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Research on EFL learning by young children in Spain
Edited by María del Pilar García Mayo
[Language Teaching for Young Learners 3:2] 2021
► pp. 275–299

Give me a second chance

Task repetition and collaborative writing with child EFL learners

 | Public University of Navarre, Institute for Advanced Social Research (I-COMMUNITAS)
 | Public University of Navarre, Institute for Advanced Social Research (I-COMMUNITAS)
Collaborative writing (CW) and task repetition have been claimed to aid language acquisition. Students produce better texts when writing with a peer and their drafts improve if they write the same composition twice (same task repetition, STR). However, little is known about young learners, about the effects of combining both constructs and, finally, about a more common type of repetition in language lessons: repeating the same procedure with different content (procedural task repetition, PTR). This study analyses the effects of CW (vs. individual writing) and of PTR (vs. STR). To do so, the writings of 59 Spanish young learners (aged 11) of English divided into four groups were analysed. Two of these groups (N = 9, N = 10) wrote a composition individually while two (N = 20, N = 20) wrote a composition in pairs. A week later, one individual (N = 9) and one collaborative group (N = 20) wrote the same composition again (STR) while the other individual (N = 10) and collaborative (N = 20) groups wrote a new composition following the same procedure (PTR). Unlike findings from adult learners, our students’ drafts show no differences that could be attributed to the collaboration. However, some improvements upon repetition were hinted at, with students in the STR group obtaining greater holistic rates.
Keywords: young learners, EFL, writing, procedural task repetition, same task repetition, collaborative writing
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature background
    • 2.1Collaborative writing
    • 2.2Task repetition
  • 3.The study
    • 3.1Research questions and hypothesis
    • 3.2Participants and setting
    • 3.3Procedure
    • 3.4Coding and analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Quantitative analyses: Complexity
    • 4.2Quantitative analyses: Fluency
    • 4.3Quantitative analyses: Accuracy
    • 4.4Qualitative analysis
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 27 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltyl.20009.laz
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