Learners' flow experience during peer revision in a virtual writing course during the global pandemic

Abstract

The global Covid-19 pandemic that hit educational contexts worldwide transformed our regular educational practices and some tasks such as peer revision, a staple in many additional language (AL) writing courses (Hyland & Hyland, 2019), were put aside. As teachers have become more familiar with many new technologies since the start of the pandemic, there is a need to implement peer revision tasks and to understand learners' experiences in this process. The aims of the present study were to examine AL learners’ subjective experience through flow theory as they engage in peer revision tasks with two components: an individual peer feedback component with a follow-up shared feedback component. Flow, a positive experiential state characterized by focus and involvement in challenging yet doable tasks, has been associated with enhanced self-confidence and task performance (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008). Participants of French as an AL (n = 18) engaged in two peer revision tasks (PR) which included both an individual (I-PR) and a follow-up sharing component (S-PR). Flow perception questionnaires were completed immediately following each task. Findings provide empirical evidence that despite being physically isolated and having limited experience with online technologies, learners experienced flow, especially during the S-PR but that technology familiarity and familiarity with peer revision procedures as a result of repeating the procedure mediated flow experiences.

Teaching and learning languages online: Challenges and responses

“…This study supports the integration of collaborative activities in online instruction. Payant and Zuniga (2022) explore language learners’ experience of flow in an individual peer revision task followed by a shared feedback session in a Zoom-based French writing course. The study reveals that the two types of peer revision activity were both flow-generating, but learners experienced a significantly higher level of flow in the exchange of feedback or when having greater familiarity with the task and technology.…”

Flow experience in foreign language writing: Its effect on students’ writing process and writing performance

“…Of course, the fact that psychology-related topics did not make these lists of research foci in L2 writing does not mean that there has not been research on these issues. In fact, there have been quite a few L2-writing studies dealing with psychological/sociopsychological issues, such as anxiety, attitude, motivation, self-efficacy, and self-regulation ( Hashemian and Heidari, 2013 ; Ringel, 2014 ; Waller and Papi, 2017 ; Rahimi and Zhang, 2018 ; Payant and Zuniga, 2022 ). These studies have produced important findings about how positive psychological factors (such as positive attitude and strong motivation) may enhance L2 writing performance and development and how negative psychological factors (such as high anxiety and low or lack of motivation) may hinder L2 writing performance and development.…”

“…Yet, it is interesting to note that only two of these psychology-related studies on L2 writing ( Ringel, 2014 ; Payant and Zuniga, 2022 ) seemed to have been carried out explicitly in the theoretical framework of positive psychology, a fact that is quite puzzling considering that the past 2 decades have witnessed a significant increase in the number of positive psychology-guided studies in the field of foreign/second language learning/acquisition or SLA, to use a more generic acronym for simplicity purposes, (e.g., Egbert, 2003 ; Kirchhoff, 2013 ; Gabryś-Barker and Gałajda, 2016 ; MacIntyre, 2016 ; Aubrey, 2017a , b ; Piniel and Albert, 2017 ; Dewaele et al, 2019 ). These studies in SLA have covered various aspects of positive psychology, including emotion (e.g., Dewaele, 2005 , 2015 ; Saito et al, 2018 ), flow experience ( Egbert, 2003 ; Czimmermann and Piniel, 2016 ; Aubrey, 2017a , b ), and motivation ( Piniel and Albert, 2017 ; Saito et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Ringel (2014) and Payant and Zuniga (2022) , the only two aforementioned positive-psychology-guided studies on L2 writing, examined L2 learners’ flow experience in writing classes. Flow experience, a construct or theory in positive psychology, refers to an optimal state or experience of being completely engaged in an enjoyable and interesting activity ( Bempechat and Shernoff, 2012 ).…”

“…Flow experience, a construct or theory in positive psychology, refers to an optimal state or experience of being completely engaged in an enjoyable and interesting activity ( Bempechat and Shernoff, 2012 ). It has been found to yield an important positive effect on SLA in various learning activities and in learning some specific languages skills, such as in classroom interactive activities ( Egbert, 2003 ; Aubrey, 2017a , b ; Payant and Zuniga, 2022 ) and in extensive reading ( Kirchhoff, 2013 ; Zare-ee, 2013 ). Given the importance of flow experience in SLA and a lack of enough research of it in L2 writing, the present research aims to examine flow experience in Chinese college EFL writers as well as factors affecting their flow experience and the effect of flow experience on their writing performance.…”