COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITY USING GOOGLE DOCS: NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS PERSPECTIVES AND DIFFICULTIES

One of the most challenging skills for non-English major students is writing an essay since they have to pay attention to the language structure and must be able to transfer their thoughts and ideas into the target language. In regard to solving this problem, regular change and development are needed in teaching English writing. One of the methods that increased to be used is collaborative writing using Google Docs. This study aims to investigate the non-English major students’ perspectives and difficulties in collaborative writing through Google Docs. This study examined 22 students from a state polytechnic in Makassar who have involved in collaborative writing activity through Google Docs. A convergent parallel design was applied in this study, where the data collected by using a questionnaire which consists of closedopen-ended questions and interview. The closed-ended questions data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistic with SPSS. Further, the collected data from the open-ended questions and the interview was analyzed qualitatively using a narrative method. The results show that the students have positive perspectives on collaborative writing activity through Google Docs and did not encounter many difficulties when they were involved in this activity.


INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, learning English is more prominent since it has been employed on many sides. Four skills of English (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) have their difficulties, but writing becomes one of the skills which should get more attention (Afifah, 2020;Hasani, 2016).
In writing, the authors must have indirect competence in communication and the ability to pour down their ideas into text form. The difficulties of writing require systemic and regular thinking that need to be mastered by students (Jairos Gonye, 2012). For students who study English as a Foreign Language (EFL), writing in English is very hard. They have to pay attention to the language structure; they must be able to transfer their thoughts and ideas into the target language from their native language.
In addition, EFL students also have significant difficulties in grammar and unity terms.
Moreover, specific aspects also disclosed regarding students' writing, namely paragraph structure, misspelling of the words, and dictions (Ariyanti & Fitriana, 2017). Considering the complexity of English writing, regular improvement is needed in English language teaching, especially in teaching English writing.
Recently, there has been an increased interest in writing exercise in language classes regarding the development of written communication and the awareness that writing activity can promote language learning, and one of the activity is collaborative writing. Storch (2011) described collaborative writing as co-writing of a text by two or more author in which these authors contribute the joint partnership in producing a text. In the collaborative writing students who are more capable will encourage unable students in a collaborative learning activity (Fong, 2012).
Further, Storch (2011) stated that collaborative writing activity is effective to the teaching of language because it serves the students with a chance for language practice, discussing heir own and their peers' language use as they try to construct meaning. In addition, collaborative writing also provides the students with an opportunity to result in a greater grammatical and lexical accuracy, more accurate texts and lead to acquiring the language (Storch, 2011;Talib & Cheung, 2017  The data collection technique was included in the following setting: the students were divided into some group where each group consist of 3-4 students. They were assigned to write an argumentative essay collaboratively in their group through Google Docs for one week.
After they completed their essay, the questionnaire was administered to them. To analyze the data, the closed-ended questions of the questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS while for the open-ended questions was analyzed using narrative method.

Non-English Major Students' Perspectives toward collaborative writing activity through Google Docs
The collected data of the closed-ended questions were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistic with SPSS. Table 3

Students' difficulties toward collaborative activity through Google Docs
The collected data of the open-ended question of the questionnaire and interview were analyzed qualitatively using the narrative method. Table 4 shows that poor internet connection is the problem most faced by students (36%), followed by about 18% of the total sample who are still confused about using Google docs. However, 22% of the sample stated that they did not face any obstacles when engaging in collaborative activities.

Table 4. Non-English major students' difficulties toward collaborative activity through Google Docs
No Area Frequency (%) 1 Internet connection is unstable 8 (36,36%) 2 No difficulties 5 (22,73%) 3 Still confuse on how to use Google Docs 4 (18,18%) 4 There are group member who are not active 2 (9,09%) 5 The menu display is different from Microsoft word 1 (4,55%) 6 It is hard to come up with ideas 1 (4,55%) 7 Unsystematic discussion 1 (4,55%) Total 22 The focus of the interview was to provide This suggests that when they used Google Docs for group writing tasks, the students did not face any difficulties; they only had technological issues due to inadequate internet connectivity.
The last question in the interview was the opinion of the students as to whether Google Docs could be included in the next course or not. Both respondents indicated that they believe that Google docs will be used again because this strategy helps to complete their mission.

DISCUSSION
This study was conducted to evaluate the perspectives and difficulties of non-English major students regarding collaborative writing Google Docs serves the students with a chance for language practice, discussing heir own and their peers' language use as they try to construct meaning (Storch, 2011). In addition, collaborative writing also provides the students with an opportunity to result in a greater grammatical and lexical accuracy, more accurate texts and lead to acquiring the language (Storch, 2011;Talib & Cheung, 2017 using Google Docs at the outset. At the end of the day, though, they found it was not difficult and easy to use. Via the comment section, they will participate together and provide input on others writing that is nice because at the same time they corrected their mistakes. They should also analyze whether or not their argumentative essay form was correct.
Participants also revealed that while they used Google Docs for collaborative writing activities, they did not face any problems; because of restricted internet access, they only had technical problems.

CONCLUSION
The main objective of this study was to examine the non-english major students' perspectives and difficulties toward collaborative writing activity through Google Docs. The findings of this study revealed that the students had positive attitudes on the use of Google Docs in a collaborative writing activity. They confirmed that they did not face many difficulties when involved in the activity; they just had technical problems because of limited internet connectivity and feel confused in the beginning of the activity since it was their first experience.