The Effects of the Creative Collaborative Short Story Writing Technique on Developing Teacher Candidates’ Writing Skills
The aim of this study was to examine how the collaborative technique influenced undergraduate English Language Teaching students’ writing skills in general and creative collaborative short story writing skills in particular. The study commenced by investigating the writing background of the students. Then the participants experienced an intervention period in which they were taught the creative collaborative technique and practiced collaborative short story writing. The effects of this technique on the participants’ writing skills and their creative collaborative short story writing skills were investigated, which was the principal focus of this research study. The study was conducted with a mixed methods research design which is a methodology for conducting research that integrating quantitative and qualitative research with 8 students studying in the English Language Teaching Department at Near East University. The students’ short story writings and interview questions were used as a data collection tools. The textual data that was gathered regarding the writing background of the senior students was analysed by thematic content analysis, whereas the pre- and post-tests regarding the students’ creative collaborative writing results were analysed with Wilcoxon test. The findings showed that, even in a short time, creative and collaborative story writing activities had a positive effect on writing success. Moreover, the results revealed that writing success was supported by performing creative writing in conjunction with group writing activities.
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