MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRAN THI MY HAO EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF COLLABORATIVE WRITING IN TERTIARY ACADEMIC WRITING CLASSROOMS Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN TRẦN THỊ MỸ HẢO NHẬN THỨC VÀ VIỆC THỰC HÀNH VIẾT LUẬN THEO NHÓM CỦA SINH VIÊN Ở BẬC ĐẠI HỌC Ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền i DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis, entitled “EFL Students’ Perceptions and Practices of Collaborative Writing in Tertiary Academic Writing Classrooms,” was conducted under the supervision of Assoc. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, a lecturer working at Quy Nhon University. I declare that the information reported in this study is the result of my own work and effort.
I have used no materials other than those listed in the references. No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis. Also, this thesis has not been partly or fully submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma. Binh Dinh, 2022 Tran Thi My Hao ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The birth of this thesis was not only my own attempt but also benefited from invaluable assistance from organizations and individuals, which I received throughout the whole process, to whom I would like to express my sincere thanks.
Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien. I owe her well-oriented guidance, thoughtful advice, warm encouragement, and infinite patience. Without her taking precious time to give the instruction, the successful completion of this study work would not have been possible.
Secondly, I want to send my thankfulness to all the lecturers that taught me throughout my M.A course for their sensible and professional advice, which totally helped me to overcome all the difficulties. Thirdly, I would like to extend my special thanks to Quy Nhon University, Post-graduate Department, and Foreign Languages Department for the administrative assistance. My sincere thanks are also to the instructor, M. Tran Thi Da Thao, who has been teaching the course “Writing 5” and the students from classes K42A, K42B, and K42H.
Without their help, I could not gather enough qualitative and quantitative data to conduct this study. Last but not least, I was blessed to have my beloved family and friends accompany me on this journey. Their support and continuous encouragement throughout the course and the study of this thesis did give me strength and a great source of inspiration. iii ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate EFL students’ perceptions and practices regarding collaborative writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms.
To fulfill the aim, the study was carried out at Quy Nhon University with the enthusiastic participation of 120 third-year English Language majors. The data for the study was collected through students’ questionnaires, focus group discussions, and classroom observations, and then analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings of the study revealed that the students’ perceptions regarding the use of collaborative writing in writing classrooms were highly positive. Specifically, they were in favor of the use of collaborative writing in writing classrooms as it significantly contributed to improving their writing performance, motivation, and critical thinking.
As for students’ practices regarding collaborative writing, they followed the writing procedure, which consists of three main stages in general (Pre-writing, While- writing, and Post-writing). However, some slight differences in how students collaborate and divide tasks for each group member in writing classes were seen. Although students basically practiced collaborative writing as they perceived, there was still a gap between students' perceptions and their classroom practices regarding the level of involvement in the collaborative writing among group members, the time allocated for proofreading and editing the final draft, and the overuse of mother tongue during the discussion. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF ABBRREVIATIONS .vi LIST OF TABLES .i LIST OF FIGURES. Aim and objectives. Scope of the study. Significance of the study.
Organization of the study. Definition of perceptions and practices. Teaching writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms. Definition of writing.
Approaches in teaching writing. Definition of collaborative writing. Benefits and drawbacks of collaborative writing. Types of collaborative writing strategy.
The implementation of collaborative writing in EFL classrooms. Previous studies on EFL students’ perceptions and practices of collaborative writing. Focus Group Discussion. Procedures for Data Collection.
Procedure for data analysis. Research reliability and validity. Legal and ethical considerations. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Students’ perceptions of collaborative writing in writing classrooms. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing in writing classrooms. Students’ perceptions of difficulties they might face using collaborative writing. Students’ implementation of collaborative writing in writing classrooms .Pre-writing stage.
While-writing stage. Post-writing stage. Students’ perceptions and their actual classroom practices regarding collaborative writing. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.
Recommendations and suggestions for further research .86 APPENDICES vi LIST OF ABBRREVIATIONS CL: Collaborative Learning CW: Collaborative Writing EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as Second Language FGD: Focus Group Discussion L2: Second Language LREs: Language Related Episodes i LIST OF TABLES Table 2. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Collaborative Writing Strategies (Lowry et al. Summary of the characteristics of the research participants. Research questions and instruments.
Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their writing skills. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on other skills. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their motivation and confidence. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their collective efforts and responsibility.
Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their problem solving and knowledge exchange. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their academic improvement. Students’ perceptions of difficulties they might face using collaborative writing. 66 ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.
Group Single-Author Writing (Lowrey et al. Sequential Single Writing (Lowrey et al. Parallel Writing (Lowrey et al. Horizontal Division Parallel Writing (Lowrey et al.
Stratified Division Parallel Writing (Lowrey et al. Reactive Writing (Lowrey et al.25 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The introduction chapter helps lay background information essential for an understanding of the issue discussed in this study. In addition, it is established with the framework of the thesis consisting of (1) rationale, (2) aim and objectives, (3) research questions, (4) scope of the study, (5) significance of the study, and (6) organization of the study. 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 2 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 3 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.
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 1. Aim This study aims to explore third-year English majors’ perceptions and practices of collaborative writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms at Quy Nhon University.
Objectives 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? 4 2. How do EFL students implement collaborative writing in writing classrooms? 3. What are the divergences between students' perceptions and their actual classroom practices? 1.
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.