Tài liệu Efl students' perception and practices of collaborative writting in tertiary academic writting classrooms

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.Prof.Dr . 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.Prof.Dr. 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.Prof.Dr. 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.A. 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, Whilewriting, 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 .........................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...........................................................................................iv LIST OF ABBRREVIATIONS .................................................................................vi LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................i LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................... ii CHAPTER 1.INTRODUCTION ................................................................................1 1.1. Rationale ............................................................................................................1 1.2. Aim and objectives ............................................................................................3 1.2.1. Aim .............................................................................................................3 1.2.2. Objectives ...................................................................................................3 1.3. Research questions ............................................................................................3 1.4. Scope of the study..............................................................................................4 1.5. Significance of the study ...................................................................................5 1.6. Organization of the study ..................................................................................5 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................7 2.1. Definition of perceptions and practices .............................................................7 2.2. Teaching writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms ...............................9 2.2.1. Definition of writing ...................................................................................9 2.2.2. Approaches in teaching writing ................................................................10 2.3. Collaborative learning .....................................................................................13 2.4. Collaborative writing .......................................................................................16 2.4.1. Definition of collaborative writing ...........................................................16 2.4.2. Benefits and drawbacks of collaborative writing .....................................18 2.4.3. Types of collaborative writing strategy ....................................................23 2.4.4. The implementation of collaborative writing in EFL classrooms ............27 2.5. Previous studies on EFL students’ perceptions and practices of collaborative writing ....................................................................................................................29 v CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................36 3.1. Research design ...............................................................................................36 3.2. Research setting ...............................................................................................36 3.3. Research participants .......................................................................................38 3.4. Research instruments .......................................................................................40 3.4.1. Questionnaire ............................................................................................41 3.4.2. Focus Group Discussion ...........................................................................42 3.4.3. Classroom observation .............................................................................44 3.5. Procedures for Data Collection .......................................................................45 3.6. Procedure for data analysis ..............................................................................47 3.7. Research reliability and validity ......................................................................48 3.8. Legal and ethical considerations .....................................................................48 CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.......................................................50 4.1. Students’ perceptions of collaborative writing in writing classrooms ............50 4.1.1. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing in writing classrooms ..........................................................................................................51 4.1.2. Students’ perceptions of difficulties they might face using collaborative writing .................................................................................................................66 4.2. Students’ implementation of collaborative writing in writing classrooms ..........71 4.2.1.Pre-writing stage ........................................................................................72 4.2.3. While-writing stage ..................................................................................74 4.2.3. Post-writing stage .....................................................................................75 4.3. Students’ perceptions and their actual classroom practices regarding collaborative writing ...............................................................................................76 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ...........................................81 5.1. Conclusion .......................................................................................................81 5.2. Pedagogical implications .................................................................................83 5.3. Limitations .......................................................................................................84 5.4. Recommendations and suggestions for further research .................................85 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................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., 2004, p.81)................................................... 26 Table 3.1. Summary of the characteristics of the research participants ......... 39 Table 3.2. Research questions and instruments .............................................. 