Promoting Peer Feedback in Developing Students’ English Writing Ability in L2 Writing Class

Sirikarn Kuyyogsuy

doi:10.5539/ies.v12n9p76

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the effects of peer feedback on students’ English writing ability in L2 writing class. A mixed-methods research, an embedded experimental design was employed, making use of a writing pretest and post-test and self-written reflection in the experiment. Data were quantitatively analyzed through a dependent simple t-test, and content was thematically analyzed for qualitative data. The participants were 21 undergraduate students majoring in English in the three southernmost border provinces of Thailand. The findings revealed that from the mean scores of the pretest and post-test, the students had made significant progress in their writing ability. Additionally, the effect size was calculated at 1.97, which means that its magnitude was “large”. Moreover, students reflected that peer feedback was a worthwhile experience for social interaction, and provided them with perceiving the writing process, developing affective strategies, supporting critical thinking skills, and developing socially and intellectually by means of working collaboratively. In addition, it helped them practice to become more autonomous learners. As a result, peer feedback should be implemented in L2 writing classes.

Highlights

Writing is one of the productive skills which are paid much attention to, and it is widely accepted as a complex process for second language learners to achieve the perfect written tasks
There are a great deal of the advantages of employing peer feedback in L2 writing because peer feedback helps boost students’ confidence and promotes their critical thinking skills in the act of reading texts commented by peers (Ferris, 1995)
As part of a larger study about doing a peer-involved activity in L2 writing class, this study investigated the effects of using peer feedback in the writing of 21 Thai EFL university students

Summary

Introduction

Writing is one of the productive skills which are paid much attention to, and it is widely accepted as a complex process for second language learners to achieve the perfect written tasks. It has been considered as the way of involving students in process of sharing ideas, providing and receiving constructive feedback to improve their writing skills (Farrah, 2012) It has been pedagogically determined as an effective method to develop students’ writing performance. Peer feedback is theoretically advocated by the teaching and learning framework in the aspects of cooperative and collaborative learning, social interaction and L2 linguistic acquisition (Olsen & Kagan, 1992; Oxford, 1997, cited in Kunwongse, 2013) It activates self-awareness of their learning of strengths and weaknesses as Tsui and Ng (2000) reported, and it supports students with increasing the level of their responsibility for their own learning and autonomy (Morgan, 2002). Students profit from the worthwhile experiences from conducting peer feedback and learning to each other; it helps students practice their commutative skills and accept the different perspectives; listening attentively, thinking critically and taking constructively part in the activity (White & Caminero, 1995, cited in Farrah, 2012)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion