The Effects of EFL Learners’ Attitudes on Participation and Learning During Collaborative Writing

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of research about pair/group interaction during second language collaborative writing, little is known about how psychological factors, in particular learner attitude affect participation and learning in collaborative writing. This study primarily attempted to investigate whether EFL learners’ attitudes toward collaborative writing influence their patterns of interaction and learning (reflected in languaging opportunities) during the writing process. To this end, pair talk was examined for the patterns of dyadic interaction and the quantity and quality of language-related episodes (LREs). Moreover, the study examined the texts produced using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The statistical analysis suggested that, compared with the pairs whose members held negative attitudes toward collaborative writing, the pairs with positive attitudes exhibited more collaborative patterns and generated substantially more LREs and more resolved LREs. As far as the outcome of pair work (i.e., collaborative writing) was concerned, the positive attitude pairs noticeably outperformed the negative attitude pairs on measures of fluency and accuracy. Also, they produced significantly better texts in terms of content, organization, grammar, and vocabulary. The study, therefore, sheds light on the ways that psychological factors can influence the collaborative writing process.