Rationale
English has become an essential means of communication in the age of globalization In the context of Vietnam, English is regarded as a compulsory subject in many schools, colleges, and universities Of the four skills, writing is considered to be one of the most necessary academic skills, especially at the tertiary level Students are supposed to acknowledge that mastering the complexities of the writing process not only helps them achieve their immediate goals of composing well-written essays, reports, and research papers, but also serves their further education later Many students, on the other hand, consider writing to be the most difficult compared to the other skills because they might have to struggle with developing and organizing ideas, using correct grammar and word choices, and applying proper writing mechanics According to Homstad and Thorson (1996), writing is always a challenging skill for those learning English because of some restrictions in terms of language proficiency and linguistic knowledge Silva (1993) suggested that it is difficult for students learning English as a foreign language to compose a great essay because of the significant difference between the sentence structure of the first language and the second one Likewise, Wang and Wen (2002) suggested that students' difficulty in writing English is due to the influence of their mother tongue, as they often translate from their mother tongue to English in their writing
Within that context, developing the writing competence for EFL learners as a foreign language is not a simple and easy task In fact, researchers have examined the effectiveness of various pedagogical methods to find an effective way of teaching and learning English writing skills in the ESL classroom Many researchers worldwide (Dobao, 2012; Storch, 2011) highly recommended collaborative writing to be implemented in the writing classrooms Since the communicative language teaching approach (CLT) was introduced in the 1970s, many English instructors have taken advantage of pair work or group work to enable students to accomplish higher quality writing products Over the years, there has been an increasing interest among scholars and educators in collaborative writing, which may be simply defined as the participation of two or more writers in the creation of a single text This learning strategy contributed to a shift from a teacher-centered to a learner- centered approach and brought multiple advantages to language learners In addition, Shehadeh (2011) and Dobao & Blum (2013) reported that collaborative writing activities were able to boost students’ motivation, confidence, and sense of responsibility
Although research about the efficacy of collaborative writing in L2 or foreign language teaching has proliferated in recent years (Eloba & Oskoz, 2010; Grufron & Hawa, 2015; Kim, 2020), little prior research has been done to explore students' perceptions of collaborative writing and their classroom practices In Vietnam, some studies were conducted to explore students' perceptions of collaborative writing or its effect on students' performance (Pham 2016; Trinh & Nguyen 2021; Le 2021) However, there is a lack of investigation into the gap between students' perceptions and their classroom practice Hence, more research to gather insights into students’ perceptions and their practices is pertinent to a better understanding of the use of collaborative writing in the classroom, especially at the tertiary level Also, previous studies on students' perceptions of collaborative writing mainly focused on pair work, with little attention paid to writing in small groups
All the above reasons have inspired the writer to choose the topic “EFL
Students’ Perceptions and Practices of Collaborative Writing in Tertiary Academic Writing Classrooms” for my M.A thesis This study aims to explore students' perceptions towards collaborative writing activities as well as their practices during the writing classroom The findings of the study are hoped to provide valuable insights and pedagogical implications for both teachers and students to enhance the effective implementation of collaborative writing in L2 contexts.
Aim and objectives
This study aims to explore third-year English majors’ perceptions and practices of collaborative writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms at Quy Nhon University
To achieve the aim, three specific objectives were identified:
1 Identify EFL students’ perceptions regarding the effects of collaborative writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms
2 Find out how EFL students implement collaborative writing in their classrooms
3 Indicate the divergences between students' perceptions and their actual classroom practices.
Research questions
The study aims to answer the three following research questions:
1 What perceptions do EFL students hold regarding the effects of collaborative writing?
2 How do EFL students implement collaborative writing in writing classrooms?
3 What are the divergences between students' perceptions and their actual classroom practices?
Scope of the study
As stated above, the study is restricted to the area of exploring students' perceptions and practices in collaborative writing in tertiary academic writing classes Specifically, the researcher identifies students' general perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing and some difficulties they might face using this learning approach Besides, students' practices of collaborative writing in academic writing classrooms are extensively investigated Then, the similarities and differences between their perceptions and practices were also discussed Based on the findings, some suggestions were given to help the teachers improve the implementation of collaborative writing in the classrooms to the fullest, which might promote students' enjoyment of learning and their academic performance Due to the constraints of resources and time, the study limits its scope to the participation of 120 third-year students at the Department of Foreign Languages, Quy Nhon University Therefore, the study limits itself to the teaching and learning of English writing, not for all students of Quy Nhon University The justification for choosing participants is that they are assumed to be similar in terms of required proficiency level and background knowledge of English Those students had passed the previous writing courses (Writing 1, 2, 3, and 4), so they fully understood the basics of essay writing Second, in the second term of the school year 2021-2022, they have been taking an academic writing course, “Writing 5”, in which they are taught how an academic essay should be written Last but not least, the participants engaged in this study have all experienced group writing in most of the previous writing courses Therefore, they well perceived some effects and challenges when this approach was implemented in the classrooms.
Significance of the study
Students' perceptions of collaborative writing in academic writing classrooms and their practices during the writing process are the focus of this study From an educational perspective, the study is significant for both theoretical and practical reasons
In terms of theory, the study contributes to the importance of implementing collaborative writing in writing classrooms It also provides a thorough insight into how students implement collaborative writing and to what extent their practices reflect their perceptions
In terms of practice, the findings of this study may benefit English teachers, students, and researchers As for the teachers, the findings of the study could raise teachers’ awareness of how their students perceive the use of collaborative writing in writing classrooms As a consequence, they will endeavor to implement it in an effective way so that their students can improve their academic writing performance This study can also be used as a reference, not only by English teachers at Quy Nhon University but also by teachers who want to employ collaborative writing in their writing classes For students, this study hopes to help them realize the importance of collaborative writing and some problems may arise that might result in their negative perceptions In addition, they might figure out how to bridge the gap between their perceptions of collaborative writing and their classroom practices Finally, with regard to the researchers, those who share the same interest in this topic could certainly rely on this research to find reliable and useful references for their related studies.
Organization of the study
The thesis consists of five chapters
Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, the research questions, the significance, and the structure of the study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of perceptions and practices
In recent years, foreign language teaching and learning have shifted from teacher-directed instruction to student-centered learning; as a result, studies focusing on students' perceptions have caught the interest of many researchers Numerous studies on teaching methods have been conducted on the perceptions of students as students play an important role in the teaching and learning process Students' perceptions influence not only their approaches to language acquisition but also how they respond to teaching activities Students who are dissatisfied with the teaching method will lose interest in learning the language Therefore, the teacher's understanding of students' perceptions and practices is essential since it allows them to evaluate their teaching systems based on learning system results For instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and learning, Chen and Hooswer (2010) underlined that they must take into account both the students' perceptions and their actual classroom practices
McShane and Von Glinow (2010, p 68) unmistakably defined that
“perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us." In other words, perception can be seen as the way in which the five physical senses shape our understanding of the real world Perception, according to Irwanto (2002) (as cited in Fadillah, 2019), is classified into two types: positive and negative perceptions (a) Positive perception is one that describes all the information and reactions that continue to be used This process will be repeated by engaging, accepting, and supporting the perceived item (b) Negative perception is the perception of all information and reactions that are in contrast with the object of perception As a result, both good and negative perceptions will always influence someone's behavior Positive or negative perception is determined by how individuals interpret all of their information about an observed thing In the current study, perception is defined as someone's idea about something that they learn to evaluate their attitude toward the use of something, whether they agree or disagree with that method or something that they learn It means that students have their own perceptions of what they learn and how they react to it According to Sidhu (2003), students' perceptions are students' points of view about anything that occurs throughout the learning process and provides ideas or arguments for instructors or classmates to better their learning process
From the definitions given above, it can be concluded that perception happens when students use a given meaning to stimulate the classroom environment or their classroom behaviors Thus, in order to understand one’s behavior, one needs to understand their perceptions In some ways, one's perception is closely connected to his or her practice (Bodenhausen & Hugenberg, 2009, p.14)
Despite the fact that several studies have lately been interested in students' collaborative writing practices, the definition of practice has rarely been stated According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, practice is defined as “the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it” In this study, practices are related to the actions and strategies students deploy in the class during the learning process Practices also include students’ behavior towards their friends and the teacher when a strategy or teaching method is implemented in the classroom.
