The Effect of Collaborative Learning Through a Social Network to Enhance the Writing Skills of Iranian EFL Learners
Subject Areas :
Hossein Isaee
1
,
حامد برجسته
2
1 -
2 - گروه آموزش زبان انگلیسی ، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی،دانشگاه آیت الله آملی،آمل،مازندران،ایران
Keywords: Social Networks, Online Collaborative Activities, Writing Skills, Collaborative Learning,
Abstract :
Therefore, project-based learning through social networks has been the theoretical background of this study. The statistical population of this research was the 10th grade students of the secondary school of Ayatollah Amoli Madrasah for boys and girls in Amol city in the academic year of 1401-1400. Based on the J-power sample size calculation software, 24 people were selected as a statistical sample by purposive sampling method and assigned. They were randomly selected (lottery) and registered on the Edmodo website with the guidance of a teacher-researcher in six small groups. After receiving the guidance and basic educational files, they were first introduced to the principles of story writing in English. Then, in two stages, they were asked to first write a short story in collaboration with their peers through the Edmodo site, and after finishing the group activity, each student was required to write a story alone. The written tests were scored by two evaluators (researchers) based on the model (Alderson & Tankó, 2010) that ranks the writings on a scale of 1 to 6. Pearson's correlation was performed to check the reliability of the scores between the raters and the results for the individual test (Pearson r = 0.81 p < .05) and for the group test (Pearson r = 0.88 p < .05) showed a significant agreement between the two raters. Comparing the scores of individual stories showed that after completing online group work through the site, students showed significant improvement in their writing skills, and this principle emphasizes the effectiveness of online collaborative activities through social media. Participants were also asked to answer an open-ended questionnaire in two stages before and after the online project. The construct validity of the questionnaire was guaranteed through expert review and exploratory factor analysis. Also, Cronbach's alpha analysis was used as a measure of internal homogeneity of the scale and the estimated reliability index of the questionnaire was obtained (α=90). According to the results, most of the students showed a positive attitude towards the online cooperative learning project.
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