Two heads better than one: the potential of collaborative dictogloss for EFL students at high proficiency levels

Abstract

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research confirms that collaborative writing might be conductive to L2 learning for students at all proficiency levels (Storch 1998; Swain & Lapkin, 2001). The current small-scale study compared the effectiveness of a collaborative and individual dictogloss task on the acquisition of L2 vocabulary by high proficiency English learners (N-14). The learners completed a pre-test, a dictogloss task, and a post-test over a two-week period. Part of the students (N-10) carried out the task in pairs and the other part worked individually (N-4). The written output was collected and compared in terms of accuracy, fluency and similarity to the original passage when completing the task. Also, a survey was carried out to elicit student’s attitudes. Results show that collaboration in a dictogloss has no significant influence on vocabulary acquisition however it improves task outcome: collaborative texts are more accurate, fluent and more similar to the original. In light of the results, attention will be drawn to the digtogloss task as a pedagogical tool at high proficiency levels in order to enhance language learning in EFL classrooms in similar contexts.