Teaching writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms
Writing or learning to write in a language is not simply a matter of writing something down Writing is not only the act of putting words into sentences but also a process in which the writer focuses on inventing ideas and how to organize and express them in an effective way in order to enable readers to understand what they want to convey through the written work In addition, Hayes (1996), as cited in Weigle (2002), viewed writing as a cognitive activity that involves three main activities: text interpretation, reflection, and text production
As stated by Sokolik (2003), writing was both “a physical and mental act” (p.88) in the sense that writers were required to commit words or ideas and simultaneously invent ideas and consider their expressions and organizations Besides, when composing words, writers mainly focus on two purposes The first one is to express the ideas that writers have in their minds The second one is the text, which is written and is used to communicate the ideas to the readers, as writing is also a means of communication (Nunan, 2003) Thus, writers must be able to convey and explain ideas in ways that could impress readers Moreover, writing is both a product and a process Writers need to generate ideas, organize, draft, edit, read, and rewrite to produce a writing product – a paragraph, an essay, or a report
In general, writing is not only the product of word formation, the presentation of meaningful messages, and the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way, but also the process of generating ideas, organizing, writing, and rewriting
There are several approaches taken in teaching and learning ESL/EFL writing However, the product approach and the process approach are two approaches that have been widely adopted by many researchers and educators
The product approach is considered one of the earliest approaches used in teaching and learning writing, in which students should begin with pre- writing before moving on to composing and revising According to Tangpermpoon (2008), the fundamental goal of this approach is to raise student awareness of grammatical structures The product approach, according to Nunan (1999), places greater emphasis on activities in which students imitate, copy, and transform models of correct language offered by textbooks or teachers As a result, writing courses only feature tasks at the sentence and grammatical levels As stated by Saeidi & Sahebkheir (2011), modeling is central to this approach, and it is regarded as an effective teaching tool as well as a valuable source of feedback for students if it is implemented in the appropriate way According to Pincas (1982), the emphasis of this approach is on linguistic knowledge, with a strong emphasis on the appropriate use of vocabulary, grammar, and cohesive devices
The purpose of the product method, according to Nunan (1999), is to focus on the final product of the writing, which should be a cohesive, error- free text As a result, familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing should all be included in the writing learning process in order to achieve the aforementioned goal (Pincas, 1982) During the familiarization stage, the teacher introduces a topic using textbook instructions and then reads model texts In the guided and controlled writing stages, learners are provided with the opportunity to freely practice their language skills and organize ideas until they are ready for the free production activity Then, learners are required to produce a written text based on what they have learned in the free- writing stage In the product approach, the teacher is placed at the center of the entire learning process as he/she acts as the provider of the language model, guiding the exercises and correcting errors when the final product is created As a result, this approach is highly valued for offering learners with linguistic knowledge of rules and structures and helping learners have a thorough understanding of how to use vocabulary and grammatical structures correctly for each writing genre There are, however, certain limitations to adopting the product approach in teaching and learning writing Murray (1980) suggested that using sample texts restricts L2 learners' creativity in writing, particularly when learners are asked to read the text, analyze it, and then begin to write in the form of the text Furthermore, Eschholz (1980) viewed the imitation of models as a process of "stultifying and inhibiting writers rather than empowering or liberating them." Reid (1993) further added that while using the product approach, students are likely to overemphasize the significance of vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics without a sense of audience or writing purpose, both of which are essential components of writing
In conclusion, the product approach is primarily concerned with the accuracy of the learners' final products of writing based on knowledge of language structure, and writing progress is primarily viewed as the result of imitation of the form of texts provided by the teacher However, writing activities are controlled in order to minimize errors in text production, which limits the development of creativity and the learners' potential
The process approach, as opposed to the product approach, emphasizes the writing process and encourages learners to explore meaning and ideas rather than practice vocabulary and grammatical structures According to Hatcher and Goddard (2005), in order to write a well-written text, learners must go through a variety of phases and processes in which they must deal with various procedural strategies During the process approach, learners need to draft, reflect on, correct, and rewrite in order to make a better writing version According to Badge and Write (2000, p.154), teachers should use a four-step writing process (pre-writing, drafting/composing, rewriting, and editing) to encourage their students to develop their own writing In the pre- writing stage, students are provided a writing task and supported to find out related vocabulary and grammar To support students, teachers may employ multiple techniques such as brainstorming, clustering, or discussion In the second stage, students used the related vocabulary and grammar to express their ideas in their first draft Students receive feedback from their teachers or peers after drafting Then, depending on the feedback, they make modifications by rewriting, adding, eliminating, or rearranging ideas A final written product, therefore, is a result of the thinking process that learners go through Furthermore, Tribble (1996) described the process approach as “an approach to the teaching of writing which stresses the creativity of the individual writer, and which pays attention to the development of good writing practices rather than the imitation of models” (p.160) As a result, students are viewed as central in the learning process in the process approach because they are given the opportunity to make decisions on how to begin, organize, and express their opinions in writing activities, while the teacher supports them in the development of writing strategies for getting started, drafting, revising, and editing Even though the process approach has been shown to be effective method for teaching and learning writing, other researchers believe that teachers should take its disadvantages into consideration when applying this approach in the classroom It might take a long time and is sometimes unsuitable for teaching settings if both the teacher and students pay too much attention to the stages (Harmer, 2004) Furthermore, Badger and White (2000) highlight that the process method cannot provide students with enough input, particularly in terms of linguistic knowledge, to enable them to write effectively, particularly those who lack both knowledge and experience
In conclusion, the process method has certain limitations, but it is generally a useful tool for learners to develop their writing skills since it focuses on the composing process, during which students are given the opportunity to explore and reformulate their ideas Also, with constructive comments from the teacher and other students, learners may improve their writing performance Additionally, as a facilitator in the learning process, the teacher helps students develop their critical thinking from their own experience, and the learning process no longer depends entirely on the teacher
After discussing the product and process approaches to teaching writing, it is evident that each has its own different strengths and weaknesses As a result, the process of teaching writing must be viewed from the perspective of a balance between process and product In other words, we should consider the importance of paying attention to both product and process during the writing process.
Collaborative learning
As learning is a social activity, it should take place in collaborative contexts that are favorable to learning The ideas of collaborative learning are based on the theories of John Dewey (1938), Harold Bloom (1956), and Lev Vygotsky (1986), as cited in Dobao & Blum (2013), who argued that learning is a social activity that cannot be done in isolation In fact, collaborative learning has been extensively researched in a number of studies
As stated by Colbeck et al (2000), collaborative learning can be defined as a learning technique that requires students to work together in groups or in pairs in a classroom situation In the same vein, Barkley et al (2005) describe collaborative learning as an activity that is designed for students through working in pairs or small groups, and during the time they work together, they are able to achieve their common goals From the point of view of Slavin (1995), collaborative learning is a method in which students work in groups to share their knowledge, help their friends to master academic content, teach responsibility for learning, and help others to learn Furthermore, Smith and MacGregor (1992) define "collaborative learning" as "an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual efforts by students, or joint intellectual efforts by students and teachers" (p.1) In most collaborative learning situations, students are working in groups of two or more, collaboratively searching for understanding, solutions, meanings, or creating a product However, one of the most explicit definitions of collaborative learning is provided by Graham (2005), who argues that collaborative learning is “a small group of learners working together as a team to solve problems, complete a task, or accomplish a common goal” (p.11)
Many EFL writing experts believe that collaborative learning is preferable to traditional, teacher-centered teaching methods since students may benefit from pair or group work in the classroom For example, McDonough (2004, p.208), citing evidence from pedagogically-oriented research, states that:
Pair and small group activities provide learners with more time to speak the target language than teacher-fronted activities, promote learner autonomy and self-directed learning, and give instructors opportunities to work with individual learners In addition, learners may feel less anxious and more confident when interacting with peers during pair or small group activities than during whole-class discussions
Gokhale (1995) notes that students who participate in collaborative learning can help students think more critically and perform better than when they work individually Working collaboratively also improves students' problem-solving abilities, ability to resolve conflicts, use effective communication strategies, and time management skills According to Chen et al (2004), collaborative learning helps students understand others and how to manage the elements of successful collaboration, how to manage conflict in a group, and set their goals together Students are more likely to develop a sense of responsibility and reach a higher level of critical thinking while working with others
In sum, it can be concluded that collaborative learning is an educational method that emphasizes the importance of group learning activities to solve problems and encourages students’ active participation in the learning process When a group is presented with a task, there will often be a process of clarification, discussion, and evaluation of ideas Specifically, students have to cooperate with other members of their own group to exchange ideas, search for information, and find meanings to solve their current situations without waiting for the teachers’ clarification Therefore, it is generally accepted that two people working together to solve a problem or complete a task have a much better chance of success than one person working alone.
