The Effects of Collaborative vs. Individual Work on EFL Written Texts: Aspects of Quality and Engagement
Author
Díaz Vega, LorenaAdvisor
Whittaker Dovey, RachelDate
2016Subjects
Lengua Inglesa; teaching English; Enseñanza; EducaciónEsta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.
Abstract
This paper presents a study which analyses the effects of collaborative working in the quality of EFL students’ written text and in EFL students’ engagement when writing texts. This paper compares two sets of short stories written in English in class by fourth year secondary students (ages 15-17) at a public bilingual high school of Madrid, Spain. The present study included a total of 40 participants, 20 of whom worked individually and 20 of whom worked collaboratively in pairs. Participants were first taught some guidelines about how to write a short story. Then, each student/pair was asked to write one short story. A total of 30 short stories were collected (20 written individually and 10 written in pairs). The quality of EFL students’ written text was determined by a quantitative analysis that included organization, fluency, complexity and accuracy. Participants’ engagement when writing texts was determined by a small qualitative study based on observation during data collection. This paper concludes that that collaborative partner work has various positive implications for writing in the EFL classroom, especially in terms of organization, accuracy and EFL student’s engagement when written texts.
Key words: teaching English as foreign language, collaborative writing, organization, fluency, complexity, accuracy, engagement.
Files in this item
Google Scholar:Díaz Vega, Lorena
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
The value of student engagement for Higher Education quality assurance: Moving away from the regulatory approach
Vilà, Ruth; Aneas, Assumpta; Rubio, María José; Freixa, Montserrat
2019-04 -
Academic engagement: assessment, conditions, and effects—a study in higher education from the perspective of the person-situation interaction
Alonso Tapia, Jesús; Merino Tejedor, Enrique; Huertas, Juan Antonio
2022-05-23