TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the benefits of collaborative prewriting in a Thai EFL context
AU - McDonough, Kim
AU - De Vleeschauwer, Jindarat
AU - Crawford, William J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the research assistants for their help with transcription and data analysis: Phung Dao, Alexandre Dion, and Amornthep Jaidee. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We are grateful for the funding provided by the Canada Research Chairs program (950-231218).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - Although second language (L2) collaborative writing research has demonstrated that texts composed collaboratively are more accurate than individually-written texts, few studies have explored whether collaborative prewriting yields similar benefits. This study investigated whether collaborative prewriting, i.e. interacting with peers during the prewriting phase followed by individual writing, led to higher accuracy, complexity, or analytic ratings than individual prewriting. It also explored the relationship between these text features and student talk during collaborative prewriting. English L2 university students in Thailand (n = 57) were randomly assigned to write a problem and solution paragraph with either collaborative or individual prewriting. Their texts were analysed in terms of accuracy (errors/word) and complexity (coordination and subordination), and were rated using analytic rubrics (content, organization, language). Transcripts of the collaborative prewriting discussions were analysed in terms of the topic of student talk (content, organization, language, task management, off-task talk). The results showed that the collaborative prewriting texts were more accurate and received higher ratings than the individual prewriting texts. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between prewriting time and accuracy. Implications for the use of collaborative prewriting tasks in settings for English as a foreign language (EFL) are discussed.
AB - Although second language (L2) collaborative writing research has demonstrated that texts composed collaboratively are more accurate than individually-written texts, few studies have explored whether collaborative prewriting yields similar benefits. This study investigated whether collaborative prewriting, i.e. interacting with peers during the prewriting phase followed by individual writing, led to higher accuracy, complexity, or analytic ratings than individual prewriting. It also explored the relationship between these text features and student talk during collaborative prewriting. English L2 university students in Thailand (n = 57) were randomly assigned to write a problem and solution paragraph with either collaborative or individual prewriting. Their texts were analysed in terms of accuracy (errors/word) and complexity (coordination and subordination), and were rated using analytic rubrics (content, organization, language). Transcripts of the collaborative prewriting discussions were analysed in terms of the topic of student talk (content, organization, language, task management, off-task talk). The results showed that the collaborative prewriting texts were more accurate and received higher ratings than the individual prewriting texts. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between prewriting time and accuracy. Implications for the use of collaborative prewriting tasks in settings for English as a foreign language (EFL) are discussed.
KW - L2 writing
KW - accuracy
KW - analytic ratings
KW - collaborative prewriting
KW - peer interaction
KW - student talk
KW - subordination
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047796361&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85047796361&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1362168818773525
DO - 10.1177/1362168818773525
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85047796361
SN - 1362-1688
VL - 23
SP - 685
EP - 701
JO - Language Teaching Research
JF - Language Teaching Research
IS - 6
ER -