Collaborative writing
Collaborative writing, which has its roots in collaborative learning, has grown in importance in the teaching of writing in EFL classrooms since the 1980s In fact, several studies on collaborative writing have been published in the last several years, and each author or scholar defined the concept of collaborative writing in different ways However, collaborative writing is sometimes confused with cooperative writing According to Storch (2013), collaborative writing is an activity that requires the co-writers to be involved in all stages of the writing process, sharing the responsibility for and ownership of the entire text produced Then, based on these traits, he clearly distinguishes collaborative writing from cooperative writing While cooperation involves a division of roles and responsibilities for completing one section, like collecting information or editing the final draft, learners in collaborative activities work together throughout the entire writing process, sharing decision-making and responsibility for the text Given that these two terms have been used by researchers interchangeably, what the researcher focuses on in this study is collaborative writing, not cooperative writing
As collaboration means the process of working with others in order to achieve something, collaborative writing can be defined as a process in which two or more individuals collaborate to create a single text (Storch, 2019) To put it another way, students work together, complete the task, and create a product based on their discussion According to Lowry, Curtis, and Lowry (2004), collaborative writing is a social process that helps group members focus on a common goal that requires negotiation, cooperation, and discussion throughout the process of creating a common text
Galegher and Kraut (1994) share the same perspective on collaborative writing and emphasize the social nature of collaborative writing They view collaborative writing as a social interaction process that involves negotiation about the meaning of facts, a demand for consensus as to an appropriate solution, division of labor based on concerns for fairness and quality of work, coordination of individual contributions, and resolution of questions about authority within the group (p.113)
Similarly, others have emphasized that collaborative writing can be seen as a social practice that has different meanings for different participants Rice and Huguley (1994) offer yet another definition that emphasizes the primary activities of collaborative writing:
Collaborative writing is any writing performed collectively by more than one person that is used to produce a single text; and we define writing as any activity that leads to a completed document, including brainstorming or idea-generating, gathering research, planning and organizing, drafting, revision, and editing (pp.163-164)
In addition, Barkley et al (2005) suggest stages of the writing process that learners go through during collaborative writing activities, including the first stage (brainstorming ideas), the second stage (gathering information and organizing the ideas into an outline), the third stage (drafting the writing), the fourth stage (revising), and the final stage (revising and editing the writing) The main core of collaborative writing is a process in which a pair of students or a group of students work together to produce a piece of writing, so the cooperation and contributions of the group members play an important role
In the collaborative writing process, instructors as facilitators will demonstrate how a group or pairs of students provide feedback to each other, search for assistance from others, and discuss and negotiate strategies for the concerns of writing (Kessler et al., 2012) Consequently, the writing product will be better than before, as there is social interaction between teachers and students
Given the fact that there are many different viewpoints about the definitions of collaborative writing, each scholar or author has their own way of defining this term based on their field of research and their experience In this thesis, however, the researcher chooses to describe collaborative writing as a process in which students engage in pairs or groups to produce a single written text During this process, students are asked to brainstorm, discuss, generate, and deliberate on ideas for the text together As it is the joint product of the whole group, each member in the group has to share equal responsibility for contributing to and completing a shared piece of writing
2.4.2 Benefits and drawbacks of collaborative writing
Since collaborative writing became common practice in various educational settings and gained popularity in language teaching and learning, many studies have been conducted to examine the benefits and challenges of the implementation of collaborative writing
Collaboration in writing simply means students work in small groups as a team to produce and complete one written text Many researchers in the field of the teaching of writing support the use of collaborative writing as it positively impacts both teachers and students
First of all, Brown & Kolin (1982) point out a list of benefits that collaborative writing may bring about for EFL students They state that collaboration in writing can offer productive feedback and critique, increase productivity and save time, ensure overall writing effectiveness, and accelerate decision-making time Collaboration through writing not only assists students in completing a task but also inspires them to communicate more effectively (Storch, 2013) While working as a group, learners in collaborative writing activities communicate with each other to convey their intended meaning by providing and receiving assistance as they engage with one another while working toward a common task goal As pointed out by Wismath and Orr (2015), learners can reap the benefits of working together by pooling their knowledge and resources for joint decision-making and problem-solving Besides helping each other pool their ideas, students can receive immediate feedback from peers so that they do not feel stressed and frustrated when writing Then, in EFL courses, collaboration in writing can improve student engagement, reduce anxiety associated with doing tasks alone, and boost students' confidence
Furthermore, collaborative writing transforms the traditional teaching classroom from a teacher-centered to a student-centered environment (Ghufron
& Ermawati, 2015; Zhou et al., 2019) Students assume their new role as active learners, while teachers serve as expert mentors The learners, as well as the knowledge seekers, are the center of the classroom They take responsibility for their own learning, work together to complete specific tasks while tutoring and consulting one another, and learn to work as a team There is student-student interaction in the problem-solving assignment, and thus learning takes place As a result, student-centered classrooms can foster a learning community in which students share experiences, support one another, and learn from one another To put it another way, collaborative writing transforms the dynamics of the classroom, where teachers are traditionally the source of knowledge and students are passively getting it with no opportunity to collaborate
Furthermore, in ESL writing, collaboration may promote grammatical accuracy as well as a sense of self-confidence (Young et al., 2018) In addition, exchanging group ideas or group brainstorming is likely to effectively enhance group creativity Exchanging ideas can somehow activate students’ prior knowledge so they may produce more interesting ideas However, learners should be made aware of the significance of mutual interactions and take complementary roles as they organize, produce, and share ideas and views with their peers as pre-collaborative activities To put it another way, students are supposed to listen to one another in order to gain different perspectives and explore different ways of thinking Integrating collaborative approaches into ESL writing classes allows students to not only complete their tasks collaboratively but also communicate, discuss writing strategies, and scaffold one another (Storch, 2011) The students may differ from one another in a number of ways Some students cannot write well but may propose interesting ideas Some others cannot come up with good ideas or examples, yet they can write well In this situation, collaborative writing allows students to share their strengths with others Learners differ in terms of language skills, background experience, knowledge, and other factors, and they learn and obtain information from one another by writing jointly (Fung, 2010) Mutual sharing of ideas among the learners and the contribution of different writing styles may allow the learners to produce accurate and rich contexts Such a pooling of students’ different abilities can co-construct knowledge and enhance their writing skills more effectively than they could separately
Khatib & Meihami (2015) also expand on the benefits of collaborative writing in their writing on collaborative dialogue and language She describes collaborative dialogue as the conversation that occurs when students are working together on a problem-solving activity Learners use language in more meaningful ways during collaborative writing activities They make every effort to communicate their intended meaning to their peers As a result, not only do students engage in writing and exchange information through collaborative writing, but they also use their target language to discuss their writing, which will undoubtedly help them enhance their target language Many studies on collaborative writing have yielded positive results
According to research conducted in first-language L1 and L2 contexts (Ransdell & Barbier, 2002), collaborative writing encourages students to cultivate reflective thinking as they are involved in the group discussing and sharing their thoughts with their colleagues When learners’ ideas are challenged by their peers, they will try to convince, defend, and protect their viewpoints, or they might need to reconsider their beliefs and ideas Studies have also demonstrated that during the collaborative writing process, learners pay attention not only to grammatical accuracy and lexical choices but also to discourse (Lin & Maarof, 2013; Meihami et al., 2013; Zhang, 2018, 2019) Students should be able to brainstorm, propose ideas, discuss them, and then begin writing jointly during collaborative activities Thus, they engage in productive discussions to create new ideas and effective plans They respond to one another during the writing process, which will help them understand the task at hand Furthermore, other studies also reported that the student's participation and discussion during collaborative writing activities encourages self-directed learning or autonomy (Deveci, 2018; Tanyeli Zeki & Kuter, 2017), which is crucial for more effective learning
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used a mixed-methods approach to conduct the study Specifically, the paradigm of the research involved the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data through questionnaires, focus group discussions, and classroom observations The quantitative approach involves the collection of information on a particular study using statistical analysis (Creswell, 2013) The qualitative approach, on the other hand, allows participants to obtain detailed and rich information about the results of a given study through their views and experiences (Fraenkel, Wallen, and Huyn, 2012) Thus, integrating quantitative research and qualitative research in this study is necessary to have an in-depth understanding of EFL students’ thoughts and the real situations of applying collaborative writing at a tertiary level This research design also helps in collecting complete and possibly accurate data from the research subjects, which was used for the detailed analysis and which led to the important recommendations that were made.
