Feedback Types, Negotiation of Meaning, and Negotiation of Form in Multimodal and Text-based Computer-Mediated English Collaborative Writing

This study aimed at investigating students’ feedback preferences and negotiation of meaning and negotiation of form in multimodal and text-based computer-mediated modalities of collaborative writing. To this end, 30 Iranian EFL students’ collaborative writing performances were traced via conversation analysis technique to identify their feedback preferences (cognitive, metacognitive, affective, recast and elicited) in two computer-mediated modalities. The chi-square analysis on frequency counts of feedback in language related episodes (LRE) indicated that two computer-mediated modalities were significantly different in engaging students with different feedback types. Further conversation analysis of student’s collaborative writing performances in two modalities was conducted to trace LREs in which students negotiated meaning and form. Each indicator, trigger, response, reaction chain in LREs was counted either as meaning or form negotiation units, depending on the type of LREs in which students co-managed to repair and further improve their writing outcomes. The chi-square analysis on meaning and form negotiation units indicated that text-based and multimodal computer-mediated significantly differed in their potentials of engaging students with meaning negotiation and form negotiation in collaborative writing. The results implied that despite two modalities may facilitate collaborative writing in different ways, they prepare EFL learners for distinct individual composing processes and written outcomes.