A Study of the Effects of Collaborative Writing on the Development of Chinese Senior High School Students’ Discourse Competence

Xuan Teng,Xinhui Zhou

doi:10.5296/ijl.v12i4.17376

Abstract

Although writing is an important skill, the writings of many high school students in China in general lack cohesion and coherence. As the Chinese National English Curriculum Standards for High School (2017) mentioned, the cultivation of senior high school students’ discourse competence is of great importance. However, traditional teaching methods paid little attention to student writing at the discourse level. In recent years, collaborative writing has been introduced to writing classes, and most researchers examined its effect on students’ writing interests andwriting scores. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate whether collaborative writing has a positive effect on students’ discourse competence. Specifically, it seeks to explore the effect of collaborative writing on students’ textual cohesion and textual coherence.Students’ writing assignments were analyzed using Coh-Metrix 3.0. Their interaction was analyzed through the perspective of sociocultural theory. The results showed that collaborative writing effectively promoted senior high school students’ textual cohesion and coherence. It also mediated their co-construction of knowledge about discourse through peer-peer scaffolding, which led to higher level of discourse competence.

Highlights

IntroductionWriting allows students to express their thoughts and feelings in written form through the use of what they have learnt in English classes
Theirproficiency in deploying cohesive devices and skills in creating a consistent textare indicative of the levels of their writing ability.it is important that teachers find an effective way to help students produce more cohesive and coherent discourse, and improve their writing ability.Findings of a number of studies suggested that collaborative writing is beneficial for the improvement of students’ writing ability (Zimmet, 2000; Storch, 2005; Wigglesworth & Storch, 2009; Aminloo, 2013; Challob, 2016)
The first research question of this study is to explore the effect of collaborative writing on senior high school students’ discourse competence in terms of textual cohesion

Summary

Introduction

Writing allows students to express their thoughts and feelings in written form through the use of what they have learnt in English classes. Theirproficiency in deploying cohesive devices and skills in creating a consistent textare indicative of the levels of their writing ability.it is important that teachers find an effective way to help students produce more cohesive and coherent discourse, and improve their writing ability.Findings of a number of studies suggested that collaborative writing is beneficial for the improvement of students’ writing ability (Zimmet, 2000; Storch, 2005; Wigglesworth & Storch, 2009; Aminloo, 2013; Challob, 2016). From the viewpoint of the Sociocultural theory, collaboration enables students to engage in scaffolding in which they provide assistance to each other through the process of solving language problems together. They are novices when they work individually, and are experts when working collaboratively (Donato, 1994)

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Conclusion