Research setting
This study was conducted at the Department of Foreign Languages at Quy Nhon University in Binh Dinh Province in the school year of 2021-2022, and the target population for this study was third-year students majoring in
According to the university’s official curriculum designed for English Language majors, there are five different writing courses In the present study, the students completed four out of five courses (Writing 1, 2, 3, and 4) during the first two years of university, in which they were taught to write sentences, e-mails, paragraphs, and essays, respectively To be specific, for Writing 1, students were taught sentence structures and types of sentences so that they could write proper sentences, beginning with simple sentences and extending through compound and complex sentences in various tenses After that, they attended the course “Writing 2” in the second term of the first school year, in which they learned to write short paragraphs for narrative or descriptive purposes In order to write a good paragraph, they were asked to include a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence in their paragraphs and to use transition words or phrases competently In addition, they were instructed to write a formal or an informal email in English in Writing 3 when they were competent with writing In the course, “Writing 4”, students then took their first steps to write their own essay on the given topic They also got familiar with how to form a well-planned outline for their writing essay In the courses mentioned above, since class time was restricted to fifty minutes for each period, in order to assess each student's English competency precisely, teachers frequently asked their students to do the writing tasks in pairs or in groups Students were familiar with the procedure of collaborative writing as they were taught how to produce a written text jointly
After they had finished those four courses of writing, students would attend the course “Writing 5”, which was compulsory for all students at the beginning of the third year at university While students were mostly asked to write essays on familiar topics in Writing 4, they would learn to write the various modes of academic essays on a variety of topics in Writing 5, including discussion-opinion-based essays, agree-disagree essays, compare and contrast essays, and cause and effect essays The writing activities are designed to provide students with opportunities to learn the fundamentals of writing various types of essays while also developing their writing fluency and accuracy
Due to the large number of students in a class and the time limitation, it was challenging to evaluate each student's final product when they were asked to write a whole essay instead of one or two paragraphs as they used to do in the previous courses To address this issue, teachers frequently organize collaborative writing activities in order to save time on feedback and reduce the workload Hence, it is assumed that most students can express their perceptions towards collaborative writing activities based on their personal experiences during the course.
Research participants
120 third-year students of English Language majors from the three intact classes (Class 42A, 42B, and 42H) were engaged in the study Hence, research participants were assumed to be similar in terms of required proficiency level and background knowledge Subjects for the study were selected for the two following reasons: (i) they had previously taken writing courses (Writing 1, 2, 3, and 4) in which collaborative writing has been used as a strategy to help them learn materials; (ii) they had previously written essays in small groups, and some of them were already aware of the efficacy of collaborative writing activities
All the necessary information about the participants collected from the questionnaire is summarized in Table 3.1 below
Table 3.1 Summary of the characteristics of the research participants
English writing ability before taking the course
5 Experience in writing in pairs or in small groups
As can be seen from Table 2, there was a significant difference in the number of male and female students There were 114 females and only 5 males engaged in the study, which accounted for 95% and 5%, respectively
As for time spent studying English, over four-fifth (85.8%) of the participants have been learning English for more than seven years Regarding their self- assessment of English writing ability before taking the course, Writing 5, 117 participants assessed their writing ability as being at the average level, making up nearly 98%, whereas only 3 students, with 2.5%, admitted that they were good at English writing Specifically, none of the participants was confident enough to assess that they were excellent at this skill In terms of their previous experiences with collaborative writing, all of the participants reported that they used to do the writing tasks in pairs or small groups.
Research instruments
The study employed mainly qualitative and quantitative data collection tools The relevant data were collected through different instruments, such as observation, questionnaire, and interview A questionnaire can provide numerical data for a large number of participants, whereas data gathered through interviews and classroom observations typically provide researchers with a clear, in-depth understanding of informants' perceptions and practices
(Kendall, 2008) The combination of quantitative research and qualitative data collection in this study is necessary as this not only helps the researcher understand the study problem clearly but also helps increase the reliability of answering three research questions for this study A summary of research questions and research instruments employed to collect the data in this thesis is briefly presented in Table 3.2 below:
Table 3.2 Research questions and instruments
Research questions Instruments The number of participants
1 What perceptions do EFL students hold regarding collaborative writing?
2 How do EFL students implement collaborative writing in writing classrooms?
3 What are the divergences between students' perceptions and their actual
Focus group discussions 9 groups of 8-10
EFL students classroom practices? Classroom observations 9 groups of 8-10
The questionnaire was conducted mainly for the purpose of collecting data in order to explore EFL students’ perceptions of collaborative writing based on their own learning experiences The questionnaire was largely adapted from the previous study conducted by Farrah (2011) Some of the items were adopted and adapted to be suitable for exploring EFL students’ general perceptions of collaborative writing in the academic writing course they were currently taking
All the participants are third-year English Language majors, and it is assumed that they have an upper-intermediate level of English proficiency Therefore, in order to guarantee the precise and concise information from the original version taken from Farrah’s questionnaire, only the English version was distributed to them However, some items in the questionnaire were carefully reworded to enhance the participants’ comprehension of the questionnaire as the researcher hoped to save time and collect reliable data
In this study, the questionnaire (see Appendix A) consists of 6 questions grouped into 2 main parts, which were designed to answer the first research question
Part I is about personal information and has five questions In this part, students are requested to give their personal information, including age, gender, years of learning English, their assessment of their writing ability, and whether they are familiar with the concept of collaborative writing before taking the course
Part II is designed in a multiple-choice format with a five-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree) For this study, a five-point Likert scale was used as it is widely accepted as a proxy interval level of measurement, in line with common practice in educational research Participants would respond to each item on a 5-point Likert Scale, which represented the extent to which a given statement applied to them This part includes only one question, whose aim is to examine EFL students’ perceptions of the implementation of collaborative writing Part II is later divided into two smaller parts While Part A has twenty-seven statements (items E1-E27) regarding students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing, Part B consists of five ones (items D1-D5), which mainly focus on difficulties students may face using collaborative writing
Focus group discussion (FGD), which has been used generally for market research in the past, is now being frequently used as a qualitative method of data collection for social sciences The application of focus groups in educational research has become particularly useful in exploring participants' feelings, opinions, reactions, and experiences about a particular topic Focus group discussion often engages a group of approximately 6–10 individuals who share some common interest or characteristics Many researchers have relied on focus group discussion to achieve various objectives, including: (1) the evaluation of students’ knowledge or attitudes about curriculum issues (Bauchner, Boardman, & Palmer, 1996; Pugsley, 1996); and (2) the enhancement of survey results in education research (Panyan, Hillman, & Liggett, 1997)
For the present study, FGD was employed for the following reasons First of all, using FGD helps the researcher develop and obtain a wider set of answers from interviews through their own stories than in individual ones It also saves time because the researcher can get a large number of opinions from a group of people at the same time Psychologically, the group setting can potentially provide a secure atmosphere in which participants can spontaneously express their ideas by exchanging and discussing them together Another practical reason for FGD to be chosen in this study is the large number of participants in 9 observed writing classes With the large number of 120 students, it is impossible to conduct normal interview for each individual Therefore, in order to make it feasible to carry out the research, a FGD was conducted with nine groups who were randomly chosen from three classes by the researcher Those students were grouped by the teacher in the writing classes and produced written texts jointly during the course Although English has mostly been the medium of instruction and communication throughout the whole course, the interview was conducted in Vietnamese instead of English so that the interviewers would feel much more comfortable when expressing themselves
Then, in the current research, the questions for FGD (see Appendix B) include eight main questions to elicit students’ perceptions of how they perceive collaborative writing as well as how they use collaborative writing during the classes The first question asks the participants in what way collaborative writing affects their writing skills The second question is used to find out whether it is difficult to get members to actively participate in collaborative writing or not The next one aims to clarify whether collaborative writing is time-consuming as students have to spend more time generating ideas, explaining things, and checking spelling and grammar Then, students’ opinions on the effect of disagreement when writing collaboratively will be explored through question 5 The fifth question is designed to find out clearly how the students divide group work (equally or unequally) The last three questions require students to report on what the group members did at each stage of writing, including Pre-writing stage, While-writing stage, and Post-writing stage The information recorded from the FGD helped to answer the second research question
Apart from the questionnaire and group interview, classroom observation served as a tool to collect qualitative data because the data collected in this way would reflect the real activities in the observed classrooms Classroom observations are useful to researchers in a variety of ways They provide researchers with ways to check for non-verbal expressions of feelings, determine who interacts with whom, grasp how participants communicate with each other, and check how much time is spent on various activities Marshall and Rossman (2006) defined observation as
“the systematic description of events, behaviors, and artifacts in the social setting chosen for study."
There were 9 classroom observations of 9 chosen groups conducted in what Creswell (2013) labels a “Nonparticipant/observer as participant” Each group in the sample was observed once The researcher went to the classroom with the teacher, sat next to the observed group, and observed how collaborative writing was employed by students, then recorded it in the observation checklist The observations were focused on the use of collaborative writing in writing classes during three major stages of the writing process: before the lesson (Pre-writing), during the lesson (While- writing), and after the lesson (Post-writing) Each class of observation lasts 2 periods (100 minutes)
In this research, the researcher used a classroom observation checklist (see Appendix C) to observe how students implement collaborative writing and to evaluate the extent to which students collaborate with each other throughout the three main stages of the writing process There are 22 items divided into 4 main sections, which aim to investigate students’ practices in collaborative writing in three main stages of the writing process: (1) Pre- writing, (2) While-writing, (3) Post-writing, and (4) the level of students’ collaboration throughout the writing classrooms Specifically, 7 items in Pre- writing stage concern group formation, techniques to generate ideas, and the way those techniques are applied in the classrooms, individually or collaboratively Regarding items related to While-writing and Post-writing, the researcher observed the activities that take place during the two stages and evaluated to what extent those activities are done individually or collaboratively And then, items in the last section show the level of students' collaboration in the whole class From classroom observations, the data collected through the checklist aimed to help the researcher find out students’ integration of their perceptions regarding collaborative writing in classroom practices.
