Writing Collaboratively in the Continuation Task via Shared Docs

This study explored the effects of collaborative writing via Shared Docs on EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ writing performance in the continuation task. Participants were 53 senior high School students from an intact class in Guangdong China who were randomly divided into a collaborative writing group (n = 32) and individual writing group (n = 21). Both groups participated in a pre-test, two continuation tasks, and post-test over a 6-week period. Students in collaborative writing group worked in pairs while the others worked alone on Shared Docs. Learners’ writings at pre-test and post-test were analyzed in terms of overall scores, fluency, accuracy, complexity and cohesion. Results indicated that there was no significant difference of collaborative writing using Shared Docs on learners’ writing performance in all the aspects. However, data of questionnaire and interview showed that most held positive perceptions and attitudes towards collaborative writing via Shared Docs.