The impacts of collaborative writing on efl students’ paragraph writing performance

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ PHAM THI THU HA THE IMPACTS OF COLLABORATIVE WRITING ON EFL STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING PERFORMANCE MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ PHAM THI THU HA THE IMPACTS OF COLLABORATIVE WRITING ON EFL STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING PERFORMANCE Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Major code: 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYEN THANH TUNG HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH Độc lập – Tự – Hạnh phúc KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tôi tên là: PHẠM THỊ THU HÀ Ngày sinh: 27/11/1996 Nơi sinh: Bình Thuận Chuyên ngành: Lý luận phương pháp dạy học môn Tiếng Anh Mã học viên: 1881401110012 Tôi đồng ý cung cấp tồn văn thơng tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh kết nối tồn văn thơng tin luận án/ luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học Sở Khoa học Cơng nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Ký tên (Ghi rõ họ tên) Phạm Thị Thu Hà STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled “The impacts of collaborative writing on EFL students’ paragraph writing performance” as the statement of requirements for thesis in Master’s Programs at Ho Chi Minh City Open University, issued by the Higher Degree Committee Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis This thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary institution Ho Chi Minh City, November 2022 PHAM THI THU HA i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Pham Thi Thu Ha, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my special thanks to all the following people for helping me complete this thesis Firstly, I am deeply grateful for all the help of Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thanh Tung, a senior lecturer of the Department of English at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Without his extremely tremendous support, ultra–careful revision as well as thoroughly critical comments in a really intensive period of time, my thesis would not have been finalized I really learned from my devoted supervisor a lot, especially his research methodology I also would like to acknowledge all the staff in the School of Graduate Studies, particularly Dr Nguyen Thi Xuan Lan and Prof Dr Nguyen Minh Ha, as well as those in the Office of Collaboration Affairs and Research Management for their constant assistance during my absence in work In addition, my gratitude is reserved for all the teachers and eighty students of the two classes at Tran Hung Dao High school for the gifted who enthusiastically joined my research Finally, my parents deserve my most special thanks for their unlimited support whenever I am almost giving up iii ABSTRACT Collaborative writing is widely researched for its effects on students’ writing accuracy; however, very few previous research studies were conducted in the teaching and learning context of Vietnam Therefore, the purpose of this study is to fill these gaps Eighty students at a high school in Phan Thiet city, Vietnam, participated in the study One difference in the treatment between the two groups was the composing stage Forty students from the control group composed essays individually after they worked together for idea development to make an outline, whereas forty students from the experimental group composed essays collaboratively Data collection was from students’ pretests, posttests of both individually and collaboratively written papers, and from the questionnaire The study reveals that collaborative writing had great effects on students’ writing performance in their papers Moreover, the students had positive attitudes towards collaborative writing so that teachers could employ to their writing classrooms if they wish to Keywords: paragraph writing, CW, performance, attitudes iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Research aims and research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Overview of thesis chapters CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Collaborative writing 2.1.1 Definitions of collaborative writing 2.1.2 Features of collaborative writing 2.1.3 Models of collaborative writing 10 2.2 Procedures for applying collaborative writing into teaching and learning paragraph writing 12 2.3 Paragraph writing 15 2.4 Students’ beliefs 16 2.5 Empirical studies 17 2.6 Chapter summary 21 CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research paradigm 23 3.2 Research sites and participants 24 3.2.1 Research site 24 v 3.2.2 Participants 24 3.2.3 Ethical considerations 25 3.3 Research design and methodology 26 3.3.1 Approach 26 3.3.2 Method 27 3.3.3 Instruments 31 3.3.3.1 Tests 31 3.3.3.2 Questionnaire 33 3.4 Analytical framework 35 3.4.1 Tests 35 3.4.2 Questionnaire 35 3.5 Validity and reliability 36 3.5.1 Tests 36 3.5.2 Questionnaire 37 3.6 Chapter summary 38 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 39 4.1 Findings 39 4.1.1 Tests 39 4.1.1.1 Pretest 39 4.1.1.2 Posttest 40 4.1.2 Questionnaire 41 4.1.2.1 Students’ enjoyment 41 4.1.2.2 Impacts of using collaborative writing 43 4.1.2.3 Challenges of using collaborative writing 45 4.1.2.4 Students’ learning outcomes 47 4.1.2.5 Future demands 48 4.2 Discussions 50 4.2.1 Improvement of students’ paragraph writing performances 50 4.2.2 Students’ attitudes towards collaborative writing 51 4.3 Chapter summary 54 vi