Procedures for Data Collection
Data for the present research was collected using a questionnaire, focus group discussion, and a classroom observation checklist The details of the data collection procedure for each instrument are described as follows
The first instrument to be administered was classroom observations As for classroom observation, the researcher sought permission from the Foreign Languages Department and the instructor of the writing course to conduct 9 observations from three classes (Class 42A, 42B, and 42H) First, the researcher randomly selected 9 different groups for 9 observations Those groups of students were also the subjects engaged in the second research instrument, the focus group discussion All nine groups were coded (Group 1 to Group 9) to ensure the validity of the data analysis The researcher then chose to observe only one group for each classroom observation Their practices in collaborative writing were closely scrutinized throughout the three main stages of the writing process, including Pre-writing, While-writing, and Post-writing, in which the average time allocated for each stage was around 30, 45, 25 minutes, respectively During the observation, the researcher entered the classrooms with the teacher and sat next to the group that needed to be observed, avoiding interrupting the classroom interaction in any way as the lesson progressed The researcher recorded the students’ activities and evaluated the level of collaboration among group members in each stage of the writing process as stated in the observation checklist (see Appendix C) Also, the researcher briefly recorded any occurrences that were not included in the observation checklist This was done manually, and it enabled accurate coding of classroom practices for the data analysis later
After classroom observation, students from observed groups were also involved in focus group discussion (FGD) to find out their perceptions of using collaborative writing during the course Focus group discussion was conducted after the course instructor taught some essential background knowledge as well as introduced the collaborative writing process The content of the questions for the discussion focused on the aspects mentioned above The FGD was conducted with 9 groups of 8–10 sampled students in a quiet place The researcher sat with them and asked them eight prepared questions, listened to their viewpoints, and wrote their responses down During the discussion, the participants were given a chance to freely express their thoughts They could take turns talking or they could discuss together to answer the questions The discussion for each group may last for about fifteen to twenty minutes At first, the guiding questions for focus group discussion were designed in English But, when conducting the research, the researcher used the Vietnamese version to instruct the participants to express their ideas clearly and easily
As regards the questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted prior to the administration of the final questionnaires to all respondents It was carried out by developing the adapted questionnaires, and those were submitted to the experienced teachers and supervisor for the sake of comment After ensuring the appropriateness of the questionnaires, the researcher had discussions with the instructor and students regarding the purpose of the data collection and how it would have been done Then, the questionnaire was directly distributed to 120 students during their break time by the end of the course, the purpose of which was to give more reliable data as students had almost completed the course at hand That means these students could pay more attention to answering the questions related to what they had experienced in collaborative writing strategies employed in the course It took them about 10 to15 minutes in order to finish all the items on the questionnaire As the copies of the questionnaire were in English, the researcher was present in the class in order to deal with any of the students’ questions or requests for clarification.
Procedure for data analysis
Once the data collection had been accomplished, the data analysis was initiated Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis were employed in order to answer the research questions and attain the objectives The quantitative data were collected, coded, tabulated, analyzed, described, and interpreted in a manner that supports the findings obtained from the study First, the data gathered through a questionnaire in the form of five-point Likert Scales was tabulated in terms of frequency (F), percentage (P), mean scores (M), and standard deviation (D) Hence, all students’ responses were categorized, coded, and then analyzed quantitatively by the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) For qualitative data analysis, data obtained through focus group discussions were transcribed and translated into English In addition, the results from all items in the observation checklist regarding group formation, idea generation techniques, the activities that take place in each phase, how students implement those activities (individually or collaboratively), and the level of student collaboration throughout the class were recorded in order to shed light on the research questions
Then, raw data from FGD and classroom observations were analyzed qualitatively to give further explanation of students’ perceptions of collaborative writing as well as their practices in classrooms Finally, conclusions and recommendations were made based on the findings.
Research reliability and validity
In the present study, the questionnaire was adapted mainly from Farrah
(2011), which many researchers commonly used as a research instrument to explore students’ perceptions of collaborative writing However, the researcher did reconsider and adjust the questionnaire to suit the research setting as well as the aim of the study The researcher then used a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to check the reliability of the questionnaire The coefficient alpha for the questionnaire was found to be 0.78, indicating a high degree of internal consistency and, therefore, presenting a considerably reliable instrument for conducting the study.
Legal and ethical considerations
Before conducting this study, the researcher asked the Foreign Language Department at Quy Nhon University for permission and the approval of the instructor teaching the course to conduct the research in three classes Before data collection, the purpose of the research and the process of applying collaborative learning in writing class were explained carefully to the research participants Before, during, and after the implementation of the study, the researcher kept trying to make participants feel comfortable and free from the fear of being evaluated or scrutinized In addition, their personal information shared through questionnaires, FGDs, and observations was merely used for research purposes and was promised to be kept confidential The above efforts were made to maintain respect for the participants of the study as well as to ensure that the study was conducted ethically and legally
To sum up, this chapter has presented the methodology, which was considered the core component of the research Therefore, all information about methodology, such as research design, research site, participants, teaching materials, instruments, procedures, data analysis, and ethical issues, was described carefully The results of the study are put on view in the next chapter, Chapter 4.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Students’ perceptions of collaborative writing in writing classrooms
To gauge students’ perceptions of collaborative writing in writing classrooms, a questionnaire was employed in the present study to answer the first research question: “What perceptions do EFL students hold regarding the use of collaborative writing?” The questionnaire includes 32 items with 2 sub-categories: (1) students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing; and (2) students’ perceptions of difficulties they might face using collaborative writing The participants of the study were asked to rate each item by choosing from a 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree) response scale It means that answers falling into the range from 1 to 2 belong to the disagreement levels, those from 4 to 5 belong to the agreement levels, and 3 refers to the neutral level To obtain data from the questionnaire, the students' perceptions were interpreted using the following scale:
Apart from the quantitative data gathered from the questionnaire, the focus group discussion was used to supplement the information which could not be found in the questionnaire responses Specifically, the focus group discussion (FGD) was scheduled in nine meetings, with a total of nine groups (8–10 students for each group) selected randomly by the researcher In groups, they discussed and took turns giving their opinions in order to answer eight questions, which aimed to help the researcher yield some noteworthy insights about how students perceive the use of collaborative writing and how they use it during writing classes
After the process of the data analysis and interpretation, the findings are presented and discussed in the form of descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviations) with the support of qualitative data from the focus group discussion
4.1.1 Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing in writing classrooms
In this study, the questionnaire was designed with 27 items divided into six parts to investigate students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on 6 sections: their writing skills, other skills, motivation and confidence, collective effort and responsibility, problem solving and knowledge exchange, and academic improvement Details of the results will be presented and discussed as follows:
4.1.1.1 Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their writing skills
A great number of students agreed that collaborative writing affected their writing skills in a positive way The finding was supported by both quantitative and qualitative data The results of the first part of the questionnaire, with 6 items relating to students’ perceptions of the effect of collaborative writing on their writing skills, are shown in Table 4.1 below
Table 4.1 Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their writing skills
Effects of CW on students’ writing skills
E1 Working in groups helps me to know how to organize to have a better paragraph
E2 Working in groups helps me develop the writing content focused on the topic
E3 Working in groups helps me use sentence variation and transitions more effectively
E4 Working in groups helps me identify errors in the use of speech
E5 Working in groups helps me avoid grammatical errors
E6 Working in groups helps me avoid errors in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization
The results from Table 4.1 have shown students’ high ratings on the value of collaborative writing in terms of its effects on their writing skills Remarkably, most of the mean scores for these items above were high (from 3.97 to 4.16), which implies that many students agreed that their writing skills benefited much from collaborative writing Specifically, in terms of organization (item E1), the students agreed that working in groups helped them know how to organize to have a better paragraph (M =4.16; SD =.368)
In terms of content, the participants agreed that working in groups aided them in developing topic-specific writing content (M = 4.16; SD =.368) Besides, most of them showed agreement on the positive effect of collaborative writing on the use of sentence variation and transitions (M = 4.10; SD =.302), the identification of parts of speech errors (M = 3.97; SD =.361), and the identification of grammar errors (M = 4.10, SD =.362) Furthermore, the majority of students stated that working in groups helped them avoid spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors (M = 4.07, SD =.256)
The data from the focus group discussion also supported these findings More specifically, all groups agreed that collaborative writing had a positive effect on their writing skills Among nine groups, six stated they learned better than they did before, and the other three showed their interest in writing lessons since collaborative writing was implemented in the classrooms When five groups were asked about the possible reasons for getting better results in writing skills, three out of nine groups said that while working in groups, other members helped them realize their own mistakes and avoid making the same mistakes in the future Additionally, some groups shared the same opinion that while using collaborative writing, they learned many good things from others in order to produce a good essay For instance, one of the groups mentioned that “writing collaboratively helped our group know how to organize ideas, choose the appropriate words and phrases for the given topic, and helped us to avoid making common grammatical mistakes” (Group
7) Moreover, three out of nine groups insisted on collaborative writing, which helped them create new ideas for their essays as it helped them with brainstorming ideas Group 2 said that “when we write in groups, we come up with more good ideas and save a lot of time in organizing our ideas as well as making an outline for our group's writing than when we work individually."
