effects of collaborative and individual output tasks on ......phrasal verbs are defined as “a verb...
TRANSCRIPT
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Barati, H. Effects of Collaborative and Individual Output Tasks ..................... 79
Effects of Collaborative and
Individual Output Tasks on
Iranian EFL Learners' Phrasal
Verbs Acquisition
Hasan Barati
Hasan Barati
MA Student, Islamic Azad University
Isfahan Branch (Khurasgan), Iran
1. INTRODUCTION
Findings of the recent second language acquisition research have confirmed a need for classroom
activities that encourage both communicative interaction and attention to form in second language
classrooms (Ellis, 2005). One way to help such opportunities is by pedagogical tasks that encourage
negotiation of meaning, as well as providing chances for feedback and attention to form (Yuan & Ellis,
2003). In this regard, in order to provide effective opportunities for peer feedback and scaffolding, in the
Abstract: The study investigated output task effects (collaborative and individual) on Persian-speaking EFL
learners’ phrasal verbs acquisition. Therefore, a group of 60 low intermediate EFL learners were put in three
groups of Collaborative Task (N=20), Individual Task (N=20), and Control (N=20). The groups all received
the same materials and treatment, except for the control group. In the experimental groups, participants were
asked to complete the close tasks collaboratively and individually. Starting by a pretest given to all groups, we
made sure that all of them were at the same level of knowledge of phrasal verbs which were supposed to be
taught during the course. After presenting the phrasal verbs to the three groups, control group did not receive
any task, but the individual group were asked to do the tasks individually and the other group collaboratively.
Subsequently, all the groups took the post-test. The data were analyzed using ANCOVAs to examine the effects
of output tasks. The results indicated that that completing the tasks collaboratively led to a greater accuracy of
task completion than completing them individually. The study has practical implications for classroom
practices and language teachers, and theoretical implications for a better understanding of sociocultural
theories of second language learning.
Keywords: Cloze Task, Collaborative Output Task, Individual Output Task, Phrasal Verbs
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Barati, H. Effects of Collaborative and Individual Output Tasks ..................... 80
sense used by Vygotsky (1986), classroom tasks that make learners work together and produce output
collaboratively have been proposed by a group of researchers (Lapkin & Swain, 2000; Swain, 2005).
It has been claimed by Swain (1985) that in comparison with input, there is more mental endeavor
involved when learners are engaged in output processing; thus, output is part of the learning process
rather than the outcome of it. The rationale behind using output-based tasks in language classrooms is that
learners mostly process input for meaning. But when they are pushed to produce output and subsequently
provided with the relevant input, their attention is most likely drawn to the forms.
Phrasal verbs are defined as “a verb + particle combination that functions as a single verb, both
parts giving up meaning in order to form a new lexical item” (Darwin & Gray, 1999,p. 65). White (2012)
contends that phrasal verbs are difficult for ESL learners because they are unpredictable, polysemous,
frequent, and non-universal. According to Gardner and Davies (2007), “learners will encounter, on
average, one [phrasal verb construction] in every 150 words of English they are exposed to” (p. 347).
Adding to the frequency problem is the knack English speakers possess for coining new phrasal verbs.
Phrasal verbs are called the “most prolific source” of new words in English (Bolinger, 1971, p. xiii).
