Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN 1539-8072
June 2011, Vol. 8, No. 6, 364-368
中国几艘航母
Peer Feedback: A New Approach to English Writing Instruction
in a Chine College Setting
恋爱阶段
ZHANG Su
Huaiyin Normal University, Huai’an, China
The paper mainly focus on peer feedback—one specific approach to teach writing. After analyzing the currentcfan
practice in English writing instruction in Chine tertiary institutions and reviewing YANG, Badger and YU’s
(2006) empirical rearch study, the author evaluates the suitability of peer feedback approach in a Chine college
context. Hopes that it may offer and challenges which might be faced, are discusd as well.
Keywords: peer feedback, English writing instruction, EFL (English as a Foreign Language)
Introduction
Writing is a skill area which is difficult for teachers to teach and hard for student writers to learn (FENG, 2002). In spite of its importance attached to writing, teaching writing is often a thankless job (YANG, Badger, & YU, 2006). Drawing on a range of approaches to writing instruction, teachers are still striving to teach it Rights Rerved.
effectively and aiming to improve students’ writing competence.
The paper mainly focus on peer feedback, one specific approach to teaching writing. It will first an
田径跳远alyze the current practice in English writing instruction in Chine tertiary institutions. A summary of the main ideas of YANG, Badger and YU’s (2006) empirical rearch study “A Comparative Study of Peer and Teacher Feedback in a Chine EFL Writing Class” will then be prented. After briefly reviewing peer feedback approach displayed in the paper, the author is going to evaluate the suitability of this approach in her own teaching context. Hopes that it may offer and challenges which might be faced, are discusd as well.
Current Practice in Teaching Writing in Chine Tertiary Institutions Teaching Practice in General
In Chine EFL teaching context, the product approach to writing has been dominant in writing class for decades (FENG, 2002; GU, 2004). Teachers usually spend most of the time analyzing a sample text and teaching writing techniques and then they ask students to write a composition. After handing in their compositions, students receive teacher feedback or grade as the final stage of the writing cycle. Adopting this approach, teachers pay more attention to the product, and feedback focus on the appropriate u of vocabulary, syntax and cohesive devices. What is wor, a great number of students attach little importance to teacher feedback and cannot make the best of it. So teachers find that it is a tedious and unrewarding chore to
give feedback (Hyland, 1990).Such an approach leads to little improvement of students’ writing although both
ZHANG Su, MEd in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.) in the University of Sydney, teaching assistant of School of Foreign Languages, Huaiyin Normal University.
ENGLISH WRITING INSTRUCTION IN A CHINESE COLLEGE SETTING 365
teachers and students spend much time and make their efforts.
The Author’s Practice and Challenges Encountered
In recent years, there has been a move towards a more process orientation to teaching writing in Chine tertiary institutions (FENG, 2002). The author who has taught English writing for a year adopts this process approach. Her writing class usually involve veral stages, such as pre-writing, composing/drafting, revising and editing, as Tribble (1996) recommended. She usually asks students to brainstorm on a certain topic and encourages them to come up with ideas as many as possible. Next students make a writing plan bad on the ideas coming from brainstorming and then they write the first draft. After reading their drafts, she offers them written feedback and they revi th
eir drafts accordingly. Finally, students edit or proofread the final drafts. She also gives written feedback and offers general oral feedback when returning the final drafts. So in the writing process, the author lays great emphasis on the stages that a piece of writing must go through and there is less emphasis on vocabulary, grammar, etc.. And her feedback in the multiple-drafts process affects students’ writing.
There are two main challenges the author faces in her teaching practice: First, process approach requires more time to spend in producing a piece of writing. Taking the few class hours and the examination-focud program into account, she always feels tight with time and some of the stages are chon not to be fully explored. For instance, sometimes students’ revid work is not resubmitted. Second, feedback in the writing process is so critical for students’ writing improvement that the author always provides feedback for the drafts.
However, she suffers from reading them and providing feedback since there are more than 80 non-English major students in her big class. She feels exhausted when finishing doing so. To cope with the situation, she has to give short and general written feedback with veral red-penned notations in the drafts.
油笔印怎么去掉Rights Rerved.
The above challenges will undoubtedly have negative impact on teaching and learning writing. Inadequate time cannot let the writer fully deal with each stage, which is crucial to the development of students’ writing.
