International Conference on Education and Language 2013, UBL, Indonesia 72 EMPLOYING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING TO TEACH WRITING FOR ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS THROUGH A REFLECTION PROJECT Adesti Komalasari, S.Pd., M.A. Faculty of Social and Economic Science, Respati University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Corresponding email: adestikomalasari@gmail.com Abstract Writing is a skill that helps English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners improve their English and also helps them to be exposed more to use English in their day-to-day basis. Unfortunately, writing has been considered as one difficult and boring subject since the learners are merely instructed to write about certain topics or write their daily experiences and past events without clear context and clear directions. Teaching writing has been a challenge since the method of teaching cannot be as various as teaching other competence like speaking or listening. In order to make writing interesting, an English teacher should relate learners’ writing production to their experience. The exposure of experiential learning into some writing production like a weekly reflection or journal would encourage the learners to express more in the composition. This research tries to examine two problem formulations. First, what is the significance of experiential learning in teaching writing? Second, how is experiential learning implemented in the writing production of EFL learners? The objective of the study is to figure out the significance of experiential learning in teaching writing and to find out how experiential learning is implemented in the writing production of EFL learners. Library study would be employed in conducting this research, especially references relate to teaching writing and experiential learning. Keywords: EFL learners, experiential learning, reflection project, teaching writing INTRODUCTION Since English has been widely used in many areas of living, most educational institutions like universities and schools has included English as one of the Subjects of their curricula. Many references used in non-English departments are in English and the learners are supposed to understand English with specific terminologies according to English registers in specific areas. This demand of English makes English becomes one major concern in many areas and students in Indonesia have been learning English in their fourth grade of Elementary School. Regarding the length of time of learning English, Indonesian students are supposed to be ESL (English as a Second Language) learners, but many of them still consider English is difficult to be spoken in. The lacks of exposure to English in real situations leave the students as EFL learners. According to Henrichsen (2010), EFL Learners have some characteristics such as: (1) They are not in an English-speaking Environment, (2) They do not speak English outside the English classroom. Once students leave class, they hear, speak, read, and write languages other than English, (3) They tend to be linguistically and culturally homogeneous. They generally speak the same native language and are accustomed to speaking it with each other and they generally share the same cultural background, and the target, English-language culture may be foreign for them, (4) They have a more artificial purpose, such as to earn a course grade or pass a test, and a lower level of motivation. (5) They are primarily oriented toward developing their reading and writing (and perhaps listening) skills. The characteristics above might likely happen because of many aspects as well, such as: (1) English is learned in a big class with approximately 30 – 60 students with a wide range of English proficiency. This condition might result an embarrassment, faced by many students who do not have a high English proficiency level. (2) English class is only conducted once or twice a week. The students will not make much progress and the continuity in learning English is not maintained once the students are engaged in other activities and they tend to forget of what they learned in the previous class. This condition encourages English teachers to apply some methods that make students exposed with English more so that they have sufficient knowledge of English in order to apply it in a real practice, involving productive skills like speaking and writing. One of the methods for encouraging the students to practice English is making