However, phrasal verbs are often considered to be one of the most challenging features of the
English language. Firstly, they may be seen as an unnatural structure for some learners whose L1 lacks
such a construction. Their syntactic distinctiveness (some phrasal verbs allow for particle movement,
others do not) and semantic complexity (some phrasal verbs have meanings that are highly idiomatic and
opaque) make them particularly difficult to learn, and they are prone to avoidance (Dagut & Laufer,
1985; Hulstijn & Marchena, 1989; Laufer & Eliasson, 1993). In addition, they are composed of two or
more orthographic words, which means that instead of distinguishing them as single semantic units,
unaware learners may attempt to decode the meanings of their individual components, and therefore
misinterpret them. Examining the literature, different classifications of phrasal verbs can be found. For
example, Dagut and Laufer (1985) classified phrasal verbs into three categories; (1) literal phrasal verbs
(e.g., go out) whose meaning can be directly induced from their components, (2) figurative phrasal verbs
(e.g., turn up) which have undergone a metaphorical shift of meaning and (3) completive phrasal verbs
(e.g., burn down) in which the particle is linked to the result of the action involved. In the same vein,
Laufer and Eliasson (1993) presented three types of phrasal verbs; (1) semantically transparent (that is,
the meaning of the phrasal verb can be deduced from its components), (2) semitransparent (i.e., the
meaning of the phrasal verbs may not be clear in isolation but is disambiguated in context) and (3)
semantically opaque (whose meaning cannot be induced from its components and must be processed as
an idiom). It was found that semantically opaque or idiomatic phrasal verbs are generally the most
difficult for language learners, and hence, are the most recurrent type for avoidance (e.g., Kamarudin,
2013; Sara & Mohammadreza, 2013; You, 1999).
Oe and Alam (2013), from Hosei University in Japan, developed a study to find a way to teach
phrasal verbs while negating the interference from the learner‟s L1. They chose to instruct “…directly
through nonverbal media such as pictures and sound. A web application was developed for the picture-
based e-learning of phrasal verbs”. They suggest focusing on only 20 instead of 30 phrasal verbs, using 10
new phrasal verbs each exercise and repeating 10 from the previous one. The authors also recommend
integrating the exercise into coursework to increase student motivation.
Nassaji & Tian (2010) conducted a study in Canada with 26 students engaging in collaborative pair
work with 16 English phrasal verbs. The students‟ existing knowledge of phrasal verbs was measured in a
pretest. Then the students completed reconstruction cloze tasks and reconstruction edit tasks; one of each
individually, and one of each collaboratively. After a posttest and data analysis, it was concluded that
collaborative work has higher results with either task than does individual work, but the difference in
learning is not statistically significant. The authors claim, however, that the addition of a training session
for the students to work collaboratively would lead to better performance in pairs. The difference in type of
tasks, cloze vs. edit, however, showed a significant difference. The analysis of transcripts from the
collaborative work shows that sometimes the interaction on cloze tasks was too short. Students working in
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pairs experienced a larger gain with the edit tasks, somewhat owing to the nature of the task lending itself
to more talk and feedback.
Liao and Fukuya (2004) studied avoidance of English phrasal verbs by Chinese learners. They first
reviewed three previous studies in which L1 speakers of Hebrew, Dutch, and Swedish were measured for
avoidance of English phrasal verbs. The Hebrew-speaking students, who don‟t have phrasal verbs in their
native language, inclined to avoid phrasal verbs, and most frequently those with an idiomatic meaning
(Dagut and Laufer, 1985). Hulstijn and Marchena (1989) studied Dutch learners of English, expecting that
they would not avoid phrasal verbs because they have them in their own native language. Their results
recommend that the Dutch students did not avoid phrasal verbs categorically but tended to avoid idiomatic
phrasal verbs that seemed too Dutch-like. Strangely, phrasal verbs that had a similar counterpart in the L1
were avoided.
2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW
A review of the literature on the role of input and output reveals that there has always been a
disagreement over the effectiveness of providing learners with comprehensible input, input enhancement,
output, and whether one or a combination of some is more beneficial in the process of learning language
components (Izumi, 2002; Maftoon & Sharifi, 2012).
2.1 The Rationale for Task-based Courses The inevitability for task-based courses appeared after the shortcomings of the earlier approaches
in language teaching. The previous approaches known as traditional that had a linguistic/structural
syllabus focused on „what‟ in language teaching and learning rather than the needs of the learners. Such
syllabi contained a graded list of grammatical structures (Ellis, 2003). In response to failure of the
traditional methods, CLT was born. CLT is based on the theories of communicative competence (Hymes
1971 and Widdowson 1978, argued in Larsen-Freeman, 2003) and functional grammar (see Halliday,
1985). This is known as the notional/functional approach. This approach is fundamentally a linguistic
based syllabus because it defines the „what‟ of the language teaching. Therefore, there is not much
difference between the structural and the notional/functional syllabi. Yet, the notional/functional syllabus
takes the learners‟ needs into account (Li, 1998) while the structural syllabus does not.