40 Table 4.1. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their writing skills ............................................................................... 52 Table 4.2. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on other skills ........................................................................................... 55 Table 4.3. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their motivation and confidence ......................................................... 57 Table 4.4. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their collective efforts and responsibility............................................ 59 Table 4.5. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their problem solving and knowledge exchange ................................ 62 Table 4.6. Students’ perceptions of the effects of collaborative writing on their academic improvement ............................................................... 64 Table 4.7. Students’ perceptions of difficulties they might face using collaborative writing ........................................................................... 66 ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. Group Single-Author Writing (Lowrey et al., 2004, p.76) ............23 Figure 2.2. Sequential Single Writing (Lowrey et al., 2004, p.76) ...................24 Figure 2.3. Parallel Writing (Lowrey et al., 2004, p.77) ....................................24 Figure 2.4. Horizontal Division Parallel Writing (Lowrey et al., 2004, p.78) 24 Figure 2.5. Stratified Division Parallel Writing (Lowrey et al., 2004, p.79) ...25 Figure 2.6. Reactive Writing (Lowrey et al., 2004, p.80) ..................................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. 1.1. 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 learnercentered 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.A thesis. 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. 1.2. Aim and objectives 1.2.1. 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. 1.2.2. 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. 1.3. 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? 1.4. 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. Due to the constraints of resources and time, the study limits its scope to the participation of 120 third-year students at the Department of Foreign Languages, Quy Nhon University. Therefore, the study limits itself to the teaching and learning of English writing, not for all students of Quy Nhon University. The justification for choosing participants is that they are assumed to be similar in terms of required proficiency level and background knowledge of English. Those students had passed the previous writing courses (Writing 1, 2, 3, and 4), so they fully understood the basics of essay writing. Second, in the second term of the school year 2021-2022, they have been taking an academic writing course, “Writing 5”, in which they are taught how an academic essay should be written. Last but not least, the participants engaged in this study have all experienced group writing in most of the previous writing courses. Therefore, they well perceived some effects and challenges when this approach was 5 implemented in the classrooms. 1.5. Significance of the study Students' perceptions of collaborative writing in academic writing classrooms and their practices during the writing process are the focus of this study. From an educational perspective, the study is significant for both theoretical and practical reasons. In terms of theory, the study contributes to the importance of implementing collaborative writing in writing classrooms. It also provides a thorough insight into how students implement collaborative writing and to what extent their practices reflect their perceptions. In terms of practice, the findings of this study may benefit English teachers, students, and researchers. As for the teachers, the findings of the study could raise teachers’ awareness of how their students perceive the use of collaborative writing in writing classrooms. As a consequence, they will endeavor to implement it in an effective way so that their students can improve their academic writing performance. This study can also be used as a reference, not only by English teachers at Quy Nhon University but also by teachers who want to employ collaborative writing in their writing classes. For students, this study hopes to help them realize the importance of collaborative writing and some problems may arise that might result in their negative perceptions. In addition, they might figure out how to bridge the gap between their perceptions of collaborative writing and their classroom practices. Finally, with regard to the researchers, those who share the same interest in this topic could certainly rely on this research to find reliable and useful references for their related studies. 1.6. Organization of the study The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, the 6 scope, the research questions, the significance, and the structure of the study. Chapter 2, Literature Review, defines major related concepts and briefly reviews the related works that compose the theoretical background of the study. Chapter 3, Research Methodology, deals with research methodologies, data description, data analysis, and research procedures. The data's reliability and validity are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 4, Data Analysis and Findings, describes the analysis of data in detail and gives a summary of the findings as well as a thorough discussion of the findings of the study. Some explanations and interpretations of the findings are also presented in this chapter. Chapter 5, Conclusion, summarizes the whole research, gives some teaching implications, and discusses the limitations of the study, as well as suggestions for further research. 7 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW The purpose of Chapter 2 is to review the theoretical background of the study. This chapter will be divided into 5 main sections. It begins with presenting the definition of perceptions and practices. The following section deals with teaching writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms, in which the definition of writing and approaches used in teaching writing, are briefly discussed. The concepts of collaborative learning and collaborative writing are then presented. In this chapter, the researcher also reviews the previous studies related to EFL students' perceptions and practices of collaborative writing. 