Peer Affective Factors in Peer Collaboration: Facebook-Based Collaborative Writing Activity Among Turkish High School EFL Learners

Abstract

This paper is about an investigation into student perceptions of peer affective factors during a Facebook-based collaborative writing activity among Turkish high school EFL learners. Two groups of three students, 16-year-old EFL learners at A2 level English proficiency (CEFR), undertook an online collaborative English short story writing exercise over seven weeks using Facebook. I gathered data from focus group discussions, online one-to-one chats and online discussion threads from both groups. Although small-scale, valuable insights were obtained into peer affective factors that emerged throughout the writing exercise, and were concerned with receiving / giving praise and motivational phrases, the use of informal language and humour in writing during the exercise as well as in relation to feeling comfortable with each other. The students claimed these factors greatly aided the development of their writing skills.

The Community of Inquiry perspective on students' social presence, cognitive presence, and academic performance in online project‐based learning

“…Çelik & Gündoğdu, 2016) or during collaborative projects (e.g. Selcuk, 2017), on students' academic achievement, such as the level of content knowledge and writing skills. The type of humour is usually categorized into two dimensions: positive or affiliative, and negative or aggressive (Banas et al, 2011; Martin et al, 2003).…”

Cognitive and Applied Linguistics Aspects of Using Social Media: The Impact of the Use of Facebook on Developing Writing Skills in Learning English as a Foreign Language

“…Using Facebook can also improve vocabulary [ 23 ], which can be achieved through exposure to fellow group members’ posts [ 16 ]. Furthermore, using Facebook can reduce students’ shyness [ 26 ] or lower self-esteem [ 12 ], particularly when students feel comfortable with each other, and are supported by each other, when developing writing skills [ 5 , 6 , 21 ]. Improving vocabulary is one of the most important areas in learning a new language, and a supportive environment with improved social skills is crucial from the viewpoint of mental development.…”

“…This presented article does not, and cannot, include all the research topics, and it would not be helpful when trying to describe taxonomies which are used when using Facebook in teaching writing skills. Descriptive studies and reviews [ 2 , 3 , 21 , 22 ] as they are not relevant for the secondary text analysis with the aim of creating learning or linguistic taxonomies. …”

“…Descriptive studies and reviews [ 2 , 3 , 21 , 22 ] as they are not relevant for the secondary text analysis with the aim of creating learning or linguistic taxonomies.…”

The Use of Online Dictionaries During Web-Based Collaborative Writing Among EFL Learners

“…A recent review study by Zhang and Zou (2021) has indicated that to date, previous studies have used the following web-based environments such as wiki (N = 21 studies), Google Doc (N = 6 studies), offline word processor (N = 3 studies), Facebook (N = 2 studies), chat (N = 2 studies) and forum (N = 2 studies) when undertaking the CW activities in second/foreign language writing contexts. Additionally, previous studies on web-based CW explored 1) patterns of peer interaction and learners' co-constructed texts (e.g., Abrams, 2019;Li & Zhu, 2017), 2) peer affective factors (e.g., Selcuk & Jones, 2022;Selcuk, 2017), individual writing versus CW (e.g., Alsubaie & Ashuraidah, 2017), and the influence of peer leadership during the CW process (e.g., Selcuk, Jones & Vonkova, 2019a). Nevertheless, few studies (e.g., Selcuk, Jones & Vonkova, 2019b) investigated the Information Communications Technology (ICT) tools used by the learners during the CW processes.…”