Students and teacher’s attitudes and perceptions toward a wiki-based collaborative process writing pedagogy in a Primary Five Chinese classroom

postprin

Collaborative Writing in L1 School Contexts: A Scoping Review

publishedVersionPaid open acces

Understanding writing teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge: A study with five in-service teachers

The growing emphasis on emerging technologies in education has required in-service teachers to develop more technological knowledge. However, little is known about the application of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) on subject matter knowledge in language teaching. This qualitative study examined five writing teachers’ implementation of instructional objectives, instructional strategies, and technologies to teach writing as well as their assessment of learning using the TPACK-Writing perspective. Lesson observations were conducted for each teacher. Adopting a case study design, the observation transcripts were analyzed with a focus on the teachers’ execution of the instructional objectives, instructional strategies, and technologies to teach writing as well as their assessment of learning. The results showed that the complex nature of writing pedagogy with TPACK-Writing as a construct was mediated by cultural factors such as an examination-oriented system and teacher-centered pedagogy. The results also suggested that the application of TPACK-Writing should involve a student-centered approach rather than a teacher-centered approach, which implies the need for teachers to acquire a high level of knowledge of learners and the instructional context to promote effective pedagogy

The Use of Wikis in a Science Inquiry-based Project in a Primary School

link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Collaborative Writing with Young Multilingual Learners

Effectively teaching writing to multilingual learners (MLs) has been identified as one of the most prominent challenges currently facing educators. Collaborative writing has been identified as one promising pedagogical practice that responds to this challenge; however, little of the existing research focuses on the elementary level. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature, describing a design-based research study focused on collaborative writing with MLs in a diverse first-grade classroom. This paper showcases two iterations of collaborative writing, closely examining the how-to and opinion texts that two focal MLs produced with their peers. The evaluation of students’ writing revealed that their collaboratively produced texts varied across the writing activities. In some instances, the students’ texts exhibited their clear understanding of the genre, including its purpose and stages, as well as their ability to control and implement different language features. In other cases, their texts indicated that they needed further instruction or revision in specific areas. This paper concludes with implications for future research as it relates to collaborative writing with young MLs, underscoring the need for additional work in this area and the promise of this approach to writing instruction

Collaboration Two-Way: Workload and Co-ownership in L2 Wiki Writing

Collaborative writing has been found to lead to more productive writing processes and enhanced final products in terms of a richer vocabulary, more accurate grammar, and better organization. The present study expands on this research strand by exploring if different group writing processes affect the quality of wiki texts composed by groups of intermediate German L2 learners. Defining true collaborative writing as involving both a balanced workload and a joint responsibility for the product from all group members, it measured collaboration in two ways. Results indicate that most of the 19 groups in this study had a somewhat unbalanced workload with wide variability in editing group members’ contributions. Although the wiki texts differed greatly with regard to quantitative measures of length, accuracy and cohesion, no correlation was found in terms of workload or co-ownership. While holistic ratings of the texts concerning accuracy and cohesion seemed at times incongruent with the analytic measures, the raters’ comments provided a perspective that captured facets and nuances of a text that the analytic indicators did not

Writing their way to the university: An investigation of Chinese high school students\u27 preparation for writing in English in high schools, cram schools, and online

In this dissertation, drawing from activity theory, I investigate how Chinese students prepared themselves for undergraduate studies in U.S. universities in terms of English writing from three perspectives: English writing instruction in high schools, private supplementary tutoring (PST) in English writing in cram schools, and experience with writing online and using online resources. On the basis of data from a questionnaire, interviews, classroom observations, and examinations of written materials and a forum, I provide a picture of the writing instruction experience and writing background that Chinese students bring to writing classrooms in U.S. universities. It was found that other than writing instruction in high schools that was assumed to be the main source of support for students, PST in English writing students received in cram schools was dominant in the process of preparing themselves for English writing. Online resources were also important for students although students used them mainly for test preparation rather than for improving their English writing ability. What Chinese students have achieved and are not prepared to do in English writing are also discussed in terms of aspects of writing, perceptions of a good piece of writing, amount of writing, genres of writing, feedback, and writing pedagogy. I hope this dissertation will shed light on second language writing teaching in the U.S. as well as in China and second language writing researc

TRADITIONAL VS. WIKI: SAUDI STUDENTS\u27 PERFORMANCE IN AND PERCEPTIONS OF COLLABORATIVE WRITING IN A WIKI

This research study was a quasi-experimental study that investigated the impact of collaborative writing on 76 male EFL students\u27 writing performance in an online (wiki) classroom compared with a traditional (paper-and-pencil) collaborative writing classroom. The subjects were enrolled in a semester-long advanced English writing course at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia, and were equally divided into two classrooms---online/wiki (experimental) and traditionally-taught (control). In the experimental classroom, students used wiki to collaborate; in the control classroom, students used face-to-face communication and notebooks. Both treatments were compared analyzing data collected from a pretest and post-test of individual writing, three collaborative writing assignments, a collaborative writing questionnaire, and individual interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (i.e., frequency, maximum, minimum, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (repeated measures ANOVA and t-test). Analysis of individual writing in the pretest and post-test showed that the number of words and grammatical form scores significantly increased in both the experimental (wiki) and control (paper and pencil) classrooms. In total score, content, diction and tone, and mechanics, the students’ scores in both classrooms significantly increased regardless of the treatment the students received. Additionally, there was a significant difference in the post-test scores between the treatments, with the wiki classroom scoring higher than the traditional classroom. In rhetorical structure, the scores in both classrooms significantly improved from the pretest to the post-test, yet, they were also slightly different between treatments. Analysis of the collaborative writing assignments showed that the writing quantity (i.e., word count) and quality (i.e., total score, content, rhetorical structure, grammatical form, diction and tone, and mechanics) significantly increased over time in both treatments. However, there was no significant difference between treatments and time by treatment. The students’ perceptions of writing collaboration were significant but were not for the rest of the measurements. They responded similarly in writing performance, writing apprehension, and its future use. Qualitative analysis of student interview data showed that both treatments yielded positive responses toward collaborative writing in terms of its usefulness, ease of use, and process writing. However, there were some limitations regarding this experience (i.e., participation, technical problems)

Using wiki-mediated collaboration to foster L2 writing performance

This study investigated the effect of wiki-mediated collaborative writing on the development of learners’ individual writing in a second language (L2). Participants were 52 learners of English as a foreign language enrolled in two intact junior writing classes at a Taiwanese university. One class was assigned to be a wiki-collaborative writing group (n = 26), and the other an individual writing group (n = 26). Both classes participated in an individual pre-test writing, a writing task, and an individual post-test writing over a 9-week period. Students in the wiki group worked in pairs via wikis to produce an expository essay; students in the individual group produced their essays alone. Learners’ written production on the pre-test and post-test was analyzed in terms of content and organization, and linguistic complexity and accuracy. Results indicated a significant effect for wiki-mediated collaborative writing on the content quality and linguistic accuracy of learners’ individual writing in L2. Its effect on the organization and linguistic complexity, however, was less evident