investigating the effect of machine translation use (individualized versus collaborative) on foreign language writing

The world of foreign language education has been influenced by the glory of machine translation (mt) technologies. given that much research has been conducted in l2 writing, investigating the effect of mt use (individualized versus collaborative) on foreign language writing has been underestimated. to this end, this paper investigated the effect of mt use on foreign language production with regard to task type and proficiency level. 127 undergraduate efl learners were asked to complete two types of writing tasks (argumentative and expository) employing mt either in-person or in collaboration with peers over a period of two weeks. in the individualized phase, they were provided with 10 minutes to consult mt to complete the pre-defined tasks and write an essay for 30 minutes. in the collaborative phase, they consulted with a peer; but completed an essay independently. students’ writing tasks were evaluated using five analytic measures including mechanics, grammar, language in use, organization and content. the results of manova tests showed that mt use had positive impact on students’ performance in both tasks. in the collaborative phase, higher scores were achieved in all the analytic measures of the expository task. nevertheless, no statistically significant effects of mt use on argumentative writing either individually or collaboratively was observed. although any interaction between proficiency and mt use was found, the results proved the impact of linguistic competence on students’ writing performance (i.e. all the analytic measures) in both tasks. regarding the effect of task type, only significant mean differences in the mechanics section were resulted. in total, while the nature of task type had a small effect regarding the five analytic features, students’ writing performance was affected by proficiency and mt use. the findings broadened our understanding of learners’ mt use and provided pedagogical and theoretical implications in l2 writing and assessment.