The effectiveness of collaborative writing in improving ESL students’ essay writing

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of collaborative writing in improving ESL students’ essay writing skills. The main aim of the study was to investigate if collaborative writing helped to improve students’ essays in aspects like organisation, development, structure, vocabulary, coherence and mechanics of writing. This study aims to determine if students who were engaged in collaborative writing showed a greater improvement in essay writing compared to students who wrote using the traditional writing method. Quasi experimental research method was conducted to collect data for the study. A sample of 40 form four students from a secondary school in Ipoh was selected randomly. The students were equally divided into two groups. The 20 students in the experimental group were trained in essay writing using the collaborative method and the 20 students in the control group were trained to write essays individually. Both groups had to complete a pre-test and a post-test where they had to write an essay. Essay topics were the same for both groups. All 40 students had to fill in a questionnaire. At the end of the study five students from the experimental group were selected randomly for an interview. The study lasted for a duration of ten weeks where the students were exposed to the collaborative writing method, writing skills and four practices of writing essays. Scores from the post test and questionnaire responses from the experimental group were compared to their own pre-test scores and responses as well as with the scores from the control group. The experimental groups were able to generate ideas and develop a change in attitude towards writing after going through the collaborative writing treatment. The findings have established that Collaborative writing is a strategic tool to help students write better in ESL classes as more than 50% of students in the experimental group have shown significant improvement in their writing.