The Impact of Web-Based Individual and Collaborative Writing on Iranian EFL Learners’ Essay Writing

The sudden outbreak of the Covid-۱۹ epidemic changed educational modes from face-to-face to online. In this vein, a totally web-based writing course was carried out to examine the impact of individual and collaborative writing of Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners essay writing. Following the objectives of the study, a classroom website designed by the researcher which through it the content of the lessons was presented to the learners each week. Besides, virtual classes were also held during the weeks to discuss different samples and amend students’ deficiencies. Then, students were asked to do relevant grammatical and punctuation activities and also write their own essays in their personal weblogs to receive their peers feedbacks. After six weeks of instruction, Google Doc’s platform was introduced to the class and the researcher asked learners to designate their peers and write in collaboration with each other for the remained sessions. The subjects written products’ quality were analyzed using complexity, accuracy, and fluency triads. The performance of subjects in individual and collaborative tasks was compared using a series of one-way ANOVAs and the results are summarised and presented. The findings revealed that collaborative writing had a significant impact on accuracy of writing products. Possible explanations for findings are discussed and some implications for further research and future courses provided.

Keywords:

Web-based instruction , individual and collaborative writing , complexity , accuracy , fluency