The Prediction of Collaborative EFL Task Achievement by Teaching, Social and Cognitive Presence

Abstract

This study investigated how well teaching, social and cognitive presence would predict collaborativetask achievement in an English language learning context. Specifically, it was conducted at the prep school of aprivate, not-for-profit university in Turkey. A total of 169 students at a pre-intermediate level of proficiencyparticipated in the study. The study employed an ex post facto research design along with an explanatorysequential mixed method. The survey results were analyzed through a standard multiple regression analysisaccompanied by qualitative data analysis of semi-structured interviews. The interview results were mainly usedfor descriptive purposes. The survey results revealed that the participants regarded the learning environment as acommunity of inquiry; yet, the predictive power of the presences as a group was non-significant. Moreover, thepresences could not significantly predict task achievement individually either. In other words, no predictiverelationship was found between the presences and the collaborative task achievement despite their relativelyadequate levels involved in the target learning context as suggested by survey ratings and interview results.