EXPLORATION OF COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING CLASSES: THE USE OF WIKIS BY NOVICE WRITERS FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Collaborative writing is a joint production carried out by two or more authors. The main difference between collaborative writing and other similar activities, e.g., peer feedback, is the joint ownership and mutual understanding. As the fields of computer-mediated communication and networked-based language learning have expanded immensely, this presentation intends to shed light on the advantages of Wiki-based collaborative writing for a group of low-proficiency English language learners of writing in Saudi Arabia. It will emphasize the value of wiki technology in producing clearly defined written paragraphs for learners with limited exposure to writing. It will also show how these new tools, which are ideal for collaborative projects, support learners, and how these tools have influenced the language learning paradigm, in particularly with regards writing skill. In other words, it becomes a convenient medium and a social platform to provide scaffolding for novice writers. Due to the word limit, only one example, identified from the three different groups that took part in the study, will be analysed in detail here. Furthermore, the types of texts that were edited and revised during the peer feedback phase, and their development will be presented. Therefore, and as a result of this investigation, further points of regarding the newly formed revision strategies that have been emerged from this study will be highlighted.