Collaborative vs. Individual Writing in Japanese EFL High Schools: An Exploratory Study of L2 Writing Anxiety and Engagement

Reference Data:

Sugahara, N. (2025). Collaborative vs. individual writing in Japanese EFL high schools: An Exploratory study of L2 writing anxiety and engagement. In B. Lacy, R. P. Lege, & M. Swanson (Eds.), Moving JALT Into the Future: Opportunity, Diversity, and Excellence. JALT. https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTPCP2024-24

This exploratory study investigated the effects of collaborative writing (CW), relative to individual writing (IW), on L2 writing anxiety and engagement among Japanese high school learners of English. Data were collected through questionnaires and open-ended responses from two classes: one group of CEFR A2 basic users (n=40) and another of A2 to B1 pre-intermediate users (n=40). CW significantly reduced writing anxiety and increased motivation across proficiency levels compared to IW; however, perceived productivity (sentence output) did not differ significantly. Qualitative analysis revealed that CW facilitated peer learning, idea generation, and error correction, whereas IW promoted greater autonomy and concentration. In CW, students noted unequal participation and concerns about peer feedback quality—especially among lower-proficiency learners—whereas in IW they primarily worried about grammatical accuracy. These findings suggest integrating CW and IW can address L2 writing anxiety while supporting both collaborative interaction and independent writing development.

本研究は、日本の高校生英語学習者を対象に、協働ライティング（CW）と個人ライティング（IW）が書くことへの不安軽減やタスク意欲の向上に与える影響を調査した。初級（n=40）および初中級（n=40）学習者からアンケートと自由記述を用いてデータを収集した結果、CWはIWと比較して書くことへの不安を軽減し、モチベーションを向上させたが、生産性に関しては両者に有意差が見られなかった。質的分析では、CWが相互学習、アイディアの創出、誤り訂正に有益である一方、IWは自主性や集中力を高める役割を果たすと示された。CWでは、不平等な参加やフィードバックの質に対する懸念が特に低習熟度の学習者間で課題として挙げられた一方、IWは主に正確性に関する不安が指摘された。これらの結果から、CWとIWを組み合わせることで、学習者の不安を軽減し、協働的インタラクションと個々の書く能力を効果的に向上させる可能性が示唆された。