From Class Crowds to Virtual Clouds: How does Cloud-Mediated Collaboration Resonate with EFL Learners’ Macro- and Micro-Writing Skills and Motivation?

Transferring collaborative writing (CW) activities from in-class paper-based to online cloud-mediated collaboration, this study examined the comparative effects of these two CW contexts on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ macro- and micro-writing skills and motivation. For this purpose, a cohort ( N = 54) of senior EFL college students was selected (using criterion-based purposive sampling) and then randomly assigned to two groups: paper-based collaboration (PC, n = 27) and cloud-based collaboration (CC, n = 27). Using a mixed-method design, the study employed both quantitative (expository and argumentative writing tests, and a motivation questionnaire) and qualitative (group and self-evaluation forms and reflection sheets) methods for data collection and analysis. Consequently, one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to compare students’ writing scores on both the macro-writing (content, organization, and style) and micro-writing (conventions and diction) skills. While cloud-mediated collaboration afforded surface micro-level accuracy and structural coherence, traditional paper-based group demonstrated equal and even superior capacity to foster deeper and higher-order cognitive processes of content development and stylistic expression. Similarly, face-to-face collaboration demonstrated equal intrinsic and extrinsic motivational drives compared to cloud collaboration which showed superior capacity in only self-efficacy and effort subscales. As such, the findings re-examine the long-held assumption that technology-enhanced CW uniformly outperforms traditional approaches in all writing constructs. This study proposes a diagnostic model that can assist EFL writing instructors, leading to more informed pedagogical decision-making processes: using cloud tools for streamlining linguistic accuracy and saving face-to-face interaction for augmenting higher-order cognitive processes needed for content development, organization, and stylistic nuances.