Online Community of Practice and Writing Motivation: Evidence from Masked Education

In today s communicative language teaching (CLT) approach, co-construction through communities of practice (CoPs) has led new demands for improving communication skills. This approach highlights the significance of continuous reciprocal effort between learners and teachers and motivates them in expanding communicative skills. The aim of this study is to create an online CoP during COVID-19 pandemic to assess its effectiveness in boosting intrinsic motivation in writing skill during student-centered online classes. 45 intermediate learners were recruited from two online classes at Melal language institute in Shiraz, Iran. Students were randomly assigned into control and treatment groups. Those in the treatment group were also assigned into two groups, each consisting of 15 participants. Employing a two-group pretest-posttest design, two motivation scales were utilized: the AMTB and Bruning et al.’s (2013) Liking Writing Scale. Prior to starting the study, the main parts and principles in writing a composition and the content and arrangement of ideas were introduced and all students participated in the pretests. Then, the teacher involved learners in co-constructing their writings and exposed them to different points of view. After sharing ideas in groups, all paragraphs were written with almost equal participation. At the end, the instructor reflected on the writings and all participants completed the posttests. The results of two ANCOVAs indicated that writing compositions through CoP was highly conducive to enhancing their motivation to write efficiently.