Effect of collaborative writing on promoting motivation for learning how to write in a computer-mediated writing environment

Abstract

The study was informed by social constructivist theory. The aim of this study was to investigate how students interacted to solve writing problems and how participation in an online collaborative writing activity shaped their writing practices and writing motivations. This research project, comprising quantitative and qualitative data which were derived from a larger writing project investigated students' motivation and writing changes before, during and after the collaborative writing activity.

The study involved 36 and 26 EFL students in one collaborative writing group and one individual writing group separately at an English intensive program in one university in Southern Taiwan. Students wrote on one online writing platform face-to-face aiming at building their writing proficiencies and self-assessed beliefs about writing. Collected data included co-constructed writing, individual writing, responses to questionnaire of self-assessed beliefs about writing and history logs of collaborative writing, including collaborative dialogues. Data analysis method was Generalized Estimating Equation Modeling, Pearson Correlation Coefficients, and interpretive analysis of students’ collaborative dialogues. Inter-rater reliability of student writing was high. The study findings indicated that computer-mediated collaborative writing provided a rich environment for learners to consult online writing resources and to stimulate meaning-making processes through collaborative writing. Collaborative writers outperformed individual writers in term of both their writing and self-assessed beliefs about their writing.

Keywords

collaborative writing, individual writing, self-assessed beliefs about writing, social constructivist theory