One significant fact that the structural and the notional/functional syllabi were ignored is that there
is no guarantee that the learners select whatever is at hand in the classroom. It would be better to say, it is
impossible to foresee what learners have achieved at the end of a language course. The belief that we are
able to predict what learners have learnt at the end of a course is perfectionist or interventionist.
Fascinatingly, research indicates that such an intervention is ineffective and has little impact on learners
owing to learner‟s use of second language based on their own interlanguage.
Previous studies have also compared tasks completed in pairs with those completed individually
(Kim 2008; Storch 2005; Wigglesworth and Storch 2009). One common finding in those studies was that
work done in pairs was more likely to produce linguistically accurate sentences than individual work. For
example, Storch (2007) showed that the learners who worked in pairs increasingly used target words
during interaction and reflected on the word forms. However, concerning the aspect of the accuracy of the
task, no significant difference was noticed between the learners who completed the tasks in pairs and
those who worked individually. The use of articles and word forms in the task might have contributed to
task accuracy in both groups. Learners might not be able to solve such problems in work done in pairs.
Consequently, due to both theoretical and pedagogical considerations, it had been concluded that
learners should be encouraged to participate in activities that increase collaboration in the L2 classroom.
2.2 Collaborative Work in Learning Phrasal Verbs Mark Feng Teng (2017) studied the effectiveness of three tasks (cloze, editing, writing) on the
acquisition of phrasal verbs for students learning English as a foreign language (EFL). A total of 72 low-
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to-intermediate EFL learners were selected. The study employed pre- and post-test designs. The
performance of the learners who accomplished the three tasks individually was compared with that of the
learners who completed the same tasks in pairs or in groups. The results showed that the learners who
participated in group work attained a larger gain of the knowledge of the phrasal verbs than doing the
tasks in a pair; nevertheless, tasks completed in pairs led to better performances than individual work. The
writing task produced the best learning scores, followed by the editing task and finally, the cloze task.
Moreover, the writing task resulted in the greatest number of instances of metalinguistic or form-focused
feedback.
Badri Ahmadi (2016) in her study found out that output-based language teaching outperformed
input-based language teaching and led to better learning of the English phrasal verbs. The results
suggested that there was no significant difference between male and female Iranian EFL learners in
output-based teaching of English phrasal verbs. The study also showed no significant difference between
both genders in input-based teaching of English phrasal verbs. That is, input- and output-based
instructions had no effect on genders in learning phrasal verbs.
2.3 Empirical Studies on Output Tasks and Second Language Acquisition
A number of studies have empirically investigated the effect of various output tasks on L2 learning.
For example, Izumi (2002) investigated the role of output and the relative efficacy of reconstruction task
and picture-cued writing task in noticing and learning of the English past counterfactual conditional.
Results indicated that more noticing occurred overall for learners who had the opportunity to produce
output compared to those who did not, although none of the tasks led to greater noticing of the target
forms in the second input than in the first input. Also, the participants who received output opportunities
during the treatments performed significantly better than those in the non-output condition on the
production posttest, but no difference was found in the relative efficacy of the two output tasks.
In light of the above theoretical arguments, several studies have empirically examined the role of
collaborative output tasks in L2 learning (Kowal & Swain, 1994; Kuiken & Vedder, 2002; Storch, 2007;
Swain & Lapkin, 2002). For example, Kowal and Swain (1994) investigated a particular type of
collaborative output task called dictogloss. Their results showed that when learners were involved in the
co-production of language through such tasks, they noticed gaps in their knowledge of language, their
attention was drawn to the link between form and meaning, and they benefited feedback from their peers.
Kuiken and Vedder (2002) examined the effects of collaborative pair work by comparing the
learners‟ performance on completing a dictogloss on learning English passive forms. The results of the
qualitative analyses showed many instances where the interaction drew learners‟ attention to form.
