"Frequently accepted as being the last language skill to be acquired for native speakers of the language as well as for foreign/second language learners" (Hamp-Lyons and Heasly, 2006: 2), English writing, for a number of EFL learners, appears to be challenging. This paper sought to investigate if learners can grow out of the writing difficulties by engaging in journal writing activity. 85 second-year students from the two writing classes, one treated as the experimental group (EG) and the other as the control group (CG), at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City (USSH-HCMC) were invited to participate in the study, whose findings substantiated the benefits of journal writing as an extensive activity to foster learners' writing motivation and enhance their writing skill as well as to build a close bonding between teachers and learners.