An investigation into the benefits of collaborative writing for the development of EFL children’s communication skills : a reflective report of a teacher researcher
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Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to investigate effective ways of designing taskbased
collaborative writing lessons in the EFL classroom in South Korea. In this
research, a group of 11/12 year-old children were involved in repeating three
different writing tasks three times. In order to examine the effects of task type and
task repetition on task performance and outcomes, written texts were measured in
terms of fluency, accuracy, and lexical complexity with seven sub-measures and
pair dialogues were quantified by the focus on a particular aspect of the language
and then categorised into form-focus, lexical-focus, and mechanical-focus
language-related episodes. Follow-up interviews were undertaken with the children
to examine their perspectives on collaborative writing from their first experience of
paired writing. On the basis of self-reflection on my prior learning and teaching
experience in the EFL context, a classroom action research project was designed
and conducted to promote my personal and professional growth. Classroom
observation was undertaken to monitor the children’s performance and engagement
when working together. The results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis
showed strong effects of task type and task repetition on the products and processes
of Korean children’s writing and the pedagogical benefits of collaborative writing.
In addition, this teacher research gave me a valuable opportunity to explore ways of
becoming a reflective teacher. The research findings may help classroom teachers
who want to develop task-based collaborative writing lessons in the classroom and
teacher researchers who want to initiate classroom action research to improve their
teaching practice