Collaborative Writing Process

Mancho´n (2011, 46), argues that the ‘‘rationale for the language learning potential of writing derives from various influential theoretical strands of SLA research’’. These are Skill Learning Theory (DeKeyser, 2007), Focus on Form (Long, 1996), the Noticing Hypothesis (Schmit, 1990), and the Output Hypothesis (Swain, 1985). In relation to collaborative writing, what becomes important is a theoretical construct which reflects the increasing realization of the relevance of the social context of language learning. Consideration of social context is frequently underpinned by the adoption of a culture of society theoretical approach which provides a means to understand and elucidate the learning process. It is within this construct that collaborative writing has been used to explore how social interaction contributes to learning, feedback, and our understanding of, and insights into, both of

When students are working in a language problem by their own “languaging” they are self directed, for instance when learners conduct silent reading to find out the gist of the passage. However, when learners involve in each other learning and work together, for example when they talk about a social event “languaging” refer to a social construction of meaning. According to Swain (2006) the later kind of languaging is the one which helps learners during the writing process because it contributes to language learners to put their focus on the writing problems together with their pairs and develop a deeper understanding of the

In his study, Shehadeh used a mixed methods study in which he was not only interested in the effect of collaborative writing on the quality of learners’ writing, but he also was interested in the learners’ attitudes toward collaborative writings. He run his longitudinal study over sixteen week semester. His study had a pre-test post-test design. Shehadeh established two groups: an experimental group who worked on the writing tasks in pair and a control group that its members worked on the writing tasks individually. This study indicated some unexpected results. While in the previous studies the improvement in accuracy was reported in group work, in this study improvement was achieved in content, organization, and vocabulary, but not in accuracy. The justification of Shehadeh (2011) for the findings of this study was that because the learners who participated in this study were in low-proficiency level they were not be proficient enough to provide each other with the necessary language knowledge such as