Having writing as the most challenging skill in EFL learning, students need to experience a stimulating learning activity to develop their skill in writing practices. Therefore, EFL teachers need to put an English language exploration of writing. This study promoted the use of a sensory detail chart in a collaborative experiential learning (CEL) exercise aimed at increasing the quality of EFL students’ descriptive writing. The researcher implemented this learning method by doing classroom action research (CAR) in two cycles in which 26 students participated. The use of sensory detail chart (SDC) stimulated students to explore their five senses to specify any properties or characteristics of the object described. Meanwhile, the implementation of CEL accommodated the students to develop their communicative competence as well as to help them to gain more ideas in describing the object. The researcher used preand post-tests as research instruments to measure the quality of students’ descriptive writing. The tests asked the students to write descriptive texts on topics given. From the tests, the researcher found that the quality of students’ descriptive writing increased by 36.58% in the first cycle and 56.53% in the second cycle. From these results, the researcher concluded that the use of sensory detail chart in collaborative learning was successful in increasing the quality of students’ descriptive writing. Thus, she argues 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.
Keywords: collaborative experiential learning, sensory detail chart, descriptive text