However, their results did not show a significant effect for collaborative interaction.
Storch (2007) examined the effectiveness of pair work by comparing learners‟ performance on
completing an editing task individually or in pairs. The results showed that when the students completed
the tasks in pairs they were actively engaged in interaction and reflection about language forms. Again, no
significant difference was found between the accuracy of the task when completed collaboratively versus
individually. Nassaji & Tian (2010) compared the relative effectiveness of reconstruction cloze tasks and
reconstruction editing tasks for learning English phrasal verbs in individual and collaborative conditions.
The results showed that completing the tasks collaboratively led to a greater accuracy of task completion
than completing them individually. However, collaborative tasks did not lead to significantly greater gains
of vocabulary knowledge than individual tasks. The results, however, showed that the editing tasks were
more effective than the cloze tasks in promoting negotiation and learning.
2.4 The Present Study
One conclusion that may be drawn from the above studies is that collaborative pair work may
facilitate learners‟ interaction and attention to the target forms, but it may not necessarily lead to superior
learning in comparison to individual work. Although several studies (Storch, 2007; Swain & Lapkin,
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Barati, H. Effects of Collaborative and Individual Output Tasks ..................... 83
1995, Nassaji & Tian, 2010) have provided valuable insights regarding the effectiveness of collaborative
tasks, very few of them investigated the output tasks in individual and collaborative setting
comparatively. Moreover, most studies in the related literature have dealt with language structure,
grammar, writing, or vocabulary in general, data is still thin in the related area as very few of them have
included phrasal verbs as a subcategory of vocabulary (Nassaji & Tian, 2010). However, as Hare (2010),
Kuiken and Vedder (2002), Nassaji & Tian (2010) and Storch (2007) stressed, studies in this area are still
very limited, and hence there is a need for further research in this area. Research is needed to examine not
only the effects of individual versus pair work on language tasks but also the possible effects of task
types.
2.5 Research Questions
The research questions were based on the consideration of the results of the prior theoretical and
empirical research discussed above. Consequently, the following research questions have been examined
in this study.
a. Do collaborative output tasks have a statistically significant effect on Iranian EFL learners' acquisition
of phrasal verbs?
b. Do individual output tasks have a statistically significant effect on Iranian EFL learners' acquisition of
phrasal verbs?
c. Is there a significant difference between collaborative output tasks and individual output tasks in terms
of their effects on EFL learners' acquisition of phrasal verbs?
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1 Method
This study is a quasi-experimental. It is quasi-experimental in that the participants were not
randomly selected but chosen from intact classes. The participants, however, took part in a pretest to
check the homogeneity of the group. The study was conducted during two months in three intact
intermediate adult ESL classrooms in an English learning in Isfahan.
3.2 Participants
The participants of the study were 60 Iranian EFL adult learners who were learning English in a
language institute in Isfahan. These participants were selected based on their availability and were placed
in experimental and control groups after taking the placement test, i.e., Oxford Placement Test (Allen,
2004). Both male and female learners participated in the study. Attempts were made to include an equal
number of each gender, so that gender could be controlled, although gender was not a variable in the
study. Since the study was planned to investigate the effect of collaborative and individual output tasks on
low- intermediate proficiency Iranian EFL learners, it was essential to conduct a placement test to make
sure that the participants were homogenous. After the placement test, the 60 participants who were low-
intermediate were randomly placed in three groups; 8 male and 12 female learners in collaborative group,
9 male and 11 female learners in individual group, and 7 male and 13 female learners in one control
group. Their ages ranged from 25 to 40.
In one of the experimental groups, Collaborative Tasks, participants (N=20) were supposed to work
together to do the output tasks i.e. close task. In the second experimental group, Individual group,
participants (N=20) did the tasks individually. Finally, in the Control group, participants (N=20) were not
asked to do any tasks (although they were taught phrasal verbs as a part of their instruction, but no
emphasis was made).