Accordingly, problems tend to appear at a particular stage. A large number of students result in the overwork and the strain for the author, which influences her provision of effective feedback. And such feedback reduces its anticipated impact on students’ writing.
Summary of YANG, Badger and YU’s (2006) Rearch Article Rearch Aim
In the rearch article, YANG, Badger and YU (2006) reported a study on peer feedback, which they have conducted in English writing class in a Chine university. The aim of the study is to explore whether peer feedback, a comparatively new approach to teaching writing in China, can be a uful resource to provide students feedback.
Rearch Methods
The rearchers investigate two class, which receive parallel writing instruction and are involved in three rounds of multi-draft essay writing on the same topic. However, one class receives teacher f
eedback and the other obtains peer feedback. Data ts related to both class and students in the ca study are collected.
Data are elicited from students’ drafts, feedback, questionnaire surveys, interviews and video recordings.
Rearch Findings
By carefully comparing and analyzing the data of the two class, YANG, Badger and YU (2006) claimed veral important findings. First of all, students adopt more teacher feedback than peer feedback, and both can
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ENGLISH WRITING INSTRUCTION IN A CHINESE COLLEGE SETTING lead to improvement in writing. However, when students adopt peer feedback, there are slightly more
successful revisions in peer feedback group that tho in teacher feedback group. Second, peer feedback caus more meaning changes whereas the teacher feedback brings about more revisions at surface level. Moreover, peer feedback leads to more lf-corrections and thus encourages learne
rs autonomy while teacher feedback may reduce lf-correction. Another finding is about students’ views and attitudes. They value teacher feedback more than peer feedback but realize the importance and the role of peer feedback. Bad on the above findings, the rearchers finally conclude that peer feedback can be a uful adjunct to teacher feedback.
Peer Feedback Approach in Process-Oriented Writing Instruction Background Description
Feedback is indispensable to the multiple-drafts process, becau it is “what pushes the writer through the various drafts and on to the eventual end-product” (Keh, 1990, p. 294). Peer feedback that the rearch article prents is one of the various types of feedback.It is also referred to as peer review, peer respon, peer critiquing or peer evaluation. It is “a collaborative activity involving students reading, critiquing and providing feedback on each other’s writing, both to cure immediate textual improvement and to develop, over time, stronger writing competence via mutual scaffolding” (HU, 2005, pp. 321-322).
Peer feedback is a relatively new approach for the writer; however, it is a rearch issue that has already captured rearchers’ and teachers’ attention and a substantial amount of rearch has been done both in L1 (first language) and L2 (cond language). The studies focus on how to train st
udents to u peer feedback, how to form groups to work effectively, the types of activities to conduct and the methods to be ud (Lundstrom &
Baker, 2009). And some compare it with other types of feedback, especially with teacher feedback to e its Rights Rerved.
impact. Rearchers such as Rollinson (2005) and Lundstrom and Baker (2009) claimed that when peer feedback is ud appropriately, it has potential advantages and it can be extremely effective to improve students’ writing. Similarly, HU (2005) generalized its benefits as facilitating effective language learning and enhancing the acquisition of L2 writing competence.
Peer Feedback: A New Approach to the Author
From the writer’s point of view, peer feedback is a “new” approach for the following two aspects. One is that compared with the traditional teacher feedback, peer feedback puts emphasis on the important role of students. It transforms students from passive receivers to active reviewers, which can develop their abilities to solve problems on their own and ultimately lead to more learner autonomy, just as what YANG et al. (2006) found in their study. The other reason is that peer feedback is likely to create a friendly and supportive atmosphere, which can have an effect on stude
nts’ u of feedback. And this point can be also derived from students’ attitudes towards teacher and peer feedback in the rearch article. In this environment, peer feedback is less threatening and less authoritative than teachers’ comments. Therefore, instead of using teacher feedback out of deference of authority, students tend to reflect peer comments critically, negotiate with each other freely, show their doubts about the comments, and decide the aspects to revi.
Peer feedback appeals to the author partly due to it being a “new” approach mentioned above and partly becau of the problems she has encountered. Among the problems and challenges she has come across in her process-oriented writing instruction, the biggest one is how to give students effective feedback considering her workload and class size. Peer feedback ems to be a uful and promising way to solve the problem.
ENGLISH WRITING INSTRUCTION IN A CHINESE COLLEGE SETTING 367
Meanwhile, she can also make u of this approach to inspire students’ initiatives and cultivate them to be more critical and autonomous learners.
