This study investigated the effect of journal writing as a communicative technique on written performance, writing apprehension, perceived sense of writing abilities, and attitudes of Egyptian EFL English majors. It also explored the relationship between L1 (Arabic) and L2 (English) writing performance. The initial number of participants in this study was 50 third-year English Department male students in the College of Education, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. They were randomly selected and assigned into the treatment groups; the experimental group included 25 whereas the control group included 25 students. Both groups studied an Essay and Composition course for a semester. For the purpose of this study, the experimental group did an extra assignment in which each student wrote a minimum 200-word journal entry on topics that interested him once a week for ten intermittent weeks.

The treatment was administered voluntarily by an associate professor in Applied Linguistics who commented on the experimental group’s journal entries by focusing on meaning and content and ignoring surface structural features such as grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. Instruments included a writing test graded by two independent raters using Jacobs et al.’s (1981) Composition Profile, the Writing Apprehension Test prepared by Daly and Miller (1975) and adapted to L2 by Gungle and Taylor (1989), and attitude questionnaires developed by the researcher. In addition, tutor interview, participants’ written comments, and their perceived sense of writing abilities were utilized as qualitative data collection techniques. The pre- and posttest data from 41 students were analyzed using means, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Content analysis was used and categories were created for the themes students raised while writing their impressions on the treatment.

The findings revealed significant differences between the experimental group and the control group in written performance in favor of the experimental group. This result was supported by qualitative evidence showing that the final journal entries of six students randomly selected from the experimental group indicated development in ideas, coherence, cohesion, and voice. Moreover, journal writing had positive effects on decreasing writing apprehension and developing students’ perceived sense of their writing abilities. Analyzing the attitude questionnaires revealed that the experimental group had strong positive attitudes toward journal writing whereas the control group had neutral attitudes toward traditional writing instruction. However, the qualitative analysis showed positive attitudes toward journal writing and negative attitudes toward traditional writing teaching. Results were interpreted considering the context in which the study was conducted. The study concluded with discussing the findings reached, presenting implications, and suggesting topics for further research.