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The Effects of Mediation Tools on Online Collaborative and Individual Writing

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Abstract

Few studies have examined the effects of using mediation tools (e.g., collaborative dialogs and online searches) on graduate students’ academic writing in a computer-mediated collaborative writing environment. This study investigated what types of co-constructed writing knowledge the graduate students generated from using the mediation tools to solve writing problems, and to what extent the co-constructed writing knowledge facilitated each student’s academic writing. Thirty-six Taiwanese graduate students, who studied English as a foreign language (EFL), volunteered to participate in an online collaborative writing program featuring developing argumentative essays. Data collected in this study include the students’ collaborative dialogs, online search logs, open-ended questionnaires, and the students’ collaborative and individual writing texts. The results show that the students using the mediation tools could generate two types of co-constructed writing knowledge in terms of language forms and skills of expressions, and they outperformed those who did not, in aspects of holistic performance, communicative quality, text organization, argumentation, linguistic accuracy, and linguistic appropriateness. It is concluded that students may co-construct writing knowledge to solve writing problems and improve both collaborative and individual writing through effective use of the mediation tools available in an online collaborative writing environment.

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  1. Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Air Force Institute of Technology, No. 1, Julun Rd., Gangshan Dist., Kaohsiung City, 82047, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Meng-Ying Daphne Lin

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  1. Meng-Ying Daphne Lin
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Appendices

Appendix A

Writing Prompts with Permission from ETS.

Writing Task 1.

Some young adults want independence from their parents as soon as possible. Other young adults prefer to live with their families for a longer time. Which of these situations do you think is better? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Writing Task 2.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People benefit more from traveling in their own country than from traveling to foreign countries. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Writing Task 3.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A teacher’s ability to relate well with students is more important than excellent knowledge of subject being taught. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Writing Task 4.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Young people enjoy life more than older people do. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Copyright © Educational Testing Service. www.ets.org.

Appendix B

Questionnaire on Mediation Use.

(translated from an original Mandarin version).

Group members:___________/________________Your name: ______________.

Participants have to print out their Web browsing history and make reference to it to answer the following questions.

How many times in total did you search for answers to your writing questions on the Internet? Please count times on the basis of your Web browsing history. ______________________ times

1. Following question one, what types of search did you do while you were writing (e.g., lexical meaning, translating Chinese into English, grammar, collocation, etc.)? Please write down your search types in reference to your Web browsing history. Please refer to your Web browsing history and match the types of searching to times of searching.

Fill in your types of searching

Times

1. (Examples) translating Chinese to English

8

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

Have you ever asked your partner(s) for help if you had writing problems? If you did, how many times and what types of questions did you ask for his/her help? Did you get answers from him/her?

Fill in types of questions

Did I get answers?

Times

1. (Examples) the meaning of the prompt

Yes

2

2

  

3

  

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Lin, MY.D. The Effects of Mediation Tools on Online Collaborative and Individual Writing. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 32, 65–78 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00634-1

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