Peer Feedback

The bulk of research within the interactionist framework seems to be consensually pointing to the beneficial effects of interaction in SLA. However, few studies have investigated the role of training in providing and perceiving interactional feedback, especially among young learners. This study probed the effects of training prior to engagement in interaction in case of young learners acquiring polar questions in an EFL context. Sixty learners aged 9-14 in three intact groups were exposed to instruction followed by peer interaction in case of the experimental groups while the control group simply received traditional teacher-fronted practice. Also, while one treatment group received prior training in interactional feedback strategies, the other group did not. The pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test were administered. The results of mixed between-within subjects ANOVA (SPANOVA) showed that engaging in interaction, regardless of any prior training, could significantly improve learners’ immediate mastery over the target form. However, in the long run, only the group trained in feedback strategies could maintain its superiority over the control group. The findings suggest that although engaging in peer interaction can be beneficial for young learners, sustained interlanguage development can result only if learners are trained in feedback strategies.

The Research was aimed at finding out the effects of the implementation of writing feedback techniques and students’ writing anxiety on students’ writing ablity. Experimental method of 3x2 factorial design was employed in the research. There were three experimental groups of students who were taught by using teacher feedback, peer feedback and the combination of peer and teacher feedback writing technique. Prior the treatment, each student was asked to do an expository essay writing test in order to get the writing scores and to fill SLWAI (Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory) to classify them into low and high writing anxiety students. Then, the students were taught on how to produce expository essay writing. At the end of the meeting, the students were asked to compose an expository essay as the posttest. The data were analyzed by using paired t-test, two-way ANOVA and Post Hoc test. From the results of data analysis it could be inferred that the implementation of writing feedback techniques affected students’ writing ability and the effects depended on the degree of students’ writing anxiety.

Research has provided conflicting findings regarding the benefits of paired and small-group peer scaffolding in EFL writing context. The present case study incorporated collective peer scaffolding technique in an EFL paragraph writing class and elicited learners’ reflections towards this activity. After some preliminary sessions which focused on writing process instruction and collective peer scaffolding training, the students were introduced to three writing genres. Each genre was discussed and practiced every other week and was followed by a collective peer scaffolding session. During collective scaffolding sessions, representative learners were asked to write their paragraphs on the board. Other students acted as collective, scaffolding solutions to the problems they noticed in the paragraphs written on the board. All of the students were also required to carefully listen to the scaffolds (comments) provided in class, use them to self-revise their first drafts (if applicable), and develop their second drafts. At the end of the term, eight volunteer students were invited to participate in a group interview and their reactions to this technique were elicited. In general, the experience was favored by the interviewees and the challenges reported in previous research regarding pair and small-group scaffolding/collaboration were not expressed by this cohort of EFL learners.

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of peer feedback (PF) on EFL learners’ writing performance and writing anxiety. To this end, two intact classes including 48 intermediate EFL learners were selected and assigned into two groups of experimental and control (24 learners in each). This study had a quasi-experimental design including pre-test, treatment, and post-test to assess the students’ overall writing performance before and after the PF sessions. For data collection, the researchers used pre-test, post-test, 7 writing topics, and Cheng’s (2004) Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI). The results of paired sample t-test and Mann-Whitney U Test revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group due to the implementation of PF. Moreover, the researchers conducted Cheng’s SLWAI questionnaire at the end of the study. The findings indicated that the anxiety level of the experimental group receiving PF decreased to a significant extent. The implications are discussed in terms of writing instructors’ use of PF into writing classes to make the environment safer and more comfortable for the language learners to flourish their ideas.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using online peer and teacher feedback on Iranian EFL learners writing performance. To this end, a group of 28 homogenous learners were selected to participate in this study. They were divided into two equal sets; the first group received online peer feedback and the second group received online teacher feedback. In order to obtain the results of the treatments, two types of t-tests were run. First, to check the effectiveness of the two types of online feedback, paired sample t-tests and to make the comparison between the TF and PF independent sample t-test was run. Results of the study indicated that both types of online corrective feedback are effective. However, the TF group outperformed the PF one. Therefore, technology integration in L2 classrooms and, more specifically, providing learners with online corrective feedback will lead to more progress in EFL learners' writing performance.

The present study sets to explore whether using peer feedback through Google Docs improves English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ classroom engagement. It also investigated the extent to which peer feedback through Google Docs improves EFL students’ writing achievement. Three groups of EFL students were involved in the study, namely control (N=23), experimental 1(N= 24), and experimental 2 (N=22). The control group received the treatment through the conventional writing course and the teacher read the writing task and provided feedback regarding the content, grammar, vocabulary, or punctuations. In addition to their regular in-class writing instruction, each student in the first experimental group was asked to choose a partner and email their drafts to them and the peers were required to provide feedback. In the second experimental group, the pairs provided the feedback through the Google Docs. One Way ANOVA was run to find any possible differences between the groups. Based on the findings, the second experimental group outperformed the other groups in their classroom engagement and writing achievement. The findings have implications for pedagogy as well as further research.

Sociocultural Theory (SCT) of second language learning puts the emphasis on social interaction and regards it as a pre-requisite for cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1978). Drawing on the SCT, the present study aimed to delve into the possible effect of ZPD-based teacher and peer feedback on reading comprehension and reading strategy use of EFL learners. In so doing, 75 Iranian EFL learners, who were randomly assigned into two experimental and one comparison groups, participated in a quasi-experimental study. The data were collected through Oxford Placement Test (OPT), reading comprehension test and reading strategy questionnaire. One of the experimental groups received teacher feedback based on Aljaafreh and Lantolf's (1994) regulatory scale while the other experimental group accomplished the reading task using the feedback provided by the peers. Results obtained from the one–way ANOVA and Tukey test demonstrated that both experimental groups, teacher and peer, gained significantly more and performed better than the comparison group in reading comprehension while there was no significant difference between teacher and peer feedback groups in reading comprehension. The findings of the strategy questionnaire indicated no statistically significant difference between experimental and control groups, leading to the conclusion that students’ grouping did not influence their use of reading strategy. Therefore, it is concluded that peer feedback can be as effective as teacher feedback, aiding teachers to have a learner–centered classroom by implementing peer feedback rather than teacher feedback.