Karla Vrbova

• Vrbova, Karla (2026). Decision-Making in Digital Technology Assisted Collaborative Writing among L2 English Learners in Junior High School. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  In this presentation, I explore students’ decision-making sequences during collaborative writing in an L2 English class in junior high school in Norway. Digitally assisted collaborative writing sessions in English classes are complex learning situations in which students need to make decisions about the text they are jointly creating. Multimodal conversation analysis offers a methodological framework for analysis of video recordings of these interactions. Stevanovic (2012) argues a four step hierarchical model of joint decision-making with the following steps (1) proposal, (2) access, (3) agreement and (4) commitment based on her analysis of dyadic distal decisions. Magnusson (2021) adapted this model for proximal multi-party decisions introducing three steps into the access phase, (1) delimiting (2) agreement/absence of disagreement and (3) production of a writable, augmenting agreement with absence of disagreement, making commitment optional and adding a step of execution. Magnussons’ (2021) model affords a discussion of the status of written text in this Word-assisted collaborative writing. This presentation explores a decision-making process of a student dyad during collaborative writing in an English class. Like in Stevanovic (2012), this is a dyadic decision-making process and like Magnusson (2021), the students are making proximal decisions. During this decision process, the students orient towards two concerns (1) quality, referred to as what is “good” and (2) progression, referred to as “moving ahead” in their decision on the narrator perspective in their text. Preliminary analysis suggests that the digital text is oriented to as a writable in Magnussons’ (2021) model as it is at occasions followed up with requests for agreement confirmations like “You agree?” or “Like this?”.

• Vrbova, Karla (2026). Decision negotiations processes in collaborative writing among L2 English learners in junior high school. doi: https:/skrivesenteret.no/program-skriv-les-2026/. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Writing is a complex skill (Berge et al., 2016) and thus learning to write in an additional language (L2), e.g. L2 English, is a highly complex activity. Collaborative writing (CW) has documented benefits for both L2 English language learning and writing development (Li, 2018; Storch, 2011, 2019). Negotiations between students play a role in the consequent learning. Storch (2002) shows in her analysis of collaboration patterns that student pairs with high levels of mutuality in their collaboration achieve higher English L2 development from their collaboration. Elaborate negotiations in student groups are linked to greater alignment rates between the negotiations and the text that is produced (Cao et al., 2025). Negotiations between students are thus an essential element of collaboration with respect to L2 English development and the success of the collaboration. However, negotiations between students in collaborative writing have received limited attention in research on L2 collaborative writing (Cao et al., 2025). To address the processes of student negotiations in L2 English CW the following research questions are formulated: RQ1: How are decisions negotiated between L2 English students when writing collaboratively in English lessons? RQ2: How are L2 English students’ negotiations mediated by the digital tools students utilize in their collaborative writing in English lessons? The data analyzed in this study was collected in 3 classrooms in the south of Norway during two-hour session of collaborative writing. The data consists of a) video recordings of nine student pairs interactions, b) screen recordings of the students’ screens, c) the final texts and d) interviews with students and teachers. This study utilizes multimodal conversation analysis (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 2008). Multimodal Conversation analysis is a sequential, fine-grained, qualitative analysis of interactions based on video data. The level of details in transcriptions is adapted to analyze students’ interaction processes as they unfold when negotiating in L2 English CW using digital tools (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 2008). This study will provide detailed empirical insights into L2 English students’ decision negotiations in English CW, which will be valuable for the research fields of L2 writing and English didactics in Norway.

• Vrbova, Karla (2025). Collaborative Writing Processes In English As A Second Language Classrooms In Junior High School | EERA. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Norwegian classrooms are highly digitalized environments and the recent pandemic has finalized the long process of equipping students with their own digital units, computers or iPads (Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2021, 2022). A similar development worldwide has gradually changed the environment of students’ writing processes and tools accessible to students while writing. This digitalized context in the classrooms needs to be examined to gain insights into the writing processes of students. Additionally, knowledge about the writing processes of students without the use of artificial intelligence (AI) provides a basis for evaluating the impact AI has on students’ writing. In this project, I intend to examine how students in junior high school in Norway use technology in their co-writing processes. Research on collaborative writing in junior high school is scarce as is research of writing in Microsoft Word and research of writing processes (Zhang et al., 2021). The overall aim of the project is to examine how writing competencies are operationalized by students in the English as a second language junior high-school classroom when co-writing in highly digital environments. This question will be answered in three steps through an article-based dissertation.

