| Summary: | Despite its immense popularity amongst youngsters today, it would seem that chatting is seldom used in the classroom. This article is the result of a qualitative research project focussing on the use of chatting as an educational tool to improve writing skills. Project objectives were as follows: 1) analyze and compare a first text individually written on the computer and a second text written with the collaboration of chatting, 2) analyze chatting interactions and 3) link observations to resulting texts. The writers (N = 20) and their teammates (N = 20), who, with the use of chatting, supported them for the second text, are high-school special needs students in Levels I and II (12-14 years old). All texts were analyzed based on different criteria and interactions were classified into categories. The proportion of peer proposals incorporated into final texts was also measured. Thanks to chatting, the youngsters from both levels showed better results in certain assessment criteria (spelling, conformity to instructions and sentence construction). Cognitive interactions, focused on the task at hand, dominated their discussions. In short, since young people have such an interest in chatting, using chatting as a writing tool in the classroom appears to be a wise choice.
|
|---|
