Collaborative writing, written corrective feed-back and motivation among child EFL learn

Abstract

The present study compares two types of written corrective feedback (WCF), reformulations and models, and their effect on the output by thirty-nine English as a foreign language primary school children (age 11-12; A2 level) working individually and collaboratively. Additionally, the effect of collaborative writing (CW) on learners’ motivation was measured. Learners’ noticing of problematic features and their subsequent incorporation in their revised drafts after being provided with the two types of WCF were analysed, comparing the children’ production after being provided with the two types of WCF and comparing CW vs individual writing as to noticing and incorporation of features as well as motivation. Few statistically significant differences between the two WCF groups were found but, rather, tendencies in the following sense: the children using models noticed and incorporated more lexical items, whereas noticing and incorporation of learners in the reformulation group was generally related to grammatical and spelling features. As for the comparison between the pairs and the individuals, some statistical differences were found, pointing to an advantage of CW over individual. These findings are discussed in light of the potential benefits of CW for young learners, and pedagogical implications are considered.

El presente estudio compara dos tipos de retroalimentación escrita (RE), reformulaciones y modelos, y su efecto sobre la producción de treinta y nueve alumnos de educación primaria (edad 11-12; nivel A2) con inglés como lengua extranjera (ILE), que trabajaban de forma colaborativa e individual. Además, se examina el efecto de la escritura colaborativa (EC) en la motivación de los aprendices. Se analizaron la percepción de aspectos problemáticos y su consiguiente incorporación a los textos revisados tras haberles proporcionado RE en sus dos tipos, comparando la EC con la individual en cuanto a la percepción e incorporación de elementos lingüísticos y en cuanto a la motivación. Se encontraron escasas diferencias significativas entre los dos grupos de RE, pero sí algunas tendencias en el sentido de que los niños del grupo de modelos percibieron e incorporaron más elementos léxicos mientras que la percepción e incorporación en el grupo de reformulaciones generalmente estaba relacionada con aspectos gramaticales y ortográficos. La comparación de EC e individual reveló diferencias significativas, apuntando a la ventaja de la EC sobre la individual. Estos hallazgos se comentan con referencia a los posibles beneficios de la EC para jóvenes aprendices y se presentan algunas implicaciones pedagógicas.