Strengths and Weaknesses of Collaborative Writing and Peer Feedback in an EFL Intensive Reading and Writing Coursework

Sakhi Herwiana

doi:10.36841/pioneer.v13i1.944

Abstract

The advantages of collaborative writing and peer feedback have contributed to give significant effect to the writing ability of L1 (first language) learners, L2 (second language) learners, and FL (foreign language) learners. The objective of this study was to find out the strengths and weaknesses of collaborative writing and peer feedback in an EFL intensive reading and writing coursework classroom especially in English education department students of Hasyim Asy’ari University. This study used a qualitative method where the data were described qualitatively. As this study used a qualitative approach, therefore observation and interview were used as instruments to collect the data. The result showed that collaborative writing and peer feedback strategies were not easy to be implemented in an EFL classroom. There were some strengths and weaknesses found during the observation. The strengths of these strategies showed that students could share ideas, improve grammar and vocabulary, make students more active, have good cooperation among peers, build self-confidence and make students happy. However, the strategies may not give any significant effect on the students’ cognitive ability in writing skills if most of the students have the low ability in mastering English. In addition, a smart student would prefer to write individually than in collaborative writing.

Highlights

Mastering English is important for students as English would give many beneficial points for their future career world
This study found that English-learning beliefs and experiences, observed value of friends' support, and group relationships or dynamics were three major factors that shape students’ attitudes through collaborative writing (Chen & Yu, 2019)
Students said that when they were asked to write an essay, they did not know what kind of the main idea should they write, so in collaborative writing, they could share ideas and discussed it with their friends

Summary

Introduction

Mastering English is important for students as English would give many beneficial points for their future career world. There are some challenges faced by Indonesian educators in teaching writing and reading to EFL students. Most Indonesian students have difficulties when writing in English because they do not master complex grammatical structures, and they do not know how to write the content (Ariyanti, 2016). Some external factors may influence the success of writing such as the teachers often teach in a big class, and the time allotment is limited to explain the material (Ariyanti, 2016). Difficulty factors faced by the students are divided into external and internal factors. Some internal factors influence the students ' reading comprehension that is generally found by the reader during reading, namely; difficulty in understanding long sentences and text, the difficulty that is caused by limited background knowledge, difficulty in using reading strategies, and difficulty in concentration (Hidayati, 2018b)

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Conclusion