Web 2.0 online collaboration tools as environments for task-based writing instruction

Year 2012, Volume: 45 Issue: 2, 97 - 118, 01.10.2012

Jarosław Krajka

https://doi.org/10.1501/Egifak_0000001255

Cited By: 1

Abstract

The paper presents an overview of a pilot study
aiming at developing university students’ writing competence with the
use of a selected Web 2.0 collaboration tool as authoring environment
for Task-Based Language Teaching. Online word processors were
used to design a pre-task, task and post-task sequence which was
implemented in varied modes of work when teaching English to
students at the Department of German Studies, Maria CurieSkłodowska
University in Lublin, Poland.
The specific aim of the study was to investigate the applicability
of one particular online collaborative environment, namely an online
word processor such as Google Docs (http://docs.google.com), to
implement form-focused language teaching at a tertiary level. The
study was conducted in an action research fashion, with two parallel
groups of students using two different collaborative environments
(wikis and online word processors).
As it was found out, the idea of learning writing in collaboration
mediated by online resources was new to students and the awareness
of how to make the best use of peer editing and peer feedback had to
be established among students first. Once it was done, however,
collaborative learning online proved to be a powerful vehicle for
language instruction. The emergence of new Web 2.0 tools facilitating
collaboration and publishing such as online word processors has
helped to redefine the process of teaching language skills, and
specifically writing, in the TBLT framework.

Keywords

Task-based Teaching, Web 2.0, writing instruction