdul Waris, 2013). As to achieve the expectations, one of the suggested techniques in language

acquisition that is expected to have improved the students’ ability in writing is by applying guided writing in

language learning. This approach provides a visual framework for the students to guide their thinking and help

them to stay focused on their writing tasks.

For ESL students, writing can be seen as the most frustrating skill in which they feel intimidated with their

poor language-related issues. Shehzadi & Krishnasamy (2018) stated that the poor language acquisition among

ESL students in terms of vocabulary and the use of linguistic features will lead to the feeling of fear in them in

the process of writing. Most of the time, students only write and force their thinking ability only for exam and

test purpose. Also, the issues of grammar, spelling, vocabulary, syntax and stylistics may hinder students’

ability to deliver ideas appropriately and clearly, (Borang & Gupta, 2025). This is also supported by Liao &

Wong, (2020) in their study that many students consider English writing as difficult because they are generally

poor in the use of linguistic features.

Additionally, the poor performance in producing a good writing is contributed by the factor of anxiety.

According to Shehzadi & Krishnasamy (2018), students tend to perform negatively if they do not enjoy

learning the target language and usually, the feeling of anxiousness about their writing ability will affect their

emotions in writing. In another study by Jiung (2020), it is found difficult for the students to stay focused and

motivated especially when they are asked to write on a topic that may not be of their interest. Thus, this will

impede the thinking process and affect the idea organisation, creativity and imaginative in guided writing. The

lack of confidence in producing the sentences and afraid of making mistakes lead to the increase of anxiety

among ESL students in writing.

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Special Issue | Volume IX Issue XXIV October 2025

As guided writing is commonly related to using graphic organisation and templates, there are certain formats

that should be followed by the students. Another contribution to the challenges is the inability to structure and

organise their ideas and writing naturally according to the organisation template. In a study by Borang &

Gupta (2025), the coherence, cohesion, logical sequencing, appropriate paragraphing development and the use

of transition devices are the critical barriers to effective guided writing. With the formal writing being

introduced, students tend to limit their style of writing and thinking. Instead, they relied on memorisation of

the production of ideas rather than engaging with critical writing. Overall, the studies offer meaningful insights

into the challenges faced by the ESL students in guided writing with suggested pedagogical theories and

strategies in addressing them. It is important for both educators and students to be practical and brave to apply

the various styles of adapting the learning paths. As suggested by (Selvaraj & Aziz, 2019) writing goes beyond

the school scope for the ESL students to master the language.

The Use of Self-Assessment as a Tool for Guided Writing

In general, the process of engaging students in effective self-assessment underlies three principles, as proposed

by Andrade and Valtcheva (2009) which involve; (1) the articulation of expectations, (2) self-assessing, (3)

revising. In writing context, these steps involve first with the clear expectations set by the educators on what

the task is all about and how will it be done. Educators can also describe each criterion in the self-assessment

that will be used by the students. As supported by Hafizuddin & Razali (2019), reaching towards an agreement

with the educators on the criterion for the task will make a quality work to be produced. For example, in

language teaching for guided writing, the process starts with educators sharing on the importance of the task,

the types of writing elements, the division of marks involved, and this should be discussed before the students

started their guided writing. Then, the step moves to the production of an outline, brainstorming and generating

ideas of the selected topic with continual monitoring on the progress of their writing by making improvement

from time to time. At this stage, students are often to be found struggling because they have limited language

vocabulary, difficulties in expressing their ideas and thoughts on paper and are too cautious of making

mistakes related to sentence structures.

The next step involves students to produce their drafts of the writing task given and continually monitor their

progress by making comparisons and improvements from their previous writing. As suggested by Andrade &

Valtcheva, (2009), students can write their own notes to make them aware of the changes made for their final

drafts. Through this self-assessing process, students will be able to see their writing improvements in terms of

idea generations, language and punctuations. This step emphasizes the independent learning and thus makes

the process be meaningful for them. In addition, the third step of involves the self-assessment feedback to be

used as revision for the students.

In a study by Harris (1997), he suggested that teacher can compile the common mistakes made by students in

guided writing process and produce a checklist for self-editing so that students can refer and revise their work.

In another study, the use of self-assessment is found to show improvements across various aspects of the

writing skill which include content, language and organisation for the required task (Ghazala & Hayah, 2024).

However, Fristiara, Sumardi & Drajati (2018) supported that the process of self-assessing their own writing

task, the repetition of reviewing and amending the writing task has made the students to be more careful and

develop positive attitudes of improving the task. However, they argued that grammar errors can be identified

by using the self-assessment without the supervision from the educators.

Research indicates that with self-assessment in writing, students can concentrate on their education better, able

to track their development and look for methods to modify and enhance their ability (Eswaey & Ihmoumah,

2024). The researchers also highlighted this tool has great potential to nurture learner autonomy and foster self-

regulation. It is believed that when students involve in the self-assessment process, they need to make

judgement for their own work whether they are right or wrong, valid or reliable. Therefore, this process needs

active participation among students rather than just being passive and receive the information.

Therefore, the concern of making students to involve directly in their learning process has gained attention and

interest among educators to apply self-assessment. Litz (2009) found that students can push themselves to

finish their writing task based on the expected schedule. The clear expectations as mentioned above on the

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ILEIID 2025 | International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS)

ISSN: 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS

Special Issue | Volume IX Issue XXIV October 2025

self-assessment steps have made clear to the students on what they are expected to do. Thus, giving the self-

assessment questionnaire to students as a tool in completing their guided writing seems to hold significant

potential in enhancing meaningful learning especially for ESL students in guided writing. Overall, this

discussion suggests that the challenges faced by the ESL students in university in guided writing can be

assisted by applying self-assessment tool in a positive way.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the approach of using self-assessment as a tool for guided writing plays a significant role in the

effectiveness of individual learning, enhancing motivation and leading towards meaningful learning. It seems

to not only encourage the meta-cognitive parts of the students in producing good writing but also promote

interpersonal enhancement in terms of enthusiasm and ability. In applying this approach, educators should also

realise on the needs of giving feedback and respond to the students’ progress to allow them to identify their

strengths and weaknesses in guided writing. Educators should enforce the scaffold opportunities for the

students to move towards better learning process with more independent assessments.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to express her sincere gratitude to all the group members who have shared ideas and

guidance in the process of producing this concept paper entitled “From Reflection to Resolution: University

Students’ Voices on the Role of Self-Assessment in Guided Writing”.

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