Effects of Trained Peer vs. Teacher Feedback on EFL Students’ Writing Performance, Self-Efficacy, and Internalization of Motivation

Ying Cui,Christian D. Schunn,Xiaosong Gai,Zhe Wang,Ying Jiang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.788474

Ying Cui, Christian D. Schunn + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.788474

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Abstract

This study investigated the longer-term impacts (i.e., into the next semester) of trained peer feedback in comparison with teacher feedback on students’ writing development and writing motivation. Sections of an EFL writing course were randomly assigned to either teacher feedback or trained peer feedback conditions across two semesters. In the first semester, during their writing class, students either received training in how to implement peer feedback or simply studied models of writing (that were also used in the training work). In the second semester, students either received teacher or peer feedback across multiple assignments. Writing competence, writing self-efficacy, and writing self-regulated learning were assessed at the beginning and end of the second semester. Trained peer feedback and teacher feedback had similar positive effects on the improvement of writing competence and writing self-efficacy. However, trained peer feedback led to a significant enhancement of students’ autonomous motivation relative to no such growth from teacher feedback.

Highlights

Learning to write in English is a major learning challenge around the world (Li, 2020; Tao, 2020), and the availability of frequent, timely, and accurate feedback is central to that challenge (Ferris and Roberts, 2001; Hyland and Hyland, 2006; Lee et al, 2021)
This study addressed three research questions related to relative effects of teacher feedback vs. trained peer feedback: 1. What are relative effects on students’ writing ability? 2
At the beginning of the second semester, the Trained Peer Feedback group was higher on writing competence with moderate effect size (t = 2.08, p = 0.05, d = −0.42)

Summary

Introduction

Learning to write in English is a major learning challenge around the world (Li, 2020; Tao, 2020), and the availability of frequent, timely, and accurate feedback is central to that challenge (Ferris and Roberts, 2001; Hyland and Hyland, 2006; Lee et al, 2021). A great deal of research has already examined the effects of peer and teacher feedback on ESL and EFL students’ revision quality and writing performance (Fathman and Whalley, 1990; Leki, 1990; Connor and Asenavage, 1994; de Guerrero and Villamil, 1994; Ferris, 1997; Villamil and Guerrero, 1998; Berg, 1999; Paulus, 1999; Tsui and Ng, 2000; Saito and Fujita, 2004; Rollinson, 2005; Min, 2006; Yang et al, 2006; Zhang and Dai, 2011; Ruegg, 2015; Cui et al, 2019, 2021; Zhang and Cheng, 2020), especially when peers have received some training in how to give effective feedback (Berg, 1999; Min, 2006). We test the relative benefits of teacher vs. trained peer feedback in an EFL context on writing ability, self-efficacy, and autonomous motivation.

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Conclusion