Affective and Social Factors in a Project-Based Writing Course

Vol. 1 No. 1

Year: 2011

Issue: January-March

Title: Affective and Social Factors in a Project-Based Writing Course 

Author Name: Sujata Surinder Kathpalia, Carmel Heah 

Synopsis: 

Much of the work in academic writing has focused on the cognitive rather than the affective and social aspects involved in project-based writing. Emphasis in past research has been on skills and processes of writing rather than on affective factors such as motivation, attitudes, feelings or social factors involving intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. However, according to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (SCT) social factors play an important role in collaborative learning and are considered to be a constitutive element of cognition (1978, 1986). Using this theory of learning as a starting point, the aim of this paper is to determine the affective and social factors involved in project based writing in an academic writing course at Nanyang Technological University. Specifically, the four motivational aspects that will be considered are curiosity, challenge, confidence and control as reflected in student responses to an online questionnaire and their reflections on the course. It is hoped that the findings of this research will further our understanding of the role of affective and social factors in project-based writing courses in settings where students are collaborating face-to-face to complete the course tasks and assignments.