Online collaborative learning on an ESL teacher education programme

• Autores: Richard Cullen
• Localización: ELT journal: An international journal for teachers of English to speakers of other languages, ISSN 0951-0893, Vol. 67, Nº 4, 2013, págs. 425-434
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article examines the processes and potential benefits of online collaborative learning through a qualitative analysis of the postings made by a group of Malaysian student teachers on an assessed wiki-based collaborative writing project, completed over a period of nine weeks as part of a Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Second Language programme in the UK. Three categories of �talk� are identified and exemplified through the analysis: social talk, planning talk, and language talk, with the findings showing high levels of collaborative behaviour during completion of the task, marked by interactivity, mutual respect, and interdependence; this helped develop a strong sense of a �community of practice� within the group and a supportive, goal-oriented learning environment. There was also some, but less conclusive, evidence of processes of co-construction of learning and collective scaffolding. The article ends with a discussion of the implications for online collaborative task design and implementation in ESL teacher education contexts.