The Effect of Collaborative Writing on EFL Learners Writing Ability at Elementary Level

Abstract—The present study examines the effect of group work and collaborative writing on EFL learners’ writing ability at elementary level. Convenience sampling is used in this research. 64 learners in two groups (treatment & control) participated in the study. The Learners in treatment group wrote their writings collaboratively while the other group wrote them individually. The writing samples were rated based on the TOEFL iBT task 2 writing scoring rubric (ETS, 2006). The results showed that both the treatment group and the control group improved significantly from the beginning to the end of the instruction as assessed through the use of two paired samples t tests (Treatment Group t(30) =-26.42, p =.000; Control Group t(32) =-15.70, p =.000). However, the two groups showed a significant difference in their posttest (t (62) = 2.64, p =.01). Index Terms—cooperative learning, writing, cognitive skills I