Exploring the learning benefits of collaborative writing in L2 Chinese: a product-oriented perspective
-
Li Yang
and
Lini Ge Polin
Abstract
This study explored the benefits of collaborative writing in L2 Chinese by (a) comparing the texts written collaboratively versus individually and (b) investigating the effects of collaborative writing on subsequent individual writing. Forty-four English-speaking students enrolled in an intermediate Chinese course were assigned to a collaborative writing group and an individual writing group. All participants completed a timed in-class writing task at the beginning and end of the semester, working as pre-and post-tests. The participants in the collaborative writing group completed two out-of-class writing assignments in pairs through online written chats, while those in the individual writing group completed the same tasks individually. The texts were analyzed for content, organization, character and lexical accuracy, and non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney U tests and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests) were performed on the data for statistical analyses. The online chats were segmented into different episodes (e.g., language- and content-related episodes) to provide in-depth explanation for the findings. The effect of collaboration was examined from two aspects. The comparison between the texts written collaboratively versus individually showed that the collaborative texts were significantly better than those composed individually in organization and lexical accuracy. The pre-post comparison between collaborative and individual writing groups observed that collaboration contributed positively to subsequent individual writing quality by significantly impacting its content and lexical accuracy.
Appendix A. Prompts for In-Class Writing Tasks
Pre-test Prompt
Please type a coherent essay in response to the following prompt.
你为什么学中文？ 你想过去中国留学吗？ 有的人觉得， 只有去中国留学， 才能学好中文。 也有的人觉得， 在美国也可以学好中文。 你同意哪种看法？ 为什么？ 你觉得在美国学习中文和去中国留学各有什么好处和不好的地方？
Why do you study Chinese? Have you ever considered studying abroad in China? Some people believe that one can only learn Chinese well by studying abroad in China, while others think that studying abroad is not a prerequisite for good command of Chinese. Which opinion do you agree with? Why? In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of learning Chinese in the U.S. and China respectively?
Post-test Prompt
Please type a coherent essay in response to the following prompt.
最近这几年， 很多在美国学习中文的人都想去中国留学。 他们觉得， 去中国留学对学中文、了解中国文化有很多好处。 你同意这种看法吗？ 你想过去中国留学吗？ 你觉得去中国留学有什么好和不好的地方？ 在美国学习中文呢？
In recent years, many people who are studying Chinese in the United States choose to study abroad in China. According to them, studying abroad in China is beneficial for achieving proficiency in the language. It also enables them to get a better understanding of the culture. Do you agree with this opinion? Have you considered studying abroad in China? Please share your thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of learning Chinese in the U.S. and China respectively.
Appendix B. Analysis Rubrics for Writing Data
Content: the average of the scores for content richness and content comprehensibility
| (1) Content richness: assessed by the total number of idea units in the composition | ||||
| 5 pts | 4 pts | 3 pts | 2 pts | 1 pt |
| Having a number of idea units (≥9 idea units) | Having some idea units (ca. 6–8 idea units) | Having a few idea units (ca. 3–5 idea units) | Having few idea units (ca. 1–2 idea units) | No idea unit |
| (2) Content comprehensibility: the extent to which the content is comprehensible by native speakers | ||||
| 5 pts | 4 pts | 3 pts | 2 pts | 1 pt |
| 95–100 % content comprehensible | 90–94.9 % content comprehensible | 75–89.9 % content comprehensible | 60–74.9 % content comprehensible | Under 60 % content comprehensible |
Organization: the average of the scores at the three levels below (revised from Yang and Zhao 2018)
| (1) Between the topic and supporting information: the extent to which writers organize texts around the topic | ||||
| 5 pts | 4 pts | 3 pts | 2 pts | 1 pt |
| 95–100 % | 90–94.9 % | 75–89.9 % | 60–74.9 % | Under 60 % |
| (2) Between idea units: the extent to which the information between idea units (e.g., transition) is organized and coherent | ||||
| 5 pts | 4 pts | 3 pts | 2 pts | 1 pt |
| 95–100 % | 90–94.9 % | 75–89.9 % | 60–74.9 % | Under 60 % |
| (3) Within each idea unit: the extent to which the strings of sentences within the idea unit are connected | ||||
| 5 pts | 4 pts | 3 pts | 2 pts | 1 pt |
| 95–100 % | 90–94.9 % | 75–89.9 % | 60–74.9 % | Under 60 % |
Inter-rater Reliability in Different Measures
| Analysis measures | Inter-rater reliability | Agreement after discussion |
|---|---|---|
| Number of total characters | 100 % | 100 % |
| Number of correctly typed characters | 100 % | 100 % |
| Number of words | 100 % | 100 % |
| Number of lexical errors | 87 % | 100 % |
| Content richness | 91 % | 100 % |
| Content comprehensibility | 96 % | 100 % |
| Organization | 91 % | 100 % |
Coding of Episodes, revised from Storch (2005) and Wigglesworth and Storch (2009)
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- “Am I really abroad?” The informal language contact and social networks of Chinese foundation students in the UK
- Comprehension of English articles by Korean learners of L2 English and L3 Spanish
- Motivation and growth in kanji proficiency: a longitudinal study using latent growth curve modeling
- The impact of textual enhancement on the acquisition of third person possessive pronouns by child EFL learners
- Domain-general grit and domain-specific grit: conceptual structures, measurement, and associations with the achievement of German as a foreign language
- The different effects of the ideal L2 self and intrinsic motivation on reading performance via engagement among young Chinese second-language learners
- Image-schema-based-instruction enhanced L2 construction learning with the optimal balance between attention to form and meaning
- Investigating willingness to communicate in synchronous group discussion tasks: one step closer towards authentic communication
