The study examines how students\' reflective journals affect their self-directed English language learning and English writing proficiency in a tertiary EFL context. The purpose of this study was to investigate the following: 1) the students\' attitude toward self-directed learning and English writing by keeping reflective English journals; 2) the role of reflective journals; and 3) the teacher\'s role in improving the students\' self-directedness in ELT. The participants were a group of volunteer students at a university in Kyeonggi province. The data were collected throughout the course of an academic semester, and included a pre- and post- self-assessment questionnaire reflective journals, and both individual as well as group interviews, which were analyzed by using an open-coding and content analysis. In so doing, the participants\' discursive formation related to self-directed English learning and professed difficulties from the experiences of keeping English journals throughout the course; learning environments were carefully categorized according to the research questions. The results of the study showed that the students’ reflective journals helped them to improve English writing confidence and furthermore to clarify their learning goals and objectives to deepen their learning purposes by indicating daily to-do lists. Consequently, in order to utilize self-directed English leaning, intrinsic motivation should be provided throughout the course and English teachers should help students to understand meta-cognitive learning strategies such as visualizing, mapping English learning contents and also to utilize effective use of time schedules.