Collaborative Writing in Summary Writing: Student Perceptions and Problems

This study investigated ESL students’ perceptions and problems on the use of collaborative writing approach in writing summaries. The study involved 30 Malaysian students enrolled in an Academic Writing course at a college in West Malaysia. The students completed two summary writing tasks collaboratively in two class meetings. A 25-item 4-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered and semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 10 randomly-selected students. Analysis of the data indicates that most of the students perceive collaborative writing positively and consider it useful in enhancing their writing and language proficiency. Problems that occurred during the collaboration process were also identified and discussed.