3.2 Materials
The target words were 16 English phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are two or three word idiomatic
expressions, consisting of a verb and a particle or a combination of a particle and a preposition (Lewis,
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1993; Darwin & Gray, 1999). The first reason for focusing on phrasal verbs was that these verbs are a
subgroup of English vocabulary that is widely used by native speakers of English but they have been
found to be difficult for L2 learners to master (Hulstijn & Marchena, 1989; Moon, 1997; Kao, 2001). The
difficulty of learning phrasal verbs stems from the fact that they consist of different combinations of verbs
and particles and often the meaning of the phrase is different from the meanings of its parts (Side, 1990).
Pretest and Posttest
In order to examine the impact of tasks, i.e., the independent variable, on Iranian EFL learners‟
phrasal acquisition, the dependent variable, participants of the study had to complete 4 close tasks during
the course.
A pretest containing 20 tests of phrasal verbs that were selected from the learners' textbook was
taken by the three groups to see if the all groups had the same level of knowledge of the given phrasal
verbs. Four close tasks were prepared. Each task contained randomly four of the 16 target phrasal verbs.
Each cloze text contained some missing parts, four of which were related to the target phrasal verbs and
the other eight were not (see Appendix B). The learners had to restore the missing parts as correctly and as
possible. In the individual group, the learners were asked to complete the tasks individually. In the
collaborative group, the learners were asked to complete the close tasks collaboratively. In control group,
the learners just did the exercises about the given phrasal words in their books, they did not receive any
tasks. All the four texts were constructed by the teacher and were also judged by him to be suitable for his
class levels. They were made in the form of short paragraphs, and the reason was that the teacher was
using such texts during the semester for practicing language forms. Therefore, they were relevant and
consistent with what was going on in the classroom. When designing the tasks, the teacher made sure that
they were as similar as possible in terms of format, length, content, and the nature of information needed to
complete the tasks.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In order to answer the research questions of the study, the mean scores were analyzed using SPSS
16. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, means, standard deviations, and percentages were
obtained. First of all, to make sure that participants of the study were homogenous, an ANOVA was used.
It should be noted that the homogeneity would be confirmed if there were no statistically significant
difference between the groups. In addition, to see if there was a statistically significant difference
between control and experimental groups in the pretests and posttests, the researcher used ANCOVAs for
each of the tests.
4.1 Gender Distribution of Participants
As Table 4.1 shows, the total number of the participants in study was 60 (23 male and 37 female).
The percentages of female and male participants were 61.7 and 38.3 respectively (Figure 1). Due to the
high number of the participants, gender distribution was normal for the study.
Table 4.1 Gender Distribution of Participants
Information Frequency Percent
Female 37 61.7
Male 23 38.3
Total 60 100.0
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Figure 4. 1. Gender distribution of participants.
For pretest and posttest in Table 4.2 and Figure 4.2 descriptive statistics for groups of control,
individual and collaborative measures of central tendency and dispersion are displayed.
Table 4.2 Group Statistics
Group N Mean
Std.
Deviation
Pretest
control 20 21.25 8.717
individual 20 17.75 4.435
collaborative 20 17.50 4.443
Total 60 18.83 6.336
posttest
control 20 30.25 10.572
individual 20 68.50 7.964
collaborative 20 78.75 6.664
Total 60 59.17 22.665
Figure 4.2. Means of groups
Female 62%
Male 38%
GENDER
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
control individual collaborative
pre test post test
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4.1 The Normality Test
To apply parametric statistical tests, the data had to be checked for normality and normal
distribution. According to Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for goodness of fit results, the data gained were
normally distributed for all variables because (p > 0.05).
Table 4.4 normality test for variables
Information Control individual collaborative
Pre test Post test Pre test Post test Pre test Post test
Kolmogorov Smirnov Z 0.860 0.599 1.039 0.582 1.177 0.953
Asymp. Sig. 0.451 0.866 0.230 0.887 0.125 0.323
4.2 Results of Comparing Between Control and Collaborative
In order to see whether collaborative output tasks have a statistically significant effect on Iranian
EFL learners' acquisition of phrasal verbs, the means of two groups were compared.
