Abstract:
This study investigated the effects of online Collaborative Writing (CW) on learners' L2 writing performance and their L2 writing attitude. The study included 76 students; 37 of the students were A1 level and 39 students were A2 level in a preparatory school at a foundation university in Istanbul. Both of these student levels were divided into control and experimental groups in two intact classes. In the control groups learners completed writing tasks individually. Same tasks were carried out by learners collaboratively in the experimental group as a group of four or five on Microsoft Teams platform. The study lasted 7 weeks and included a pretest and posttest. The quality of the writings was evaluated by a rubric used in preparatory school that assessed content, grammar, vocabulary, organization, and spelling quality. The results for the quantitative data showed that students who participated in online collaborative writing activities performed better in writing than their counterparts. In order to support the quantitative data, all of the experimental group participants were given a written interview after the study. Additionally, 5 randomly chosen volunteer students from both levels were interviewed orally to strengthen the findings. The results showed that the learners tend to have positive attitudes towards online collaborative writing tasks and benefitted from online group participation in their writing tasks.
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