Digital pedagogical strategies to promote the collaborative writing competence in a foreign language: an action research study with secondary school students

In this article we would like to disseminate our reflection and analysis on the high potential which digital resources may have in teaching creative writing in English, as well as in promoting the learning of a foreign language, within a collaborative environment. The work aims at identifying good practices in the use of Google Workspace, Padlet and Issuu, among other digital tools, which were used with seventy secondary students. It consists of a study, following an action-research methodology in the classroom, applying digital teaching strategies with learners of a second language. It is focused on a creative and collaborative writing process and on the attempt of promoting collaborative skills, with the common goal of developing imagination in the conception of fictional and creative stories. The collected data, of a qualitative nature, was obtained by direct observation and textual analysis of the final products. We were led by the following key question: “What are the digital pedagogical strategies that can contribute to the creative and collaborative writing competence, in a foreign language, with secondary school students?”. Having this in mind we were interested in examining the potential of a writing collaborative activity, in a digital environment, as a stimulus to learning the linguistic rules and expanding the vocabulary. Additionally we were determined in analyzing the results of the assessment executed among peers, applying selected rubrics for the competences of cooperation and participation.