The Effects of Teacher Feedback and Peer Feedback on College EFL Writing

【Abstract】When it comes to assessing students writing in EFL contexts especially in traditional teacher-centered classrooms， teacher feedback is dominant and helps to improve effectively the students writing skills. Meanwhile， the incorporation of peer feedback can lead to enhancement of students critical thinking， effective learning and interaction. The study advises an integration of teacher feedback and peer feedback in college EFL writing classes.

【Key words】Teacher feedback； Peer feedback； EFL Writing； Integration

1. Introduction

It is generally acknowledged that writing is one of the most important language skills as well as the weakness of most learners who are learning English as a foreign language （thereafter EFL）. In order to improve students writing proficiency， providing feedback is necessarily applied by EFL writing teachers， while responding to students writing is a challenging and time-consuming task. Therefore， other than teacher assessment or feedback， alternative assessments， such as peer assessment or feedback is widely utilized in the EFL writing classes to assess students effectively.

1.1 Definition of feedback and alternative assessment

Feedback can be defined as： “comments or information learners receive on the success of a learning task either from the teacher or from other learners” （Richard et al， 1998）. Van Gennip et al （2009） defined it as： “information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task， usually with the objective of improving this performance.” Nation （2009） classifies feedback from the aspects of source， mode， size and form. As to the source of feedback， he means whether the feedback is given by teacher， peer， or self， thus there are teacher feedback， peer feedback and self-feedback.

Traditionally， teachers alone would assess the learners writing， and there was no place for learners to make assessments， which can result in potentially biased evaluations. As a result of attempts to overcome the limitations of teacher assessments， alternative assessment， such as self-assessments and peer assessments， have been the focus of increasing interest in the field of education （Hargreaves， Earl & Schmidt， 2001）.

1.2 Teacher feedback

Teacher feedback refers to the input provided by the teacher for the revision of students writings or assessment of learning performance （Keh， 1990）. In the teaching process of writing， teacher feedback was considered to be an indispensable part to help students avoid similar mistakes and improve their writing. The positive effect of teacher feedback is widely emphasized. Teacher feedback can motivate the students awareness of writing strategies and self-correction and then improve their writing skills.

1.3 Peer feedback

Peer feedback can be defined as： an arrangement for peers to consider the level， value， worth， quality or successfulness of the products or outcomes of learning of others of the similar status （Topping， Smith， Swanson &Elliot， 2000）. Studies on peer feedback have so far focused on different dimensions of using the procedure such as the effects of peer feedback on development of different skills like oral presentation and writing （Luc De Grez， 2012）， and comparisons between peer feedback and other forms of feedback like teacher feedback， self- feedback and expert feedback （Zainab， 2012； Tasos， H.， 2013）. Peer feedback influences students writing in a positive way.

2. Effects of teacher feedback and peer feedback

2.1 Effects of teacher feedback

Teacher feedback plays an important role in motivating and guiding students to write better articles. Firstly， teacher feedback focuses more on vocabulary and grammar and has a significant effect on accuracy and helps students reduce their errors. Secondly， teacher feedback can promote the students self-editing ability （Chandler， 2003）. Thirdly， as a good means of communication， teacher feedback builds a bridge between the teacher and the student， and motivates the students interest and confidence in writing.

2.2 Effects of peer feedback

As one of the main forms of alternative assessment， peer feedback is of increasing importance in EFL writing classes and allows teachers to help the students receive more feedback on their writings as well as develop their writing ability and interactive learning ability .In the first place， by responding to the peers work， students have more opportunities to engage themselves in critical thinking， planning， monitoring and regulation （Lin， Liu & Yuan， 2001）. In the second place， peer assessment is comparatively concrete by focusing more on the details like spellings and grammar. In the third place， In the fourth place， during the process of students assessing and checking their feedback sheets， teachers can trace the writing problems and learn the students real and urgent need in their writing， so that the instruction could be more student-based.

2.3 A real case of the effects of teacher feedback and peer feedback

As an EFL teacher who has instructed the writing of Business English major students for eight years， the author finds that in every piece of writing that students hand in， there is a high expectation from the students to receive some feedback on their work.

In the recent semester， the author collected 20 pieces of writings from 110 freshmen majoring in business English to examine the possible effects of teacher feedback and peer feedback in college EFL writing. Every student was required to write 8 pieces of compositions with different topics （one piece for a week）， among which 6 were assessed by the teacher and 2 were assessed by the students in the classroom within controlled time. Before the peer assessment， the students were told the basic criteria of assessing writing and allowed to ask for teachers help once encountering any confusion and difficulty.

From the 20 pieces of corrected compositions， it is not difficult to find that the teacher evaluated the students writing mainly from the writing aspects of vocabulary， grammar， content and structure， while the students responses mainly focused on spelling， grammar and punctuation.

The research found that students were conscious of the teachers correction， especially that of the grammatical and vocabulary errors. They tried to avoid the similar mistakes the teacher pointed out， and were motivated to use the structures the teacher provided. The students improvement in writing can be clearly witnessed with the teacher feedback. In addition， compared to teacher feedback， peer feedback was valued more slightly； however， the students were enthusiastic to take peer assessment， which generated positive reactions in students. They had the chances to appreciate the peers work and learn from others weakness and strength. They knew how marks were awarded and how to achieve better grade. Furthermore， the teacher understood the writing difficulties of the students from the questions raised during the process of peer assessment， and therefore the further instructions could be more specific and effective.

A student named Huanjun can best explain the above findings. For the first writing with the topic “Marriage in College”， she only scored B- due to large amounts of mistakes including the misuse of the words （6 mistakes）， grammatical structures（6） and punctuations（5）， and inappropriate conclusion. After 5 times of teachers corrections， she was graded A- （with no punctuation mistake， less misuse of words and proper structure）. AS to the peer corrections， she gained B and B+ respectively. The corrections from the peers tended to be more critical， and focused on grammar and punctuation. Most importantly， Hungjun wrote a self-revision after the peer assessment， which reflected that she learnt something actively from the evaluation of her peers. Thus the power of peer feedback could not be neglected.

In conclusion， though with diverse functions， both teacher feedback and peer feedback can bring about improvement of the students writing abilities.

3. Conclusion

Overall， teacher feedback plays a dominant role in the teaching of writing in a teacher-centered foreign language learning context. Students treat teacher feedback positively and regard it reliable and effective to improve their writing level. Additionally， making peer assessment an integral part of evaluation procedures not only promote students critical thinking and facilitate their further learning， but also creates opportunities for interaction and is useful in altering the traditional one-way teacher-centered classes to a more learner-centered one.

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作者簡介：余芳芳（1982-），女，漢族，江西南昌人，研究生，講師，畢業于江西師范大學，就職于江西旅游商貿職業學院，研究方向為二語習得。