Exploring virtual collaborative writing in the EFL classroom

Abstract

With the integration of new technologies in the foreign language classroom, the practice of collaborative writing has gained renewed attention, although some questions still remain unanswered regarding the extent to which these tools help learners in their writing when compared to more traditional learning contexts (Elola & Oskoz, 2010). In order to explore these issues, we analysed the written production of 84 undergraduate students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) using the LIWC20154 software. The analysis revealed significant differences in categories such as word count, clout, emotional tone, or analytical thinking when comparing the texts written by an experimental and a control group. Moreover, regarding discourse, some differences were observed in terms of the way information was presented and structured.