Collaborative experiential learning

Five senses exploration to higher descriptive writing quality

Abstract

EFL learners need to experience a stimulating learning activity to develop their skill in writing practices. Therefore, EFL teachers need to put their students in an English language exploration of writing. Promoting the use of a sensory detail chart in a collaborative experiential learning exercise, this study aimed at increasing the quality of EFL students’ descriptive writing. The researchers conducted this learning method by doing classroom action research in two cycles in which 26 students participated. The researchers used pre- and post-tests as research instruments to measure the quality of students’ descriptive writing. Each student used a sensory detail chart to help them organize their sensory words to describe some objects observed during the five senses exploration in small groups. Collaborative experiential learning accommodated the students to develop their communicative competence as well as to gain more ideas in describing the objects. From the tests, the researchers found that the quality of students’ descriptive writing increased by 36.58% in the first cycle and by 56.53% in the second cycle. In conclusion, the results showed that the five senses exploration in a collaborative experiential learning was successful in increasing the quality of students’ descriptive writing. It is argued that the use of sensory detail chart in a collaborative learning environment is effective in stimulating students’ writing in a foreign language, especially in writing descriptive text.