Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

2571

Date

2016

Document Type

Dissertation (Access Restricted)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

English

Concentration

Applied Linguistics

Committee Chair

Emily Thrush

Committee Member

Teresa Dalle

Committee Member

Angela Thevenot

Committee Member

William Duffy

Abstract

Although pair and group work are commonly used in English language classrooms, research investigating EFL learners’ perceptions of collaborative writing (CW) is very limited. This study explores EFL students’ attitudes and perceptions toward CW. The study involved 30 sophomore students enrolled in a writing course at a Saudi Arabian university. The course was divided into two parts: individual writing (IW) for the first month (four weeks) and collaborative writing for the second month (four weeks). The study uses a within-groups mixed methods design whereby the same group of students received both the individual writing and collaborative writing assignments for exploring participants’ attitudes toward collaborative writing as compared to their views toward individual writing. The same self-report survey (6-point Likert-scale) was used two times (after each writing condition) to determine the participants’ views of each writing condition. In addition, semistructured interviews were conducted to gain qualitative insights while exploring the participants’ views toward the two writing conditions they experienced as well as to find out the benefits and challenges they faced. Quantitative results show that participants reported the effectiveness of CW significantly higher than individual writing. The analyses reveal a statistically significant difference where ratings of CW were higher compared to IW, indicating helpfulness of CW in enhancing not only their writing skills but also their learning of all four English language skills. Qualitative data show that overall learners’ views about the CW experience were very positive. The majority of the participants’ interview reports show that CW offered more opportunities for learning English than IW did. Further, 80% of the participants’ reports indicate that CW enabled them to use the language and there were more ideas and knowledge to share during collaboration. Despite some reservations, the majority of the participants were supportive of the CW experience. Based on the analyses, this study has a number of pedagogical implications in regard to the use of CW in the EFL writing classroom. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research are also presented.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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