Effects of collaborative writing and peer feedback on Spanish as a foreign language writing performance

Abstract

This study explores the effect of collaborative writing (CW) and peer feedback (PF) practices on subsequent individual writing assignments. Two groups of university students in a Spanish as a foreign language course experienced both CW and PF (Group 1 CW then PF; Group 2 PF then CW), and pre and posttests were analyzed for syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, accuracy, and fluency, as well as for overall quality using an analytic scale. Results suggest both treatments produced improvements, although PF was more beneficial for syntactic complexity, fluency, and overall quality, while CW led to more accurate texts. The order of treatments also affected scores: PF followed by CW produced better results in overall quality and fluency, while CW followed by PF was more beneficial for syntactic complexity and accuracy. Based on the results, pedagogical implications and recommendations, as well as limitations and suggestions for future research, are provided.