The impact of Google docs-mediated collaborative Writing with teacher intervention on EFL Learners’ writing outcomes

Several online collaborative writing studies have demonstrated that Web 2.0 tools such as Google Docs (GD) can facilitate student collaboration. However, these studies show that some students were reluctant to collaborate or split the work, which may explain why the impact of online collaborative writing on writing outcomes remains inconclusive. Some studies advocate teacher intervention in online collaboration; in most, teachers’ online interventions are shown to promote student collaboration but none have examined whether such interventions improve students’ writing abilities. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of GD-mediated collaborative writing (GMCW) with teacher intervention on learners’ writing outcomes, their level of collaboration, and their attitudes to provide a comprehensive picture of the impact of the intervention. An experimental study design was used, with 46 EFL students enrolled at Level 3 in the Department of English Language at Al Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Convenience sampling was employed to assign learners to two conditions: experimental (n=24) and control (n=22). The experimental condition involved learners participating in GMCW activities with teacher intervention while the control condition involved learners participating in GMCW activities without teacher intervention. The study was conducted for 14 weeks. Unlike previous research, a mixed-methods approach was used to evaluate learners’ writing outcomes, their collaboration process in GD, and their attitudes.
The results indicated that promoting learners’ collaboration and influencing their language-learning beliefs through teacher intervention in the experimental condition resulted in learners improving their writing outcomes significantly more than those in the control condition. In experimental conditions, learners demonstrated high levels of collaboration by engaging in collaborative, collaborative/passive, and expert/novice interaction patterns. They also viewed the activities as a means of language learning. Those in the control condition showed low collaboration levels following a cooperative/passive pattern. Furthermore, their prior language learning beliefs negatively affected their attitudes toward the activity.
This thesis argues that learners’ writing outcomes and attitudes toward collaboration are related to their collaboration level. Further, this study indicates that advanced collaborative platforms such as GD cannot facilitate learners’ collaboration without teacher support. Teachers should intervene to promote students’ online collaboration, which in turn improves their writing skills.