USING PEER FEEDBACK IN REVISION:TAIWANESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS'' ENGLISH WRITING

• Main Authors: Wan-ju Tseng, 曾琬茹
• Other Authors: Jong-shing Liang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48564712459717664376

碩士 === 國立屏東教育大學 === 英語學系 === 96 === The semester-long study (September 2006 to January 2007) aims to explore what feedback Taiwanese university students provide to their peers in the peer feedback activity, what peer feedback these students incorporate in their revised drafts, and their perceptions of the peer feedback activity. The data sources include the peer feedback forms, the students’ first and revised drafts, and the interview transcripts. The participants were 19 third-year university students from an English writing class in Pingtung County. It is found that the feedback provided by the students increased over time. The percentage of Errors in Grammar took the lead in the first peer feedback forms. Three possible explanations include the impact of previous experiences of peer review, the students’ lack of necessary skills to handle the global evaluation, and their being good at providing grammar feedback. In the second and third peer feedback forms, however, most feedback was provided on Content. Three potential reasons for this change are: 1) the teacher’s request for them to focus more on the global aspect, 2) the influence of different modes and topics of assigned writing topics on the feedback the students needed, and 3) the students’ preference of providing feedback on content and organization because of their insufficient proficiency in grammar and spelling. In addition, the percentages of Inappropriate Word Usage increased each time as well. The researcher also found that the top three kinds of feedback incorporated by the students were Content, Grammar, and Vocabulary. Six rationales provided by the students are as follows: 1) peers could help detect problems and provide suggestions, 2) peers could give or help generate examples, 3) the students trust peers’ English proficiency to correct grammar errors, 4) peers could provide alternative usages of conjunction as reference, 5) the students regard it necessary to clarify the meaning of words and 6) change uncommon words to help peers understand the paper more easily. Finally, all the student participants reported that they appreciate the peer feedback activity and point out the benefits of the peer feedback activity from a writer’s and a reader’s perspective. In addition, they provided further opinions about adopting the peer feedback activity in the classroom. Based on the results of this study, some insights for writing teachers in their English composition classes are offered. Implications and suggestions for further research are also provided in the end.