The effect of collaborative learning on the writing progress of 10th grade students

النوع : Mémoire

Although research in first language (LI) writing has demonstrated a positive effect of collaborative learning on the writing product (Ender & Newton. 2000; Freedman, 1992). research in second language (L2) writing has revealed rather inconclusive findings. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether collaborative learning would improve the writing of 10,h graders more than the traditional method of teacher written feedback, in the Lebanese context. The sample in this study consisted of 32, 10th grade students whose English was their 1,2 and were enrolled in a Lebanese private school in Beirut. They came from a homogeneous background and were able to use English proficiently. The sample was randomly assigned into two groups, experimental and control, of 16 participants each.--Peer groups in the experimental group consisted of three students each: one student of high English proficiency, the other of average English proficiency and the third of low English proficiency. The participants' age group ranged between 15 and 17. The researcher conducted the writing sessions for both groups over a period of 9 weeks, 2 sessions per week. After conducting two training sessions on peer groups/oral feedback for the experimental group and two training sessions following the teacher's written feedback for the control group, the two groups were given 2 essay assignments each requiring three separate drafts. In the control group, the researcher supplied written feedback; in the experimental group, peer groups supplied oral feedback. A third essay was given as a post-test, which was collected from both groups, mixed and distributed among three trained raters who corrected the essays using FL Composition Profile (Valdes & Dvorak, 1989). Data analysis was based on independent t-test to compare the total scores of the two groups, followed by a MANOVA test, a Univariate analysis and a Post-Hoc Tukey test. All statistical analyses were conducted at < .05 alpha level. The results of this study indicated that the mean scores of the students who used collaborative learning were significantly higher than the mean scores of the students who used teacher's written feedback. However, the difference between them was statistically significant in all components of writing except in grammar which was insignificant at p< .05 . Thus the findings suggest that peer-feedback revisions helped the students to overcome inhibitions related to the formal aspects of their writing and improve its quality and value.