Table 4.5 Group Statistics
Group Mean Std. Deviation
Pre test Control 21.25 8.717
Collaborative 17.50 4.443
post
test
Control 30.25 10.572
Collaborative 78.75 6.664
To measure the homogeneity of variances, the Levene test was run. The results, presented in
Table 4.5 show that the difference was not significant and that the participants were quite homogeneous.
This helps the researcher to conduct the inferential statistic ANOVA to see if there was a significant
difference among the participants.
Table 4.6 Test of Homogeneity of Variances
Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
3.795 1 38 0.059
Table 4.6 shows that Levene Test in comparing control and collaborative is 3.795 and the sig.
value is 0.059 which is above 0.05 substantiating the equality of variance assumption.
Table 4.7 depicts Tests of Between-Subjects Effects ANCOVA for control and Collaborative
groups. The Sig. value is 0.000 which is above 0.05 and F= 312.578. Therefore there is a significant
difference between the two groups. That is, Collaborative group outperformed the control group.
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Table 4.7 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects ANCOVA for control and Collaborative
Sum of
Squares df
Mean
Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 23759.291 2 11879.646 160.964 0.000
Intercept 9754.121 1 9754.121 132.164 0.000
Pre test 236.791 1 236.791 3.208 0.081
groups 23069.578 1 23069.578 312.583 0.000
Error 2730.709 37 73.803
Total 145300.000 40
Corrected Total 26490.000 39
Table 4.8 Normality test for Residuals
Residuals
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z 0.526
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.945
4.5. Results of Comparing Between Control and Individual
In order to see whether collaborative output tasks have a statistically significant effect on Iranian
EFL learners' acquisition of phrasal verbs, the means of two groups were compared which is presented in
Table 4.9 .
Table 4.9 Group Statistics
group Mean Std. Deviation
Pre test control 21.25 8.717
individual 17.75 4.435
post
test
control 30.25 10.572
individual 68.50 7.964
To measure the homogeneity of variances, the Levene test was run. The results, presented in
Table 4.9 show that the difference was not significant and that the participants were quite homogeneous.
This helps the researcher to conduct the inferential statistic ANOVA to see if there was a significant
difference among the participants
Table 4.10 Test of Homogeneity of Variances
Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
1.835 1 38 0.184
Table 4.10 shows that Levene Test in comparing control and collaborative is 3.795 and the sig.
value is 0.059 which is above 0.05 substantiating the equality of variance assumption.
Table 4.11 shows Tests of Between-Subjects Effects ANCOVA for control and individual groups. The
Sig. value is 0.000 which is above 0.05 and F= 176.226. Therefore, there is a significant difference
between the two groups. That is, individual group outperformed the control group.
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Table 4.11 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects ANCOVA for control and individual
Sum of
Squares df
Mean
Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 14882.242 2 7441.121 89.473 0.000
Intercept 7574.429 1 7574.429 91.076 0.000
Pre test 251.617 1 251.617 3.025 0.090
groups 14656.002 1 14656.002 176.226 0.000
Error 3077.133 37 83.166
Total 115475.000 40
Corrected Total 17959.375 39
Table 4.12 normality test for Residuals
Residuals
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z 0.474
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.978
4.6 Results of Comparing Between Collaborative and Individual
In order to see whether there is a difference in the effectiveness of the two types of doing tasks
(collaboratively vs. individually) , the means of two groups were compared which is presented in Table
4.9 .
Table 4.13 Group Statistics
group Mean Std. Deviation
pretest individual 17.75 4.435
collaborative 17.50 4.443
posttest individual 68.50 7.964
collaborative 78.75 6.664
To measure the homogeneity of variances, the Levene test was run. The results, presented in
Table 4.13 show that the difference was not significant and that the participants were quite homogeneous.
This helps the researcher to conduct the inferential statistic ANOVA to see if there was a significant
difference among the participants.
Table 4.14 shows that Levene Test in comparing individual and collaborative is 3.795 and the sig.
value is 0. 629which is above 0.05 substantiating the equality of variance assumption.
