The emergence and influence of group leaders in web-based collaborative writing: self-reported accounts of EFL learners

Abstract

Web-based collaborative writing (CW) has been widely used in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) during the last decade. Previous studies have mainly focused on how online platforms have facilitated the CW process for EFL learners, how web-based CW has shown progress in EFL learners’ writing development, and how EFL learners in groups interact with one another during web-based CW. However, there are limited studies on web-based CW among Turkish EFL learners. The aim of this study was to analyse Turkish high school EFL learners’ self-reported accounts of their writing process in English with the support of group leaders in a web-based CW activity. The key findings were that first, the groups found the need to elect a group leader to act as a facilitator for other group members, and that group members found their group leader’s help in planning their writing tasks and corrective feedback useful for their learning; second, group leaders provided affective support during the writing activity, with group members reporting that praise and motivational phrases received from their group leaders increased their self-confidence and motivation towards writing in English. This study contributes to knowledge about improving high school EFL learners’ writing through a web-based CW activity. The peer leadership approach is promising in supporting student’s self-efficacy and self-regulation in learning and is easily applicable to teachers in other contexts who wish to promote writing activities outside of the classroom setting.

Keywords:

• Web-based collaborative writing
• English as a foreign language
• group leaders
• peer facilitation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study is a result of the research funded by the Czech Science Foundation as the project GA ČR 17-02993S ‘Factors influencing the ICT skill self-assessments of upper-secondary school students’.

Notes on contributors

Hasan Selcuk

Hasan Selcuk is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague. Dr. Selcuk earned his Ph.D. in Education from King’s College London in 2017. In his Ph.D. thesis, he specialised in student perceptions of peer collaboration through the medium of web-based collaborative writing among learners of English as a Foreign Language. Among his topics of research interest are self-assessment of ICT and foreign language skills of secondary school students, digital creativity and affective factors in social media-based small group learning. Dr. Selcuk is currently working on a research project about the application of the anchoring vignette method in educational research under the supervision of Associate Professor Hana Vonkova.

Jane Jones

Jane Jones is Head of MFL Teacher Education at King’s College London that includes Initial Teacher Education, MA programmes and Doctoral students. Dr. Jones taught MFL in schools for 16 years, and has been involved in Teacher Education for over 40 years. She has published widely on teaching, learning, assessment and leadership issues in languages. Jane has led 16 EU-funded projects that have enabled her to develop a cross-cultural overview of language learning and pedagogies. Her main research interests focus on assessment in language learning contexts and the inclusion of the student voice. She collaborates with school and university colleagues in Paris on independent language learning, and on teacher research projects with language teachers and University colleagues in Madrid. Dr. Jones is co-director of the Association for Language Learning (ALL) initiative that publishes online short scholarly accounts by teachers of their research. She is currently engaged in research on aspects of teacher development that foster a socially aware perspective. Dr. Jones is a keen advocate of teachers researching their own practice as well as of other teacher and is keen to support teachers to become researchers in a critically engaged community of practice.

Hana Vonkova

Hana Vonkova (Ph.D. in Education, Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), 2008; and Ph.D. in Econometrics, Tilburg University (Netherlands), 2011) is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education at the Charles University in Prague. She is also a fellow researcher at Center for Economic and Social Research at the University of Southern California and at Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas (USA). Dr. Vonkova founded the Educational Research Anchors Center focusing on enhancing the validity of measurement in educational research, ICT and foreign languages skills assessments and well-being. Her research interests are applied statistics in education and health.