A literature review of several successful studies on the benefits of collaborative work for EFL students.

1. COLLABORATIVE STUDY:
Academic and Social Benefits
for EFL Students
Laura Kieselbach
Northeastern University EdD Program
Bergamo Conference, October 10, 2014
Journal of Curriculum Theorizing

2. Collaboration in Three Parts:
2 or more people
Work together
Learn something new
Implications of this approach:
• Enhanced skill development in critical reading,
listening, speaking and writing skills
For EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students,
this method is resulting in improved achievement
levels and enhanced social skills.

3. Discovery
• Chen & Chen (2010): studied 56
Taiwanese students who used “social
tagging” as a reading strategy
• Social Tagging defined: a system that enables
users to add keywords (tags) to Internet resources
(e.g. web pages, images, videos) without relying
on a controlled vocabulary
• Result: those in worked in collaboration
with their peers to access new modalities
of social communication and seek
opportunities for data mining performed
better than independent workers

4. Jim Cummins (2011) asserts:
• EFL students should have abundant access to
print text and engage actively with these texts
• Animated discussions and debates should be
the classroom “norm” to offer a plethora of
opportunities for EFL students to hear and
speak the English language
• Conversational fluency is very different from
academic fluency, resulting often in poor
performance of EFL students on standardized
tests
• A period of 5 years is generally required for
fluent acquisition of the language

5. STUDENT TESTIMONIALS:
“We could help each other…”
“I always knew I could ask my classmates for help.”
“Working together offered personal bonds along with
academic…”
This qualitative data obtained by Zoghi, Mustapha, &
Maasum (2010) reflects the enriching experience of
interdependence on peers for learning that
encourages social and cognitive individual
development.

6. Basics of Collaboration
Fransen, Kirschner, & Erkens (2011) emphasize
the importance of collaborative learning
communities sharing mental models and
performance monitoring.
Considerations when forming collaborative teams:
• Student ability
• Group characteristics
• Role assignments
Outcomes of collaborative teams:
• Discussion, discovery, debate

7. Four Components, according to Dillenbourg (1999):
1. Peers are (more or less) at the same level (grade,
performance, maturity), can perform the same
actions, have a common goal, and work together.
2. Interaction is present: students not only work
together, but evaluate one another, negotiate an
understanding during conflict, and reason
synchronously to build mutual knowledge.
3. Processes specifically required for learning
(induction, cognition, explanation, conflict
resolution) must be present in the individual before
he/she can be effective in a group
4. Effect requires students to know the exact scenario
in order to make sense of productivity and teachers
should utilize tools to determine acquisition of
knowledge after collaboration.

8. “The challenge of successful
collaboration for EFL students is the
transfer of cognitive tools from the
social plane (interaction with others) to
the inner plane (reasoning), since this
process implies social interaction”
- Dillenbourg (1999)

9. Strategies
• Carefully design the situation to increase
the probability of productivity
• Place EFL learners in a team of experts
beyond their ability (this helps with gains
and knowledge acquisition)
• Go beyond basic language teaching
methods in allowing collaboration – this
lends to greater reading comprehension in
EFL learners
• Regularly use print to interact with text for
EFL learners – this allows a purposeful
engagement with words
• When available, incorporate technology
that allows for hands-on EFL involvement

10. Studies
Chen & Chen (2010): TACO
• Tag-based collaborative reading learning system
• 2 groups – A and B – one with TACO
• Read “Wuthering Heights” excerpt
• Pre-test and post-test preformed
• Results demonstrated high correlation between
performance and those that worked with the
TACO system
Zoghi (2010): MCSR
• Modified Collaborative Reading Strategy
• 42 EFL freshmen, 90 min/week, 6 weeks
• Strategic reading in small groups
• Students read with more efficiency and better
clarity when working with peers

11. Social Benefits
Collaboration allows EFL learners greater
exposure to the language and the processes of
critical thinking and problem solving.
EFL learners learn the valuable skills of equal
participation and accountability in a shared
classroom environment.
The communal skills and cognition cues of EFL
learners working in collaboration with their peers
are drastically enhanced compared to independent
learners.

12. Theoretical and Pedagogical Implications
Programs like the MCRS (modified collaborative
reading strategy) gave EFL learners a greater
opportunity to participate in their own learning,
according to student feedback.
Language acquisition and writing abilities are
enhanced by collaboratively working among peers.
Opportunities for meaningful and purposeful
communication engages cognitive processing that
operates as a source for language accuracy in ELL’s.
The nature of collaborative learning with fluent
speakers lends itself to discussion, correction, and
development of skills, making it a resourceful and
effective teaching method.

13. In Summary
• Clearly specify tasks and outcomes when
implementing collaborative learning.
• Identify the best place for EFL leaners to thrive
among his/her peers groups.
• Be purposeful when instructing students to listen,
to you and to their peers: EFL learners become
more aware of the language this way
• Encourage EFL learners to question their peers in
order to gain comprehension and understanding
• Carefully assign roles so that all students can
contribute their ideas and insight
• EFL learners will construct and transform learning
that occurs as a joint activity through the process
of approximation and internalization

14. THE END!
Thank you
for your time!