• Vrbova, Karla; Krange, Ingeborg Hognestad & Afdal, Hilde Wågsås (2025). Collaborative Writing With Digital Technologies In Junior And Senior High School English Second Language Classrooms – A Scoping Review | EERA. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Writing in itself is a complex competency (Berge et al., 2016). Writing in English as a Second Language naturally adds further complexity. When this writing in addition is expected to take place collaboratively, it requires a highly complex set of skills within writing, the language in question, and collaboration. Additionally, when a vast portion of writing in schools is mediated by digital technologies, this situation poses further demands on students’ skills required to master collaborative writing in a second language. Collaborative writing in a second language (L2) is a young field, defined by Zhang & Plonsky (2020, p. 1) as “a task in which two or more learners interact with each other throughout the writing process to co-produce one single document”. For the purpose of this review L2 is used to refer to both second language and foreign language. The focus of research within the field has been on establishing the potential of the method, and variables that could impact this potential (Zhang & Plonsky, 2020). Technology used in collaborative writing in L2 has so far been a slightly overlooked topic in reviews. For example, two complementary reviews have been conducted in the field by Zhang et. al (2021) and Zhang and Plonsky (2020), focusing on computer-mediated collaborative writing and face-to-face collaborative writing in L2. Zhang et al. (2021) provide a list of technologies used in collaborative writing including number of studies and a percentage, while Zhang and Plonsky (2020) do not mention the technology used at all. Zhang et al. (2021) found that wiki and Google docs are the most frequently used technologies in collaborative writing but do not offer any analyses of what sort of use this is. Both Zhang et. al (2021) and Zhang and Plonsky (2020) report that English is the most researched language. Zhang et. al (2021) also point out that there is a broad variation in quantitative measurements conducted in the field and call for more consistent metrics. Both studies conclude that learners with lower proficiencies and non-adult participants are particularly under-researched, calling also for more research of the processes of collaborative writing. Schools have in the last two decades increasingly become equipped with digital technology, writing is frequently practiced using these tools, and this makes it imperative that we examine how technology is used in collaborative writing and in second language as part of this. This scoping review aims at giving an overview of the current knowledge on collaborative writing in L2 set in junior and senior high school conducted in between the years 2010 and 2024. To address the issue, the following three research questions are asked: RQ 1: What are the general characteristics of research literature on collaborative writing in digital environment when it comes to emerging topics, key characteristics, theoretical approaches, methods used and empirical findings? RQ2: How is technology use addressed in these studies? RQ 3: What research gaps and limitations can be identified? Method This study follows the guidelines for scoping review (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005). Our review will systematize and analyze peer-reviewed English empirical and theoretical articles published between 2010 and 2025 on collaborative writing using digital tools in L2 classrooms. The review by Zhang et al. (2021) reports increasing interest in collaborative writing from 2010 with 6 publications in 2010 and 13 publications in 2011, also technological progress made sharing documents easier in this period, therefore this review addresses research after 2010. A search string including three elements covering equivalents and frequent synonyms (1) junior and senior high school students, (2) collaborative writing, and (3) English as a second language was used searching for relevant articles. Complete search string will be made available during the presentation at ECER 2025. Seven databases were searched: Academic Search Premier, Education Source, ERIC, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, PsychInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science. These databases were chosen for three reasons: (1) to access educational research, (2) to access material from a variety of fields as the research question touches different fields of research, and (3) with a special focus on linguistic research based on the results of trial searches that showed a wide body of research on collaborative writing in L2 is conducted by researchers within the field of applied linguistics. Titles, abstracts and key words of the first 200 articles were assessed with respect to inclusion and exclusion criteria by all three authors, thereafter the first screening was completed by the first author. The inclusion criteria for the review are (A) English as a second/foreign language, (B) English as a school subject, (C) junior and senior high school (D) collaborative writing process, (E) use of digital technology, (F) articles from peer-reviewed journals, and (G) English language. Studies where target categories are mixed with other categories and cannot be isolated, work that focuses on writing without collaboration, and book chapters and grey literature are excluded. The second and third author screened all articles that the first author was unsure of and each screened also 100 randomly chosen articles to test the reliability of the first screening. The process was conducted in the software Rayyan. Full text reading of included articles was shared between all three authors, this included discussions of notes documented in an Excel Sheet. Articles that the authors were unsure about were read by at least two of the authors. Expected Outcomes This is work in progress but is planned to be completed in good time before the ECER 2025 conference. Currently, we are conducting in-depth reading, collaboratively analyzing emerging topics, key characteristics, theoretical approaches, methods used and empirical findings. We expect to provide an overview of how collaborative writing and digital technologies are conceptualized and studied, identify research gaps in the existing literature on collaborative writing with digital technologies in English as a second language in junior and senior high school classrooms. Preliminary findings in similarity with Zhang et al. (2021) and Zhang & Plonsky (2020) document a very limited body of research in junior high school, lack of research on use of Microsoft Word in collaborative writing, while wikis and Google docs are frequently addressed, writing processes such as pre-task planning, modelling and composition processes are also scarcely addressed in the research. References Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616 Berge, K. L., Evensen, L. S., & Thygesen, R. (2016). The Wheel of Writing: A model of the writing domain for the teaching and assessing of writing as a key competency. The Curriculum Journal, 27(2), 172–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2015.1129980 Zhang, M., Gibbons, J., & Li, M. (2021). Computer-mediated collaborative writing in L2 classrooms: A systematic review. Journal of Second Language Writing, 54, 100854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2021.100854 Zhang, M., & Plonsky, L. (2020). Collaborative writing in face-to-face settings: A substantive and methodological review. Journal of Second Language Writing, 49, 100753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2020.100753

• Birkeland, Nils Rune; Selås, Magnhild; Gunleifsen, Elin; Drange, Eli-Marie D.; Garshol, Lenka & Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan [Vis alle 26 forfattere av denne artikkelen] (2024). 12 argument for å halde på framandspråka i ungdoms­skulen. Khrono. doi: https:/www.khrono.no/12-argument-for-a-halde-pa-framandspraka-i-ungdomsskulen/907087. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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