The Effects of Collaborative Writing on EFL Learners’ Writing Skills and Their Perception of the Strategy

Abstract

This mixed-method study observes the effects of collaborative writing strategy on EFL learners’ writing skill and their perception of the strategy. The population consists of 80 students from a public senior high school in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The samples, which were selected by using cluster random sampling, were categorized as the experimental and control class. Each class were taught with different teaching strategies, experimental class was taught by using collaborative writing strategy and the control class was taught by using conventional teaching strategy. The data were collected through writing tests and interviews to measure the students’ writing skill and their perception of collaborative writing. The result of the analysis reveals that collaborative writing strategy has helped students in generating their writing ideas and activating the students’ background knowledge of the topics assigned to them to develop in their writings. The result of this study also highlights the students’ positive perception on collaborative writing strategy.

EFL Students’ and Lecturer’s Perceptions on Collaborative Writing

“…This model improves their understanding of the learning material concept. It is in line with the results of a study conducted by Anggraini, Rozimela & Anwar (2020) about EFL students' perceptions of collaborative writing strategies. Although there is a slight difference in focus, in principle, it has the same substance.…”

“…To date, there have been several studies that have focused on students' perceptions of collaborative writing models. For example, research conducted by Anggraini, Rozimela & Anwar (2020) describes how EFL students' perceptions of collaborative writing strategies. The findings of this study indicate that students have positive perceptions of several significant elements in collaborative writing strategies such as understanding topics, feedback, and simultaneously increasing vocabulary mastery.…”

EFL Students’ Perceptions of Collaborative Writing in a Private University, Vietnam

“…Research has indicated the varying degrees of the effects and students' perceptions of collaborative writing in their learning process. These positive sides are evidenced in Malaysia (Fung, 2006), the United States (Bikowski & Vithanage, 2016), Indonesia (Anggraini et al, 2020), in China (Zhang, 2018) , Saudi Arabia (Alawaji, 2020), in Spain (Dobao & Blum, 2013;Villarreal & Gil-Sarratea, 2020), and in Vietnam (Pham, 2021). In other words, the findings from these studies reveal that collaborative writing is a useful strategy that offers students the opportunity to pool ideas, improve writing quality regarding content, organization, and vocabulary.…”

“…Collaborative writing has taken its place in providing students with an opportunity to better their writing and language use and through working together to produce a given assignment (McDonough, Vleeschauwer, & Crawford, 2019;Storch, 2005Storch, , 2013. These studies into this area have shown potential benefits of promoting students' learning process for a quality written project with particular regard to content, vocabulary, and accuracy (Anggraini, Rozimela, & Anwar, 2020). This productive skill allows students to become proficient in using the target language, namely English and optimize their writing products, thereby influencing how students communicate their ideas to academic audiences or peers in clear and meaningful ways and facilitate their English language learning.…”

Promoting student engagement in online collaborative writing through a student‐facing social learning analytics tool

“…Online collaborative writing (OCW), as one of the computer‐supported collaborative learning modes, has been increasingly used in the higher education contexts (Anggraini et al, 2020; Liao et al, 2018; Pham, 2021). In an OCW activity, students collaboratively write in small groups or pairs via online platforms with the supports of instructional scaffoldings or technological assistances (Fan & Xu, 2020; Liu et al, 2017).…”