Collaborative writing, written corrective feedback and motivation among child EFL learners

Ruth Milla; María del Pilar García-Mayo

doi:10.30827/portalin.vi41.23971

Authors

Ruth Milla Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9771-7037
María del Pilar García-Mayo Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1987-4889

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi41.23971

Keywords:

collaborative writing, written corrective feedback, motivation, children, EFL

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.

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Author Biographies

Ruth Milla, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)

Dr. Ruth Milla is an assistant professor of FL teaching at the Faculty of Education of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Her research deals with EFL teaching and learning in multilingual contexts, particularly corrective feedback and collaborative writing. Her work has been published in international journals and volumes and presented at international conferences. She is a member of the research group Language and Speech (www.laslab.org) and has taken part in several research projects on FL teaching.

María del Pilar García-Mayo, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)

Dr. María del Pilar García Mayo is Full Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). She has published widely on the L2/L3 acquisition of English morphosyntax and the study of conversational interaction in EFL. She is the director of the research group Language and Speech, of the MA program Language Acquisition in Multilingual Settings and editor of Language Teaching Research. She is also an Honorary Consultant for the Shanghai Center for Research in English Language Education.

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FUNDING INFORMATION

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant FFI2016-74950-P (AEI/FEDER/UE), and by the Basque Government under grant IT904-16.