Collaborative writing tasks in the L2 classroom: Comparing group, pair, and individual work

This study investigates the benefits of collaborative writing tasks. Previous research from the perspective of the sociocultural theory of mind suggests that writing tasks completed in pairs offer learners an opportunity to collaborate in the solution of their language-related problems, co-construct new language knowledge, and produce linguistically more accurate written texts. Building on this research, the present study compares the performance of the same writing task by groups of four learners (n = 15), pairs (n = 15), and individual learners (n = 21). It examines the effect of the number of participants on the fluency, complexity, and accuracy of the written texts produced, as well as the nature of the oral interaction between the pairs and the groups as they collaborate throughout the writing process. The analysis of interaction focused on language-related episodes (LREs) reveals that although both groups and pairs focused their attention on language relatively often, groups produced more LREs and a higher percentage of correctly resolved LREs than pairs. As a result, the texts written by the groups were more accurate not only than those written individually, but also than those written in pairs. The implications of these results for the understanding of both collaborative writing tasks and collaborative problem solving activity are discussed.

► The study compared learners writing in groups of four, pairs, and individually. ► Individual learners produced longer texts than those writing collaboratively. ► Groups produced more language-related episodes (LREs) than pairs. ► Groups produced a higher percentage of correctly resolved LREs than pairs. ► As a result, groups wrote more accurate texts than both pairs and individual learners.