Constructivism in the ESL writing classroom: A case for collaborative essay writing / Noor Hanim Rahmat

This paper reports a case study on how movies and collaborative writing influence ESL writing
classroom. The Constructivist theory emphasizes that learning environment can be effective
when it emphasizes the use of authentic tasks in a meaningful context (Jonassen, 1999). Instead
of learning academic writing from textbook context which students may neither be familiar with
nor find them interesting, movies help bring fun into the academic writing classroom. Using
movies also helps make learning authentic as students learn from something they are familiar
with. Furthermore, learners need to form mental images when they learn in the classroom and
movies can help to do that. In addition to that, Mulligan & Garofalo (2011) found that
collaborative writing enhances students’ writing and lowers anxiety associated with completing
the task alone. This study involves students using the contents of a movie to write academic
essays using collaborative approach. Findings of this research will reveal interesting implication
in the teaching of writing.