Learners' attitudes and perceptions towards collaborative writing
A study of JFL learners at a Thai university
Keywords:
collaborative writing, collaborative learning, learners’ target language use, Japanese language learning, ThailandAbstract
This study sets out to investigate learners’ attitudes and perceptions towards collaborative writing in Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) setting and makes a proposal for Japanese writing education at higher educational institutions outside Japan. Thirty-two learners at a university in Thailand were instructed to complete a script-writing task for an oral presentation in pairs as part of their classroom activities in Japanese. Subsequently, the learners received a post-task questionnaire reflecting on their collaborative writing experience. The results indicated that the learners’ reactions to the collaborative writing experience with their peer and the use of the target language (TL) throughout the writing process were both overall positive. Furthermore, most of the learners found positive impacts of collaboration with their peer in their TL in 1) the content of their script, 2) the grammatical and lexical accuracy of their script, 3) their grammar and vocabulary learning, 4) development of not only their writing skills but also other language skills and abilities, and 5) their attitudes towards learning Japanese. Findings showed the benefits of collaborative writing between peers in the TL in a JFL setting and suggested the active implementation of it henceforth.
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