This study aims to explore the effects of English newspaper making activity on Korean high school learners’English writing skills and learning motivation according to their self-directed learning ability. Twelve firstyear high school students, who joined the English newspaper making activity, participated in three-year longitudinal study from mid-March 2017 to December 2019. The results of this study are as follows. First, the higher the self-directed learning ability, the higher improvement in the English writing skills. Second, both the self-directed learning ability upper group and the lower group showed improvement in most of the 10 measures that showed the degree of development of syntactic complexity. Finally, the higher the self-directed learning ability, the higher improvement in learning motivation. The findings of this study provide some useful pedagogical implications for teachers to understand learners better at future English education fields and balanced learning environment.