In nutshell, most of the participants positively responded to the items regarding the effects of collaborative writing on their writing skills In particular, a large number of students positively perceived the impact of collaborative writing not only on their writing abilities but also on their learning of the English language in general These findings are in line with other studies (Dobao & Blum, 2013; Shehadeh, 2011; Storch, 2005, 2019) that found that their participants expressed a preference for collaborative writing due to the opportunities that it offered not only to learn from each other about writing, but also to practice their English with peers without being afraid of making mistakes In addition, the use of collaborative writing helped students learn how to organize a good paragraph, write the content of the paragraph focused on the given topic, and use sentence variation and transitions more effectively This finding has already been found in previous research (Kim, 2020; Shehadel, 2011) These researchers stated that practicing writing essays using collaborative writing is found helpful for students to enhance content generation and organization; enrich vocabulary and language use; upgrade mechanics; and improve EFL students’ writing performance Besides, they also mentioned the benefits of collaborative writing in helping students avoid making mistakes when using parts of speech, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization According to Wigglesworth and Storch (2012), in collaborative writing classrooms, students practice mutual learning, which, in turn, results in a better writing product In the present study, students get immediate feedback from their group members and then correct lexical and grammatical errors in order to make their group writing more accurate
4.1.1.2 Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on other skills
The quantitative data in conjunction with the qualitative data revealed that students perceived the positive effect of collaborative writing on other skills The results of the second part of the questionnaire, consisting of 3 items, are presented in Table 4.2 and then discussed as follows:
Table 4.2 Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on other skills
No Effects of CW on other skills N Minimum Maximum Mean Std
E7 Working in groups stimulates my critical thinking skills
E8 Working in groups enhances our communication skills
E9 Working in groups enables us to use skills which individual assessments do not
Table 4.2 reveals students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on other skills The students expressed that the use of collaborative writing stimulated their critical thinking skills (M =3.89; SD =.345) Furthermore, the students agreed that collaborative writing improved their communication skills (M
= 4.00; SD =.318) and allowed them to use other important skills when completing a writing task collaboratively (M = 3.99; SD = 2.66)
Also, these findings were strongly supported by the qualitative data as the focus group discussion revealed that the students’ perceptions of the stimulation of critical thinking skills, the improvement of communication skills, and other skills were generally positive Many students, in particular, stated that collaborative writing had a significant impact on stimulating their critical thinking skills, which they considered important for their learning process Students from Group 9 stated that “…we can develop critical thinking skills through discussion, clarification of ideas, and evaluation among group members…” Furthermore, they also claimed that they could improve their teamwork skills and social relationships when they collaborated with other group members Some students from Group 1 agreed that “…we might develop our social skills because we are given opportunities to communicate and interact with others in collaborative writing classrooms…”
On top of that, collaborative writing also allowed students to “employ skills which do not happen in individual work” (Group 4)
In general, most of the above-mentioned items got high to moderate ratings, which indicates that the students highly valued collaborative writing in promoting their critical thinking, communication skills, and other skills that individual assessment does not This is in line with a number of studies (Gokhale, 1995; Farrah, 2011; Barkley et al., 2005; Wong et al., 2011) For example, Gokhale (1995) reported that students who participated in collaborative writing performed significantly better on the critical thinking test than when they wrote an essay on their own The results also bring into line with a study conducted by Brown (2008), who found that more than three-third of her participants confirmed that the collaborative writing enhanced their communication skills
4.1.1.3 Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their motivation and confidence
Students’ positive perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their motivation and confidence were explored by both questionnaire and focus group discussion data The results of the third part, with 4 items, were displayed in Table 4.3
Table 4.3 Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their motivation and confidence
Effects of CW on students’ motivation and confidence
E10 I enjoy writing more than I did before due to collaborative writing
E11 Working in groups helps me to work in a more relaxed atmosphere
E12 Working in groups helps us to participate actively in the learning process
E13 Having completed group projects, I feel
I have gained more confidence in working with other students
According to Table 4.3, students agreed that collaborative writing increased their enjoyment of writing (M = 3.92; SD =.273) Many students (M
= 4.00; SD =.246) strongly agreed that collaborative writing enabled them to actively participate in the learning process Additionally, collaborative writing enabled students to work in a more relaxed setting (M = 3.90; SD
=.256) Furthermore, many of them reported feeling more confident in English writing when working collaboratively (M = 3.87; SD =.338)
Students’ implementation of collaborative writing in writing classrooms
In the current study, the second research question is addressed based on the data analysis of 9 classroom observations The findings revealed some patterns of practices among students in three main stages of the writing process, including Pre-writing, While-writing, and Post-writing, which was almost similar to the procedure proposed by Widodo (2013) In general, the nine observed groups shared similarities regarding the implementation of collaborative writing; however, the way in which each group practiced collaborative writing differs from one another in some points of the writing process The results of classroom observation checklists are briefly discussed below
First of all, group formation is often considered the preliminary step in the writing process The grouping method frequently employed in ESL classrooms may include random, student-selected, and teacher-selected groupings From 9 observations, it can be seen that the instructor let students group themselves, and they worked together in such groups for the whole course "Writing 5"
After taking a seat in groups, students then proceeded to the first stage of the writing process, which is the Pre-writing stage Once the teacher introduced the topic of the lesson, students started working in groups to discuss and to brainstorm ideas about the given topic At this stage, all the observed groups were engaged in some activities for brainstorming such as listing, clustering, freewriting, etc Even if they might use the same techniques to generate ideas, the classroom observations revealed significant differences in the collaboration levels of the members of each group Some groups used these techniques mostly individually, while others demonstrated a high level of collaboration among members
Specifically, 5 out of 9 groups shared the same pattern as they took out a piece of paper, wrote the main topic of the essay in a circle in the center of the paper, and quickly wrote down any related ideas Students in Groups 1 and 6 quickly made a list of ideas that were relevant to the given topic; meanwhile, students in Group 8 discussed the topic together, and one student in the group was responsible for taking note of any ideas shared by other members During the discussion, all of the observed groups made use of their smartphones to find references from the Internet that covered information about the given topic For example, in the fifth class observation, students were asked to write an essay on the causes and effects of young people's sedentary lifestyles The students in Group 5 quickly searched for sample essays related to this topic and quickly jotted down the main ideas, which greatly helped facilitate brainstorming Based on what they had noted down, students then discussed together to cross out any ideas that were not good and keep those that were better for writing the paragraph
On the contrary, the other three groups showed little collaboration level as the members preferred to work individually in the Pre-writing stage They worked on their own to brainstorm the ideas, then the leader gathered all the ideas from all the group members before selecting the best ideas for the specified topic As for Group 8, they decided to divide the essay into four parts (introduction, body 1, body 2, and conclusion) and split themselves into smaller groups, each sub-group having to work on its assigned part of the essay Then, they put together their respective parts of the essay and produced the final draft before handing it in to the teacher for marking While this method of work division may seem to be the best way to approach collaborative writing, it can actually create more work later when the separately written pieces from different writers are brought together into a complete essay The entire writing paper must be edited to eliminate differences in style and inconsistencies between the various parts of the essay written by the different writers Thus, while it may take more time up-front to write together, it can help students avoid the difficulties of combining pieces of writing and may create a stronger, more cohesive writing paper
As observed, the majority of students in Groups 2, 4, 5, and 7 actively engaged in this stage They collaborated to brainstorm ideas, arrange them, and develop a writing outline The other groups, on the other hand, had unequal work division since they totally depended on the group leaders For example, in Group 3, just two students and the leader produced the majority of the written paper, while other members gossiped and were distracted from the group assignment
Observations also indicated that most groups used Vietnamese when exchanging and discussing ideas with one another Out of the nine observed groups, the use of the target language was seen more in Groups 1 and 3 while Group 8 employed the mother tongue excessively throughout the stage
Once students are ready to write, they need clear instructions and adequate resources to complete the next step in the process, which is While- writing stage During this stage, students worked in groups to organize the ideas into sentences and paragraphs, and then they began to write the first draft based on the outline
As noticed, each group selected one person to write the whole essay while the other members assisted with ideas, word choice, grammatical structures, or phrases This person may be the group leader or sometimes one whose handwriting is neat and legible
Students in four of the nine groups actively collaborated throughout this stage For example, through collaboration, students in Group 2 did not only share their ideas but grammar and vocabulary as well They discussed with each other the grammar usage, word choice, or ideas they should include in their writing As for Group 5, they together shared their ideas and discussed the suitable word choice and appropriate grammatical structures and expressions The remaining five groups; however, did not show effective cooperation among group members during group writing Among them, Group 3 showed the lowest level of cooperation among members as the leader mostly dominated this stage over the rest of the group members She expressed the ideas using her own grammar and vocabulary but did not discuss them with other group members
At this stage, students were also encouraged to focus on the content and meaning of the writing rather than the accuracy of the essay When the draft was completed, students proceeded to the peer-feedback activity Three out of nine groups just had the leader or the excellent students revise the final draft whereas the remaining groups shared their pieces of writing and conferred with other group members to improve the written text For instance, Group 1 and 6 showed much higher levels of collaboration than the other groups throughout this stage To be more specific, the leaders of Group 1 and Group
