The document discusses research on peer feedback in writing classes. It summarizes three research studies that found peer feedback to be an effective way to improve students' writing abilities. Students benefit from interacting with and getting feedback from their peers, as it helps them develop critical thinking skills and become more creative writers. However, students need training on how to give proper feedback. The studies also found that peer and teacher feedback complement each other and both are important for writing development.

1. Somayyeh Pedram
University Putra Malaysia
2013

2. Teacher Review on Students’ Writings
 Difficult
 Time-consuming
 Based on ONLY one point of view
 Has Only one reader
.
.
.
 Writing will become boring
 Students will only rely on the grades
 They will not tend to be creative
 Their writing will remain of low quality
 They cannot develop critical thinking
 Students’ brain will remain passive in writing
activity because it’s not pleasurable for them

3. Peer Feedback, Peer Response, Peer review
“A group of students work with each other to give a
qualitative evaluation on peer’s work through words or
verbal interaction or give a quantitative evaluation through
sets of scores, rankings, etc”. Topping, 1998.
Liu and Hansen (2002:1) define peer feedback as the use of
learners as sources of information and interactants for each
other in such a way that learners assume roles and
responsibilities normally taken on by a formally trained
teacher, tutor, or editor in commenting on and critique
each other’s drafts in both written and oral formats in the
process of writing.

4. 1. On Peer Feedback in English Writing Classes in China
By Shaojun Jiang, 2011
In China’s EFL classroom contexts, peer feedback can be employed in three forms :
 Pre-peer feedback
 While-peer feedback
 Post-peer feedback
Pre-peer feedback
Pre-Training
 Teacher clarifying the benefits of peer feedback
 Grouping the students and keeping fixed ones
 Training: Teacher may show how to give feedback by
doing an example.
 Organization: It can help students to structure their papers
more clearly.

5. While-peer feedback
 Students begin their peer feedback
 Teacher is a monitor
Post-peer feedback
 Students reflect on what they did during peer feedback
 They write about their experience
 The teacher evaluates students’ works
Conclusion:
 It is beneficial to do peer feedback in L2 writing
 Students should be trained how to do it
 Students improve their writing ability
 It makes the writers autonomous

6. 2. ESL students’ experiences of online peer feedback
By Martin Guardado and Ling Shi, 2007
Participants: 22 Japanese ESL students from a western-Canadian university
Method:
 One-hour activity of online peer feedback on Backboard application.
 Data: 1. 22 students’ interview comments
2. their peer feedback,
3. their initial and revised essays ( three 500-word essays)
 After the online feedback they had two weeks to do the revision and
submit the assignment.
Blackboard : 1. Asynchronous electronic discussion boards
2. Synchronous chat
3. Assignment drop box
4. Email
5. Assessment tools

7. Analysis of data:
 The researcher analyzed the revised version of essays by
Microsoft Word’s Compare and Merge Documents tool.
 Analyzed whether revisions were made based on peer
comments or they were self-generated.
 Students’ comments from interviews were analyzed:
whether they followed or ignored their peer feedback

8. Findings
 128 positive, 93 negative comments
 All students started with positive comments: “I think your essay is well
organized. But I found some points that you can improve”.
 13 students made revisions based on peer feedback.
9 students ignored peer feedback.
 Language and cultural background influenced students to
ignore some comments.
“it was not good to say your opinion [directly] as a Japanese.”
 Some students needed more clarification about their peer
feedback and some didn’t ask for any.

9. 3. Graduate students’ self-reported perspectives regarding peer feedback and
feedback from writing consultants.
By Cheryl Wei-yu Chen, 2010
Participants: 10 Taiwanese Master’s students of TESOL
Research design:
 The study was done during a “Thesis Writing” course
 The final draft of students’ proposals are read by 2 peers and one writing consultant.
 All students and consultants were called by their pseudonyms.
Data: 1. the first draft of their final paper
2. comment sheet completely by the writing consultant
3. peer feedback sheets completely by two peers
4. a completed revision feedback sheet
5. a revised version of the final paper
6. other assignments written over the course of the semester
7. A semi-structured interview

10. Findings
 Peers feedback focused on content.
 Consultant feedback focused on surface-level and structure.
 Students had generally positive feelings about peers and
consultants’ feedback.
 Two types of feedback were found to complement each other.
 Students held a more cautious attitude toward comments
made by their peers, especially comments on surface-level

11. General conclusion based on the research studies:
1. Peers feedback is effective
2. It builds critical thinking and skills
3. It makes the students more creative
4. Students benefit from interaction and communication
5. All articles insist that students should be trained before giving
feedback
6. It makes the writers autonomous
7. Improves writing ability
8. Students were generally honest in their comments
9. Students had positive feelings and attitudes towards peer
feedback
10. Students enjoyed writing because it was more exciting that
they had more than one reader.
11. Peers and teachers’ feedback should come together because
they complement one another.

12. My personal view
Based on the findings of these articles and my personal
experience, I agree that it is an effective way of improving
writing.
 I feel very positive towards peer and teacher feedback
 It helps me obtain very new and interesting ideas
 It helps me improve the surface-level as well as content of my writing
 I am very welcoming towards my Lecturers’ feedback because I learn a lot
from them.
 My writing abilities have improved a lot based on my supervisor’s feedback.
 Peer feedback is very enjoyable, because it gives me a sense of self-
expression and I feel confident when my friends accept my ideas during
such activities
 It is very motivating when my supervisor encourages me after I revise my
writings.
 Peers and teacher feedback should complement each other.