Table 4.14 Test of Homogeneity of Variances
Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
0.237 1 38 0.629
Table 4.15 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects ANCOVA for Individual and Collaborative
Sum of
Squares Df
Mean
Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 1130.792 2 565.396 10.627 0.000
Intercept 10468.091 1 10468.091 196.750 0.000
Pre test 80.167 1 80.167 1.507 0.227
Groups 1066.571 1 1066.571 20.046 0.000
Error 1968.583 37 53.205
Total 219925.000 40
Corrected Total 3099.375 39
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Table 4.15 shows Tests of Between-Subjects Effects ANCOVA for collaborative and individual
groups. The Sig. value is 0.000 which is above 0.05 and F= 20.046. Therefore, there is a significant
difference between the two groups. That is, collaborative group outperformed the individual group.
Table 4.16 Normality test for Residuals
Residuals
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z 0.541
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.932
5. CONCLUSSION
The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of collaborative and individual task
planning on writing performance of Iranian EFL learners. As one of the few studies on the topic, the
study, more specifically, was aimed to compare the role task planning plays in Iranian EFL learners‟
writing performance taking Brown and Bailey‟s (1984) rating scale. The scale takes into account
components, such as Organization, Content, Grammar, Mechanics, and Style. In other words, the study
tried to compare two methods of planning writing, namely collaborative and individual to see which one
was more effective and which one resulted in better writing among Iranian EFL learners at upper-
intermediate and advanced levels. Results indicated that planning was effective in some aspects of
writing, namely Organization and Style, but not in certain others, namely Content, Grammar, and
Mechanics. However, results of this study revealed that there were improvements over time in writing
performance for the experimental groups.
This has been supported by Doboa (2012) who indicated that pair and small group activities
constitute one of the most common practices in communicative second language (L2) classrooms,
theoretically backed up by both psycholinguistic and sociocultural perspectives on L2 acquisition. In
writing classes, group work has tended to be limited to brainstorming and peer review activities. But in
recent years, a number of studies have called attention to the benefits of collaborative writing tasks, which
require learners to work in pairs throughout the entire writing process (e.g., Storch, 2005; Wigglesworth
& Storch, 2009).
Research from a sociocultural perspective suggests that collaborative writing activities push
learners to reflect on their language use and work together in the solution of their language-related
problems (Swain, 2001). By pooling their linguistic resources to solve the problems encountered, learners
engage in language-mediated cognitive activities that are thought to facilitate the co-construction of
language knowledge and a higher level of performance (Donato, 1994; Ohta, 2001; Swain, 2000; Swain
& Lapkin, 1998). Doboa provided evidence that collaborative dialogue, the dialogue that occurs between
learners as they collaborate to solve linguistic problems, mediates L2 learning (e.g., Kim, 2008; Swain,
Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002; Swain & Lapkin, 2002).
It can also be stated that the learners‟ interaction and collaboration about what they are producing
or writing may be a source and sign of second language learning. Thus, it is in accordance with the results
of a study conducted by Swain and Lapkin (1998), in which they discussed what they termed
"collaborative dialogues" in "language-related episodes". They proposed that such “language-related
episodes provide evidence of language use as both an enactment of mental process and as an occasion for
L2 learning” (p. 320). These results are also in favor of Vygotsky's (1978, 1986) sociocultural theory of
mind, in which language learning is essentially social and collaborative interaction is the main component
in the process of language learning. So, this study supports this claim that new knowledge begins in
interaction and also becomes internalized and consolidated through collaboration with others (Vygotsky,
1978, 1986).
Findings related to collaborative output tasks revealed that they were very effective in completing
output tasks. The results provide some grounds for their potential use in creating negotiation of ideas
while doing group work in classroom. The findings were not consistent with some of the previous
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Barati, H. Effects of Collaborative and Individual Output Tasks ..................... 90
research, which found positive effects for collaborative pair work on L2 learners‟ acquisition of target
forms. This shows that, as asserted by Nassaji & Tian (2010), the presumed effectiveness of collaborative
task on learning linguistic forms should be taken with more caution. Therefore, further investigation in the
related area is needed to find out if collaborative output tasks are really influential in this regard or, if not,
what the possible causes are.
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