6 read aloud their written products to other members, while other members gave comments or sometimes made suggestions to replace overused words or remove redundant information They discussed enthusiastically and commented a lot on the organization of ideas in each paragraph, as well as the usage of tenses or phrases that were appropriate to the writing context Due to bad time-management, students from groups 3, 4, 5, and 8 did not have enough time to improve the coherence and cohesion of their writing Likewise, Group 3 had no time left to reread their essay, so they submitted their draft without proofreading and editing In addition, though they actively got involved in Pre-writing stage, Group 7 only showed a little collaboration among members for this stage Specifically, they took turns reading the final draft individually without giving any feedback Only one student in this group asked the leader to improve the flow of the written text by adding some more transition words As observed, only students in Group 1 managed to write the final version to make sure that their writing was error-free before handing it to the teacher for assessment
During the Post-writing stage, students were asked to submit their drafts for assessment and grading Because of the limited time and a large number of groups, the teacher randomly selected and took pictures of two or three passages to project on the screen The teacher then gave remarkable comments about the good points and weaknesses of students’ writing papers based on different aspects of writing, such as content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics Then the teacher pointed out some remarkable writing mistakes and elicited how to correct them from the students It may help students raise awareness of the common mistakes they make and avoid making the same mistakes for the next writing lesson Besides the teacher’ constructive feedback, the students were given about 5 minutes to work in groups and give comments on their friends’ written pieces
From the classroom observations, students in Group 1, 2, and 6 were active in giving comments or suggestions on the other group’s final drafts As for Group 1, due to the high level of collaboration, they did some spell checks and grammar checks, and then found some mistakes that their friends had made carelessly Students from Group 6 also made suggestions to cut unneeded information and reduce long or wordy sentences in the written work of other groups The remaining groups collaborate very little with one another during this stage They are relatively passive in sharing and commenting on the essays of other groups For example, in Group 4, only the leader and a few other members exchanged views with each other to offer remarks, while the rest of the group members were seemingly distracted and off-task.
Students’ perceptions and their actual classroom practices regarding
It could be said that students’ perceptions and their actual practices have a close relationship with each other as they are important elements in deciding the quality of the learning process Therefore, this section aims to compare students’ perceptions with what they actually did in the classrooms All the data triangulated in this study showed some similarities and differences between students’ perceptions and their actual classroom practices They will be mentioned in this section as follows
After the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, the results indicated a convergence between students’ perceptions regarding collaborative writing as well as what they actually did in the classroom From the classroom observation, the nine groups shared some similarities in the way they practiced collaborative writing In Pre-writing stage, students together brainstormed the ideas, organized the ideas, and made writing outline
In While-writing stage, one student hand-wrote and all the members discussed actively Whenever someone expressed an idea, the others listened and gave comments They corrected mistakes for each other In Post-writing stage, all group members together read the writing, finding and correcting the mistakes before handing it to the teacher for assessing and grading Students strictly followed the teacher’s guidance throughout the three main stages of the writing process What is seen from the observations did match students’ perceptions of collaborative writing when they were asked to discuss what each member did in every stage of the writing process To be specific, for the Pre-writing stage, students in Group 1 reported that they "brainstorm ideas using the cues from the teacher or some online references", "draw a mind map to form a cluster of ideas", and "take notes ideas to make an outline together" Then, Group 6 added that "in the While-writing stage, we join hands to write the first draft after that we together read the essay again to find out some mistakes and edit it to complete the final version " Finally, students "…hand in our drafts…to get feedback from the teacher or sometimes from students in other groups in the Post-writing stage…" (Group
8) Altogether, it could be said that students’ classroom practices match their perceptions regarding what they did at each stage of collaborative writing
The observation also showed that some students were on-task or off- task during the collaboration In most groups, there were a few students who did not totally pay attention to the group work Some of them slept, got on social media, or chatted while writing Two students from Group 4 even quarreled over matters unrelated to the writing task In addition, when brainstorming the ideas together, some students in Group 7 had different ideas and opinions, which led to quarrels and dissatisfaction However, they soon managed to find common ideas among group members, which is convergent with their perceptions collected from the questionnaire and the focus group discussion Group 2, for example, expressed that “though we sometimes argue about the ideas which should be included in the written piece, we eventually manage to solve it because we know how to negotiate and we mutually understand each other…”
However, there are some points where the divergence between students’ perceptions and their classroom practices was seen regarding (1) the level of involvement in the collaborative writing among group members, (2) the time allocated for proofreading and editing the final draft, and (3) the overuse of mother tongue during the discussion
To be specific, the level of involvement of group members may vary widely among groups Some members mostly did the writing process, while others put little effort into the group work Most of the groups asserted that they “contributed roughly equally to the group writing” Nevertheless, from the observations, students did not actually practice what they said In real teaching settings, each group might comprise up to 10 students; therefore, it is a challenging task for all the group members to get involved throughout the collaboration This can lead students to less in-person collaboration For example, for Group 8, brainstorming and editing were done individually while writing was done in pairs Another example can be seen in Group 3 when the leader mostly dominated the While-writing stage though they together brainstormed ideas and arranged them to make a writing outline in the Pre- writing stage Interestingly, only 1 of the 9 groups observed had an equal division of work Students from Group 1 divided the group work equally in every writing stage When the topic was given, the group leader immediately identified each member’s responsibility and set the time for each stage of their writing Then, they brainstormed ideas together and outlined the essay Students with neat and legible handwriting took on the task of writing drafts while other members discussed selecting better ideas and the order in which they should be organized in the essay
One more thing that shows the gap between students’ perceptions and their classroom practices is the way they proofread and edit their writing papers In FGD, the majority of groups confirmed that they spend a considerable amount of time reflecting on and revising their final draft before giving it to the teacher for feedback For example, Group 2 said that “after finishing our draft, we always spend time checking it carefully by sharing the essay and reread it together whenever we find any mistakes; we will discuss the way to correct them…” However, the observations showed that some groups did overlook the importance of revising and editing their final draft as they just gave a cursory glance at their work or even did not have it checked, which is believed to negatively affect the quality of their work This is mainly because students cannot manage their time effectively as they do not set the time for each stage at the beginning of the writing process They mainly focused on brainstorming, planning, and drafting As the time for each class is limited, they do not carefully proofread and correct errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics as they perceive
In addition, students all reported that they “mainly use English” as a means of communication in writing classes; however, all observations verified that their use of English is less observed Despite being asked by the teacher to discuss in English at the beginning of the class, all groups observed used very little English throughout the class Instead, they converse with each other in Vietnamese most of the time
To sum up, this chapter consecutively provided an answer to each research question via a thorough analysis and discussion of the collected data All the data from questionnaires, focus group discussions, and classroom observations was gathered and analyzed carefully These findings would be the basis for the points discussed in the next chapter.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Conclusion
The present study was conducted at Quy Nhon University It aimed to explore students’ perceptions of collaborative writing and the reality of their practices in writing classrooms A total of 120 third-year English Language majors were chosen as the participants in the study Nine groups of students were engaged in the focus group discussion, and their classroom practices regarding collaborative writing were also observed in the writing classes Through the data analysis and discussion of the data collected from the questionnaire, focus group discussion, and classroom observation, it is possible to give the following conclusion as follows
As revealed from the data analysis and interpretation of the questionnaire and the focus group discussion, the vast majority of EFL students hold both positive and negative perceptions regarding the use of collaborative writing in the context of the study Students supported the use of collaborative writing in writing classes as they benefited from this approach
It is perceived to help them improve their writing skills, motivation, confidence, collective effort and responsibility, problem-solving and knowledge exchange, and academic improvement Specifically, students highly evaluated its value as it helps them improve their writing performance, motivation for learning, and critical thinking The results from FGD also strengthen this point, as most groups of students confirmed that collaborative writing helps them to write better, exchange knowledge, learn new things from others, and enhance critical thinking and communication skills as well However, uneven work division during collaborative writing activities needs to be taken into consideration for the desired outcomes in the teaching and learning process
Furthermore, the results from the classroom observations indicated students' perceptions of the procedure of collaborative writing that they adopted in the classes They differed in the way they divided the group work while writing collaboratively in writing classes; however, students in general followed the procedure, which consists of three main stages: Pre-writing, While-writing, and Post-writing For the Pre-writing stage, they brainstorm ideas, form a cluster of ideas, and plan an outline together Then, they write their first draft, revise it based on peer feedback, and edit it to complete the final version in the While-writing stage Finally, they hand in their drafts to get feedback from the teacher as well as from students in other groups in the
Based on the data triangulated in this study, the gap between students’ perceptions and their actual classroom practices was then identified Firstly, they do not use English as a means of communication during the writing process Instead, they almost used Vietnamese, which contradicted what they said in the focus group discussion In addition, students were not aware of the importance of revising and editing as they perceived They tended to focus on discussing, brainstorming, and drafting rather than on proofreading and correcting errors in their final drafts This is believed to result in poor quality in the written piece as their group work might be full of remarkable mistakes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc Last but not least, students reported that they equally contributed to the group work, but in fact, the level of involvement of group members may vary widely among groups When students were engaged in collaborative writing, there were some students who did mostly everything and seemed to dominate the whole writing process, while others got distracted or put little effort into the group work.