- Investigating willingness to communicate vis-à-vis learner talk in a low-proficiency EAP classroom in the UK study-abroad context
- Functions, sociocultural explanations and conversational influence of discourse markers: focus on zenme shuo ne in L2 Chinese
- The impact of abdominal enhancement techniques on L1 Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin speakers’ English pronunciation
- Discourse competence across band scores: an analysis of speaking performance in the General English Proficiency Test
- Videoed storytelling in primary education EFL: exploring trainees’ digital shift
- Competing factors in SLA: how the CASP model of SLA explains the acquisition of English restrictive relative clauses by native speakers of Arabic and Korean
- Factors behind L2 English learners’ performance of oppositional speech acts: a look at pragmatic-related episodes (PREs) during thinking aloud
- Revisiting after-class boredom via exploratory structural equation modeling
- Exploring aural vocabulary knowledge for TOEIC as a language exit requirement in higher education in Taiwan
- Grammatical gender assignment in L3 versus L4 Swedish: a pseudo-longitudinal study
- Strategic reading comprehension in L2 and L3: assuming relative interdependence within Cummins’ linguistic interdependence hypothesis
- Incidental collocational learning from reading-while-listening and the impact of synchronized textual enhancement
- Learnability of L2 collocations and L1 influence on L2 collocational representations of Japanese learners of English
- The use of interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) by L2 learners: the impact of age, gender, language learning experience, and L2 proficiency levels
- “They forget and forget all the time.” The complexity of teaching adult deaf emergent readers print literacy
- Exploring the learning benefits of collaborative writing in L2 Chinese: a product-oriented perspective
- Investigating the effects of varying Accelerative Integrated Method instruction on spoken recall accuracy: a case study with junior primary learners of French
- Testing a model of EFL teachers’ work engagement: the roles of teachers’ professional identity, L2 grit, and foreign language teaching enjoyment
- The combined effects of a higher-level verb distribution and verb semantics on second language learners’ restriction of L2 construction generalization
- Insights from an empirical study on communicative functions and L1 use during conceptual mediation in L2 peer interaction
- On the acquisition of tense and agreement in L2 English by adult speakers of L1 Chinese
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- “Am I really abroad?” The informal language contact and social networks of Chinese foundation students in the UK
- Comprehension of English articles by Korean learners of L2 English and L3 Spanish
- Motivation and growth in kanji proficiency: a longitudinal study using latent growth curve modeling
- The impact of textual enhancement on the acquisition of third person possessive pronouns by child EFL learners
- Domain-general grit and domain-specific grit: conceptual structures, measurement, and associations with the achievement of German as a foreign language
- The different effects of the ideal L2 self and intrinsic motivation on reading performance via engagement among young Chinese second-language learners
- Image-schema-based-instruction enhanced L2 construction learning with the optimal balance between attention to form and meaning
- Investigating willingness to communicate in synchronous group discussion tasks: one step closer towards authentic communication
- Investigating willingness to communicate vis-à-vis learner talk in a low-proficiency EAP classroom in the UK study-abroad context
- Functions, sociocultural explanations and conversational influence of discourse markers: focus on zenme shuo ne in L2 Chinese
- The impact of abdominal enhancement techniques on L1 Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin speakers’ English pronunciation
- Discourse competence across band scores: an analysis of speaking performance in the General English Proficiency Test
- Videoed storytelling in primary education EFL: exploring trainees’ digital shift
- Competing factors in SLA: how the CASP model of SLA explains the acquisition of English restrictive relative clauses by native speakers of Arabic and Korean
- Factors behind L2 English learners’ performance of oppositional speech acts: a look at pragmatic-related episodes (PREs) during thinking aloud
- Revisiting after-class boredom via exploratory structural equation modeling
- Exploring aural vocabulary knowledge for TOEIC as a language exit requirement in higher education in Taiwan
- Grammatical gender assignment in L3 versus L4 Swedish: a pseudo-longitudinal study
- Strategic reading comprehension in L2 and L3: assuming relative interdependence within Cummins’ linguistic interdependence hypothesis
- Incidental collocational learning from reading-while-listening and the impact of synchronized textual enhancement
- Learnability of L2 collocations and L1 influence on L2 collocational representations of Japanese learners of English
- The use of interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) by L2 learners: the impact of age, gender, language learning experience, and L2 proficiency levels
- “They forget and forget all the time.” The complexity of teaching adult deaf emergent readers print literacy
- Exploring the learning benefits of collaborative writing in L2 Chinese: a product-oriented perspective
- Investigating the effects of varying Accelerative Integrated Method instruction on spoken recall accuracy: a case study with junior primary learners of French
- Testing a model of EFL teachers’ work engagement: the roles of teachers’ professional identity, L2 grit, and foreign language teaching enjoyment
- The combined effects of a higher-level verb distribution and verb semantics on second language learners’ restriction of L2 construction generalization
- Insights from an empirical study on communicative functions and L1 use during conceptual mediation in L2 peer interaction
- On the acquisition of tense and agreement in L2 English by adult speakers of L1 Chinese
