Promoting Collaborative Writing in the FL Classroom

Abstract

Collaborative writing is implemented in the essay writing class to increase the amount of interaction among students in order to enhance and improve their writing skill. The interaction that takes place during peer feedback increases the quantity of comprehensible input they receive on fostering exchanging ideas, correcting errors and reflecting, which would develop their writing skill, help them learn, and help them become less dependent on teachers.

This paper explores some of the issues in using peer review to develop essay writing in our essay writing class. It focuses on fostering interaction and collaboration among EFL students in order to build knowledge that is essential for developing a well-constructed essay. It examines the effect of peer feedback on EFL students’ final version of their essay on the rhetorical mode of comparison/contrast. Analysis of data of first and final drafts indicated that the majority of peer input made in the peer sessions were incorporated in the revised versions suggesting the efficacy of peer revision in improving writing performance. Results also show the dominant role linguistic accuracy played in the revisions.

Overall, the findings of this study support the claim to include peer revisions in EFL writing instruction.