2.1. Definition of perceptions and practices In recent years, foreign language teaching and learning have shifted from teacher-directed instruction to student-centered learning; as a result, studies focusing on students' perceptions have caught the interest of many researchers. Numerous studies on teaching methods have been conducted on the perceptions of students as students play an important role in the teaching and learning process. Students' perceptions influence not only their approaches to language acquisition but also how they respond to teaching activities. Students who are dissatisfied with the teaching method will lose interest in learning the language. Therefore, the teacher's understanding of students' perceptions and practices is essential since it allows them to evaluate their teaching systems based on learning system results. For instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and learning, Chen and Hooswer (2010) underlined that they must take into account both the students' perceptions and their actual classroom practices. 8 McShane and Von Glinow (2010, p. 68) unmistakably defined that “perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us." In other words, perception can be seen as the way in which the five physical senses shape our understanding of the real world. Perception, according to Irwanto (2002) (as cited in Fadillah, 2019), is classified into two types: positive and negative perceptions. (a) Positive perception is one that describes all the information and reactions that continue to be used. This process will be repeated by engaging, accepting, and supporting the perceived item. (b) Negative perception is the perception of all information and reactions that are in contrast with the object of perception. As a result, both good and negative perceptions will always influence someone's behavior. Positive or negative perception is determined by how individuals interpret all of their information about an observed thing. In the current study, perception is defined as someone's idea about something that they learn to evaluate their attitude toward the use of something, whether they agree or disagree with that method or something that they learn. It means that students have their own perceptions of what they learn and how they react to it. According to Sidhu (2003), students' perceptions are students' points of view about anything that occurs throughout the learning process and provides ideas or arguments for instructors or classmates to better their learning process. From the definitions given above, it can be concluded that perception happens when students use a given meaning to stimulate the classroom environment or their classroom behaviors. Thus, in order to understand one’s behavior, one needs to understand their perceptions. In some ways, one's perception is closely connected to his or her practice. (Bodenhausen & Hugenberg, 2009, p.14). Despite the fact that several studies have lately been interested in students' collaborative writing practices, the definition of practice has rarely 9 been stated. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, practice is defined as “the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it”. In this study, practices are related to the actions and strategies students deploy in the class during the learning process. Practices also include students’ behavior towards their friends and the teacher when a strategy or teaching method is implemented in the classroom. 2.2. Teaching writing in tertiary academic writing classrooms 2.2.1. Definition of writing Writing or learning to write in a language is not simply a matter of writing something down. Writing is not only the act of putting words into sentences but also a process in which the writer focuses on inventing ideas and how to organize and express them in an effective way in order to enable readers to understand what they want to convey through the written work. In addition, Hayes (1996), as cited in Weigle (2002), viewed writing as a cognitive activity that involves three main activities: text interpretation, reflection, and text production. As stated by Sokolik (2003), writing was both “a physical and mental act” (p.88) in the sense that writers were required to commit words or ideas and simultaneously invent ideas and consider their expressions and organizations. Besides, when composing words, writers mainly focus on two purposes. The first one is to express the ideas that writers have in their minds. The second one is the text, which is written and is used to communicate the ideas to the readers, as writing is also a means of communication (Nunan, 2003). Thus, writers must be able to convey and explain ideas in ways that could impress readers. Moreover, writing is both a product and a process. Writers need to generate ideas, organize, draft, edit, read, and rewrite to produce a writing product – a paragraph, an essay, or a report. 10 In general, writing is not only the product of word formation, the presentation of meaningful messages, and the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way, but also the process of generating ideas, organizing, writing, and rewriting. 2.2.2. Approaches in teaching writing There are several approaches taken in teaching and learning ESL/EFL writing. However, the product approach and the process approach are two approaches that have been widely adopted by many researchers and educators. 2.2.2.1. Product approach The product approach is considered one of the earliest approaches used in teaching and learning writing, in which students should begin with prewriting before moving on to composing and revising. According to Tangpermpoon (2008), the fundamental goal of this approach is to raise student awareness of grammatical structures. The product approach, according to Nunan (1999), places greater emphasis on activities in which students imitate, copy, and transform models of correct language offered by textbooks or teachers. As a result, writing courses only feature tasks at the sentence and grammatical levels. As stated by Saeidi & Sahebkheir (2011), modeling is central to this approach, and it is regarded as an effective teaching tool as well as a valuable source of feedback for students if it is implemented in the appropriate way. According to Pincas (1982), the emphasis of this approach is on linguistic knowledge, with a strong emphasis on the appropriate use of vocabulary, grammar, and cohesive devices. The purpose of the product method, according to Nunan (1999), is to focus on the final product of the writing, which should be a cohesive, errorfree text. As a result, familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing should all be included in the writing learning process in order to achieve the aforementioned goal (Pincas, 1982). During the familiarization