study of EFL Students' Argumentative writing skills through online collaborative writing activities

Abstract

This study explored the impact of online collaborative writing on EFL students' argumentative writing abilities and their attitudes toward using this method to enhance their skills. The participants consisted of twenty undergraduate students from a writing classroom at the University of Phayao, selected through purposive sampling. The twenty students were categorized into three proficiency levels: advanced, intermediate, and novice learners. The selected participants were then divided into 5 heterogeneous groups to collaboratively compose argumentative paragraph writings. This study, employing a mixed-methods approach, combines both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The instruments consisted of six lesson plans, pre-test and post-test, 4 argumentative writing assignments, a semi-structured interview, and a questionnaire. The study evaluated an online collaborative writing activity to determine how proficiency levels affected both group and individual writing performance. The results of the students' argumentative writing post-test were higher than their pre-test scores across all proficiency levels. The highest scores in students' argumentative writing were found in the group performance, followed by the individual post-test scores, respectively. The semi-structured interview showed that online collaborative writing activities improve argumentative writing by promoting group brainstorming, idea sharing, and critical thinking. This approach enhances students' analysis, evaluation, and content-creation skills, leading to more effective group work. Additionally, online collaborative writing simplifies tasks like gathering information and using various functions, making the writing process more efficient.