兔子能吃什么
Evaluation
As mentioned above, peer feedback has been widely studied and it has its own values. If ud appropriately, it will be an effective method and has positive impacts on improving students’ writing competence. YANG et al.’s (2006) article prented peer feedback approach, which makes the author eager to explore more. Meanwhile, it is very enlightening and insightful since the rearch is carried out in a Chine university, which has something in common with hers as well as other college English teachers’. Therefore, the findings of their study provide her insights into better understanding the situation of the application of peer feedback in the Chine teaching context.
Hopes
Taking the writer’s own teaching context into consideration, this new approach may bring her some hopes.
To begin with, students may get some concrete and specific feedback from peers rather than the general, vague and abstract comments from the teacher since they have only fewer drafts to correct. In the meantime, the author’s heavy workload can be relieved to some extent. Moreover, peer feedback can also create a friendly and supportive atmosphere and a more student-centered classroom where students can evaluate their own writings critically and freely. Finally, it offers studen
ts opportunities not only to improve their writing but also to practice their listening and speaking abilities by meaningful language u(Mendonca & Johnson, 1994).
Challenges
Rights Rerved.
However, the author also realizes that it is challenging to employ such an approach in her teaching context.
Among veral challenges, two are discusd here. For one thing, peer feedback is a time consuming activity, just as Rollinson (2005, p. 25) declared “whether feedback is oral or written, the peer feedback process itlf is
a lengthy one”. Regarding the time available for instruction, how to reconcile peer feedback with time
constraint pos to be a challenge. For another, students’ attitude towards peer feedback is also a potential problem. In Chine culture, the thought that teachers are the authorities who can and should give feedback is deeply rooted and students have already been ud to it. Adopting peer feedback, they may doubt their own capacity to give comments since they are at a similar age and ar
e lack of language ability, skills and experience compared to teachers. Such doubt and uncertainty may prevent them from making and using peer feedback.
On the whole, peer feedback is a uful adjunct to teacher feedback. Lynch (1996, p. 155; as cited in Muncie, 2000) propod that teachers should “offer learners a range of feedback types… (which) may stand a greater chance of success than reliance on a single technique”. Then introduction of peer feedback to the author’s writing class ems reasonable. However, if it is adopted, she will meet the potential benefits as well as challenges. To gain the best effects it can produce, she should do more readings, find possible measures to solve potential problems, and implement it with careful instruction.
Conclusions
How to give effective feedback is a central question in the process-oriented writing instruction for decades.
Peer feedback, a new approach the paper focus on, may be a uful and promising adjunct to teacher feedback.
Bad on the analysis of the author’s current practice in teaching writing, the summary of the YANG et al.’s
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ENGLISH WRITING INSTRUCTION IN A CHINESE COLLEGE SETTING (2006) rearch article and a brief review of peer feedback approach, she anticipates hopes as well as the challenges it may bring. She believes that peer feedback is suitable in her writing class, but it should be implemented with great caution. It is also the writer’s profound hope that what she has discusd in this paper can be of some help to college English teachers and can provoke their concerns on writing instruction.
References
FENG, Y. M. (2002). Communicative purpos: The esnce of advanced English writing instruction. Journal of the University of International Relations,2, 34-39.
GU, K. (2004). On process approach to teaching writing. Journal of Anhui University (Philosophy and Social Sciences),28(6), 40-44.
治疗咽炎的办法
HU, G. W. (2005). Using peer review with Chine ESL student writers. Language Teaching Rearch,9(3), 321-342.
Hyland, K. (1990). Providing productive feedback. ELT Journal,44(4), 279-285.
Keh, C. (1990). Feedback in the writing process: A model and methods for implementation. ELT Journal, 44(4), 294-304.
Lundstrom, K., & Baker, W. (2009). To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the reviewer’s own writing.
Journal of Second Language Writing,18(1), 30-43.
Mendonca, C. O., & Johnson, K. E. (1994). Peer review negotiations: Revision activities in ESL writing instruction. TESOL Quarterly,28(4), 745-769.
Muncie, J. (2000). Using written teacher feedback in EFL composition class. ELT Journal, 54(1), 47-53.
Rollinson, P. (2005). Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class. ELT Journal,59(1), 23-30.
Tribble, C. (1996). Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
YANG, M., Badger, R., & YU, Z. (2006). A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback in a Chine EFL writing class.水果名字
Journal of Second Language Writing, 15(3), 179-200.
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