An Empirical Study Of The Effects Of Collaborative Writing In College Students'English Academic Writing

China has entered the era of economic globalization and internationalization of higher education,and the importance of academic English writing ability has become increasingly prominent.Academic English writing teaching emphasizes that the primary goal is to meet the specific needs of students.However,the traditional teaching of academic English writing emphasizes more on the theoretical skills of writing.Although the correct use of language can be emphasized,students are more passive to accept,and there is no room for active analysis and thinking.Therefore,creative and critical thinking in academic English writing cannot be developed.In the second language classroom,collaborative writing can improve students' thinking in writing,enable them to master writing skills and understand the standard of excellent composition in the reciprocating process of conception,searching for information,drafting and revision.At the same time,it is also helpful to explore the influence of interaction process on the development of the second language from the micro level and to enrich and develop the theory of second language acquisition and foreign language teaching practice.In this study,thirty freshmen of English major from an Independent College were invited to take part in the research,with the aims to explore the collaborative writing qualities concerning rhetorical structure,coherence,and accuracy,and the connections between collaborative group writing qualities and interaction patterns.Firstly,the basic knowledge of collaborative writing is introduced in detail,including its definition,characteristics,theoretical basis,and relevant research at home and abroad.Secondly,to verify the role of collaborative writing in academic English writing,this thesis collects data through teaching experiments,questionnaires,and interviews.From the perspective of rhetoric structure,coherence analysis,and accuracy(error distribution),it examines the results of student collaboration in the context of academic writing tasks.The present study aims to investigate the influence of collaborative writing on academic English writing by Chinese English learners.Two research questions are addressed:(1)What are the qualities of the writings that small groups produced in the collaborative writing task environment?(2)In what ways,if any,do peer interactions link to the qualities of writing products?The results proved that,firstly,the features of the collaborative interactions make a contribution to the qualities of the collaborative group writing products.Especially,just as H-H group showed,because of the participants' joint efforts in task negotiation and text construction,the papers the group produced had clear rhetorical structures and high degree of coherence,which were reflected in group members' high mutual engagement in language functions,writing change functions,and scaffolding strategies;secondly,through comparing student interaction patterns with qualities of collaborative group writing products,the results of the research also proved the close links between interaction patterns and students' learning outcomes in the face-to-face context and the cooperative writing environment.In the present study,overall better writing products were conducted by H-H group and H-L group,which showed higher mutuality in peer interaction,and relative lower writing products were received from L-L group due to lower mutuality they performed.Therefore,the core condition of successful coloration seems to be mutual engagement in face-to-face collaborative writing environments;and the present study proved that the role of interaction is the unique essential component in the development of joint writing.Based on the results of the study,there are at least two pedagogical implications can be provided for Chinese EFL teaching and learning.First,some insights can be obtained into classroom practice from the present study.The collaborative behavior of team members should be evaluated and rewarded,and collective cognition should be encouraged to pursue the promotion in mutual participation and writing development in the collaborative writing environment.Second,specific training would be necessary.Before writing,teachers can share and discuss with the students about collective cognition from previous collaborative projects which was taken as examples,to illustrate the specific content of collective cognition,to show what is the specific characteristics of collaborative writing,so the students can better understand what they should do in collaboration.In collaborative writing activities,the students should be encouraged by teachers to talk about whether there are mutual participation and co-ownership in the collaborative writing process.During collaborative writing project,peer feedback can be used to evaluate and reflect their own and their peers' efforts,which can benefit the students to continuously monitor the collaborative writing process and cultivate positive team motivation.The students may be scaffolded via using carefully arranged training and reflection and evaluation of their own and others,in which students' collaborative efforts should be considered.Thus,successful collaboration can be performed,and high quality writing products can be conducted.