Researching Learner Written Language in Collaborative Environments and Wikis

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that the use of new technologies has been instrumental in the promotion of digital literacy and collaborative language learning. Notwithstanding, Bax (2003) has seen in CMC an enormous potential in both the open and the normalization stages. Although much of the research in the past years has been geared towards web 1.0 asynchronous communication, more recent efforts have started to analyze the use on synchronous video tools (Jauregui and Bañados, 2008), blogs (Murray and Hourigan, 2008), and wikis (Lund, 2008). This paper examines a collaborative learning experience between higher institutions in the UK and Spain (academic year 2008/2009). This experience offered students the opportunity to develop their writing skill by means of a series of digital activities within which a wiki was integrated. Thus, Spanish and English students were encouraged to write a tourist brochure on a building of historic or/and artistic relevance from the other country in a collaborative way, helping the peer in the writing of the brochure and being helped in a similar way.