Abstract
This paper presents new perspectives wikis offer for collaborative writing in a foreign language. Specifically it discusses the implementation of a wiki for developing academic writing skills in a foreign language. The study described in the article showed participants’ positive attitude to collaborative writing on the wiki. They valued the wiki most for the options for error correction and possibility to discuss writing on chats or with comment boxes. The study also revealed that the wiki influenced the process of writing in a positive way as students cared more about the audience, by attempting to create more accurate, more interesting and better structured products. Some problems were also observed, e.g. students were dependent on each other to complete a task, which was problematic when one of team members was late with accomplishment of his/her part. The paper also includes a detailed description of an activity which may be used as a suggestion on how to use a wiki while developing students’ writing skills.
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Notes
- 1.
The statements have been copied verbatim from the questionnaires, only spelling errors were corrected by the author of the article.
- 2.
All the questions except for 1, 4, 5 were in this Likert scale format.
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Appendix
Appendix
Questionnaire concerning implementing a wiki for the purpose of developing writing skills
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1.
I have used wikis for writing (any kind) or editing some web pages before.
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yes
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no
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2.
Group writing on the wiki as a part of an academic writing course is a good idea.Footnote 2
Strongly agree
Agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
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3.
I don’t want to write on the wiki any more.
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4.
The most problematic aspects of writing on the wiki were ..........
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5.
What I liked about writing on the wiki was ................
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6.
I am willing to write on the wiki but I would prefer to write individually.
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7.
Writing on the wiki made me think about the reader more.
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8.
Writing on the wiki made me use more diversified vocabulary.
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9.
Writing on the wiki made me use more diversified grammar structures.
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10.
Writing on the wiki made pay attention to paragraph construction.
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11.
Writing on the wiki made me think about the content more.
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12.
Writing on the wiki made me care more about accuracy of my writing.
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13.
Writing on the wiki is an efficient way of learning academic writing.
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14.
I am satisfied with what we managed to write on the wiki.
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Marzec-Stawiarska, M. (2015). Wikis and New Perspectives for Collaborative Writing. In: Piasecka, L., Adams-Tukiendorf, M., Wilk, P. (eds) New Media and Perennial Problems in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07686-7_3
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