A Study of EFL College Students' Perceptions on Collaborative Writing 詹雅惠、魏式琦;倪淑芳
E-mail: 9511415@mail.dyu.edu.tw
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to explore Taiwanese EFL college students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing task on their language development, writing apprehension, writing motivation, social skills. In addition, students’ responses toward the use of group review in collaborative writing task were also investigated. The study was quasi-experiment with convenient sampling. The participants were 144 Taiwanese college students in Zhang-Hua County, which were instructed to write collaboratively with peers based on group. The instruction was conducted for approximate four hours in three weeks. This study was based on a quantitative research design. Both of the questionnaire and the students’ writing scores were the techniques for data collection. The SPSS software package 10.0 for Windows was used to analyze the data to provide both descriptive and inferential statistical results. The students’ background information and perceptions toward collaborative writing task of questionnaire data were analyzed in terms of frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The open-ended question in the end of the questionnaire was classified through the usage of content analysis. The Paired Samples T-test was applied to determine whether the differences in the scores of final drafts and first drafts on the same topic were significant via a collaborative writing task. Furthermore, both Independent Samples T-test and One-Way ANOVA were also conducted to show the subsidiary analysis. The major findings of this study were summarized as follows: (1) collaborative writing task could improve students’ language development including English ability, writing ability, and reading ability. (2) Collaborative writing task could reduce students’ writing apprehension, and then rebuilt their writing confidence. (3) Collaborative writing task could evoke students’ writing motivation. (4) Collaborative writing task could help students develop their social skills. (5) Students’ writing in content level and surface level was improved through group review. (6) Significant differences of students’ perceptions of collaborative writing in language development, writing apprehension, writing motivation, social skills were found among the college students of different genders, schools and grades. (7) Significant differences of students’ perceptions of group review in collaborative writing were also found among the college students of different schools as well as grades.
Keywords : collaborative writing ; group review
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT………...vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………
……….viii TABLE OF CONTENTS………..ix LIST OF FIGURE……….xii LIST OF TABLES………
……….xiii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………...…1 1.1 Background and Motivation………1 1.2 The statement of the Problem………
………..5 1.3 Purpose of the Study………6 1.4 Research Questions………..6 1.5 Significance of the Study………
……….7 1.6 Limitation of the Study………7 1.7 Definition of Terms…
………..8 CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW………
………..9 2.1 Writing Process………... 9 2.2 Collaborative Writing………
……….14 2.3 Peer Review / Group Review……….19 2.4 Writing Apprehension...………..25 2.5 Motivation………
………...26 2.6 Summary………....28 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY……….…29 3.1 Participants………
………29 3.2 Instruments………30 3.2.1 Teacher’s Grading Rubric………...30 3.2.2 Writing Evaluation Checklist………
…………30 3.2.3 Questionnaire………32 3.3 Procedures………
………...33 3.4 Data Analysis………...36 CHAPTER IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………..37 4.1 Results of the Participants’ Background
………38 4.2 Results of Research Question 1……….40 4.3
Results of Research Question 2……….48 4.3.1 Positive Feedback on Collaborative Writing…
………49 4.3.2 Negative Feedback on Collaborative Writing………...51 4.4 Results of Research Question 3……….51 4.5 Discussion………
……….54 4.5.1 Background Information………..54 4.5.2 Research Question 1………
………....55 4.5.3 Research Question 2………....58 4.5.4 Research Question 3………....59 4.6 Subsidiary Analysis………
………..61 4.6.1 Independent Samples T-test Results of Gender Differences………...61 4.6.2 Discussion on Gender Differences……… 64 4.6.3 One-Way ANOVA Results of School Differences………
….65 4.6.4 Discussion on the School Differences………69 4.6.5 One-Way ANOVA Results of Grade Differences………...69 4.6.6 Discussion on the Grade Differences……….73 CHAPTER V. Conclusion………..74 5.1 Summary………
………74 5.2 Limitations……….76 5.3 Pedagogical Implications
………...77 5.4 Suggestions for Future Research………...78 REFERENCES………...80 APPENDIXES………
………....88 Appendix A: Teacher’s Grading Rubric……….88 Appendix B: Writing Evaluation Checklist (Chinese Version)………..90 Appendix C: Writing Evaluation Checklist (English Version)
………...92 Appendix D: Students’ Perceptions toward Collaborative Writing Questionnaire (Chinese Version)………
………..94 Appendix E: Students’ Perceptions toward Collaborative Writing Questionnaire (English Version)………...97
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