Computer-mediated collaborative writing in L2 classrooms: A systematic review

Abstract

Fueled by a keen awareness of the affordances of technology and the predominance of the communicative approach, computer-mediated collaborative writing (CMCW) has gained fast-growing interest in second language (L2) contexts. To illuminate research foci and guide future research efforts in this burgeoning area, the current study provided a substantive and methodological review of 113 primary studies on CMCW in L2 contexts, covering qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research. Each study was coded for substantive features, including research context, study setup, components analyzed, and the analytic frameworks. We also coded the sample for methodological practices that were applicable to all research (e.g., instrument development, reliability estimates) and those related to a specific research orientation (e.g., use of statistical analyses, validity strategies). The results indicated (a) a strong preference for meaning-focused writing tasks covering various genres, (b) considerable heterogeneity in the metrics for measuring texts, (c) limited interests in L2 learners’ attention to form. While there was a strength in reporting certain strategies for enhancing research validity, the results revealed methodological concerns such as insufficient reporting of learner/context information, reliability estimates, effect sizes, and exact p values. Based upon the findings, we provided a number of empirically grounded suggestions for future research.