Exploring Writing Individually and Collaboratively Using Google Docs in EFL Contexts

Abstract

Online teaching and learning became popular with the evolution of the World Wide Web now days. Implementing online learning tools within EFL contexts will help better address the multitude of teaching and learning styles. Difficulty in academic writing can be considered one of the common problems that students face in and outside their classrooms. Moreover, because the young learners today are digital native, integrating online learning tool with their learning is needed. This research was conducted to analyze students’ achievements by submitted tasks using both face-to-face setting for the pre individual and collaborative tasks, and online learning environment for the post individual and collaborative tasks. The participants in this study were a class of Arabic major from a college in Saudi Arabia. The research was searching for the differences between the students’ individual and collaborative work using Google Docs, and discerning the students’ perspectives toward collaborative work with Google Docs on English writing tasks. To explore the integration effectiveness; pre and post-questionnaires, pre and post written tasks, students’ portfolio, a customized rubric for test scores, and post interviews were conducted to test and analyze the outcomes. Results show significant increase in the students’ scores using Google Docs. Further, the results were consistent as that students perceived Google Docs as a useful tool for both individual and group work.