Pedagogical implications
In light of the conclusions drawn from the study, the pedagogical implications for both teachers and students should be put into consideration
The current study provides further supportive evidence of the use of collaborative writing in EFL classrooms as students showed their highly positive perceptions of this approach Hence, teachers should encourage students to write collaboratively in writing classrooms, which can improve not only students’ writing performance but also their motivation, confidence, collective efforts and responsibility, problem-solving, and knowledge exchange In addition, the results gained from this study highlight that teachers should set clear tasks and provide students with clear instructions and guidance Teachers need to consider training students before implementing collaborative writing and instructing students about what they have to do at each stage of the writing procedure Besides, teachers should pay attention to some problems that might negatively affect students’ perceptions as well as their writing performance For example, they ought to give students enough time to do their collaborative writing, help them resolve conflicts, and encourage them to actively get involved in group work
With regard to the overuse of the mother tongue during the discussion, teachers should encourage students to think and express their ideas in English
It is permissible, but to some extent only, for example, in cases where students have to explain complicated terms or things
Besides, in order to help students engage actively in the writing process, teachers can consider asking students to complete the group work self- reflection form and the group participation observation checklist form It is very useful for both teachers and students because students may increase their awareness of their role in the group, and this is one of the criteria for the teacher’s final evaluation For teachers, they may find it easier to control group participation as they can give help, remind the weaker students to try their best, and encourage higher-achieving students to cooperate with each other in the same group to achieve the final goal Also, in order to encourage students to work actively in class, teachers can give some encouragement bonuses for active participants
Finally, as far as students are concerned, they should be serious and committed to collaborative writing, have a good time and group management, plan how they will work on the collaborative writing, establish rules for their teamwork, and fairly divide the group tasks among members Furthermore, students ought to raise their awareness of the importance of editing and proofreading before submission In order to do that, teachers can offer them peer-editing sheets, writing correction keys, and writing rubrics so that students know what they should do after they finish their group work The process consists of revising, editing, and proofreading It helps students create a piece of writing that is clear, organized, and effective, which can immensely improve their writing performance.
Limitations
Despite the researcher's considerable efforts, certain limitations in this study could be identified due to the number of observations, time constraints, and other unexpected factors In the first place, the number of observations in a classroom is limited Only nine observations were carried out in total Second, the result of the research is meaningful only in a specific context, which is the implementation of collaborative writing at Quy Nhon University Therefore, if the study was conducted on a large scale with more participants and over a longer period of time, the results would be more reliable Additionally, the discussion of this thesis only focuses on some main points regarding the three research questions, while the interviews of students provide a lot of issues related to the use of collaborative writing in classrooms It is impossible to cover all the aspects emerging from the interviews and classroom observation in the field of collaborative writing Despite the above-mentioned shortcomings, the researcher’s serious work, data collection, and research methodology had well retained the validity and reliability of the results.
Recommendations and suggestions for further research
Considering the contributions and limitations of the research, several suggestions for further studies have been made First and foremost, the study carried out an investigation into students’ perceptions but did not include teachers’ perceptions Therefore, future studies may expand to explore teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding collaborative writing Second, the study limited itself to investigating students' difficulties using collaborative writing in the classrooms As a consequence, it would be more helpful if the researcher could give some recommendations or strategies for dealing with such difficulties and successfully implement collaborative writing Last but not least, the use of online collaborative writing needs further study as education has undergone significant transformations with the emergence of e-learning due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
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The following questions aim to collect the data for a thesis titled “EFL
Students’ Perceptions and Practices of Collaborative Writing in Tertiary Academic Writing Classrooms." I would be grateful if you could help me complete my research satisfactorily by putting a tick () on the selected responses Your objective answers are very important to the success of the study They will be completely confidential and used for research purposes only Thank you for your cooperation!
3 How long have you been learning English?
Under 1 year 5-7 years More than 7 years
4 How do you evaluate your writing ability before taking the course “Writing 5”?
5 Have you ever produced a written text in pairs or in small groups?
PART II: STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF COLLABORATIVE
WRITING IN THE WRITING CLASS
6 What is your opinion about the use of collaborative writing in the class? (Please circle one among five options)
E1 Working in groups helps me to know how to organize to have a better paragraph
E2 Working in groups helps me develop the writing content focused on the topic
E3 Working in groups helps me use sentence variation and transitions more effectively
E4 Working in groups helps me identify errors in using parts of speech
E5 Working in groups helps me avoid grammatical errors
E6 Working in groups helps me avoid errors in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization
Other skills stimulates my critical thinking skills
E8 Working in groups enhances our communication skills
E9 Working in groups enables us to use skills which individual assessments do not
E10 I enjoy writing more than I did before due to collaborative writing
E11 Working in groups helps me to work in a more relaxed atmosphere
E12 Working in groups helps us to participate actively in the learning process
E13 Having completed group projects, I feel I have more confident working with other students
E14 Working in groups helps me to focus on collective efforts rather than individual effort
E15 Having completed group projects, I feel I am more cooperative in my writing
E16 Despite disagreement, the group is able to reach consensus
E17 Working in groups helps me to have a greater responsibility for myself and the group
E18 Working in groups enables us to help weaker learners in the group
E19 Working in groups makes problem-solving easier
E20 Working in groups helps me to receive useful feedback
E21 Working in groups fosters exchange of knowledge, information, and experience
E22 I have the chance to express my ideas in the group
E23 I learn new ways to support my points of view
E24 Working in groups improves our performance
E25 I get more work done when I work with others
E26 Working in groups increases my comprehension
E27 Overall, this is a worthwhile experience
D1 Working in groups makes it difficult get members to actively participate in tasks
D2 Working in groups is a waste of time as we keep explaining things to others
D3 While working in groups, we spent more time generating ideas than I do when I write alone
D4 While working in groups, we spent more time checking spelling, punctuation and grammar than I do when I write alone
D5 We sometimes disagreed about what to say or how to express our ideas
APPENDIX B QUESTIONS FOR FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION
Question 1: In your opinion, how does collaborative writing affect your writings skills?
Question 2: Do you think it is difficult getting members to actively participate in collaborative writing? Why?
Question 3: Do you think you spend more time generating ideas, explaining things, and checking spelling and grammar when writing an essay collaboratively? Why?
Question 4: Do you think disagreement have bad effect on the group work when writing collaboratively?
Question 5: How did the students divide group work (equally or unequally)? Question 6: What did group members do in Pre-writing stage?
Question 7: What did group members do in While-writing stage?
Question 8: What did group members do in Post-writing stage?
Yes Partially No Individual Little collaboration
Much collaboration Items related to Pre-writing stage
Students were randomly grouped by the teacher.
Teacher let the students group themselves
Students had a discussion on the given topic
Students spent time finding some reference sources that cover information about the given topic.
Students brainstormed ideas about the given topic.
Students used prewriting techniques to gather ideas
(freewriting, researching, listing, clustering, etc.)
Students put the ideas together and developed an outline including topic sentence and supporting ideas.
Items related to While-writing stage
Students organized the ideas into sentences and paragraphs.
Students began to write a rough draft based on the outline.
Students conferred with others to improve the written text.
Students shared their piece of writing with other members in the group for editing.
Students reflected on and revised their writing based on peer feedback.
Students proofread and corrected errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Students reorganized text order to improve the flow of information and logic.
Students reread the essay to replace overused words and remove redundant information.
Items related to Post-writing stage
Students handed in their group work to the teacher for feedback.
Students rewrote the final copy of their writing correctly and