Effects Of Peer Review And Learner L2 Proficiency On Reviewer Draft Revision

Peer review,as an instructional activity in writing process,has been proved to be increasingly effective for learning,especially when authors make improvements in revisions after receiving feedback.However,learners in peer review usually are both authors and reviewers.The effects from the perspective of reviewers in reciprocal peer assessment have been scarcely studied.Furthermore,second language(L2)proficiency,an important factor in writing,fails to draw much attention from researchers on peer assessment.Therefore,the goal of this study is to investigate the effects of peer review on revision from the reviewer’s perspective,with regard to L2 proficiency of both authors and reviewers involved.Both giving and receiving feedback are to be considered because they both may influence draft revision.The data of this study comes from an academic writing activity using the online peer review system Peerceptiv.The final data include Draft 1(M = 1827)and Draft 2(M = 2015)of 53 reviewers,the coded feedback comments on Draft 1(given: M = 612;received: M = 576),and expert scoring on the two drafts.The study intends to answer three research questions:(1)What are the types and distribution of peer feedback that different L2 proficiency reviewers provide and receive in peer review?(2)How do the types of given-comments and received-comments jointly influence revision improvement of reviewers with different L2 proficiency?(3)How does L2 proficiency of both authors and reviewers jointly influence types and distribution of given-comments and received-comments?This study was mainly a quantitative research combined with qualitative analysis on comment examples.Statistical methods,like multiple linear regression and correlation analysis,were employed in data analysis.Theories of ZPD,cooperative learning,and self explaining jointly form the theoretical foundations for the current study.The given and received comments were coded according to the analytical framework proposed by Gao et al.(2018).By analyzing the distribution of comments both given and received by different L2-proficiency reviewers,the study intends to find out the effects of feedback types and amount on the revision improvement of reviewers’ own drafts.The impact of learner L2 proficiency on reviewers’ giving and receiving feedback was also investigated.The results show that:(1)The distribution patterns of given-comments and received-comments are similar.Among the five types of feedback form,identifying problem is the most frequently used(given: M = 12.70,received: M = 12.04),while offering solution is the least used(given: M = 1.00,received: M = 0.91).The amounts of explanation and giving suggestion are similar,both of which are used the second most frequently.For given-feedback,high proficiency reviewers provide more feedback on identifying problem,offering solution,giving suggestion,and explanation than low proficiency reviewers.On the contrary,for received-feedback,low proficiency reviewers receive more feedback on those four types.(2)Generally,both providing and receiving feedback affect the revision improvement of all reviewers(M = 11.37%),and receiving feedback of identifying problem benefits them most.The regression analysis presents that high proficiency reviewers benefit from the whole peer review process,particularly from providing feedback of solution+suggestion(Beta = 0.434,t = 2.276,p < 0.05),whereas low proficiency reviewers benefit from receiving comments,especially from receiving feedback of identifying problem(Beta = 0.806,t = 2.112,p < 0.05).Unexpectedly,providing explanation has a negative influence on the reviewers’ revisions(Beta =-0.519,t =-2.693,p < 0.05).(3)Learner L2 proficiency groupings exert significant effects on reviewers’ receiving feedback types like localization(F(1,73)= 7.476,p < 0.05),offering solution(F(1,73)= 5.179,p < 0.05),and explanation(F(1,73)= 4.919,p < 0.05),but insignificant on the types of given feedback except offering solution(F(1,70)= 5.353,p < 0.05).For both given-comments and received-comments,including the positive types on revisions,given feedback of solution+suggestion and received feedback of identifying problem,the amounts are elicited most in the asymmetric groups of L2-proficiency learners.The findings indicate that reviewers benefit from the whole process of peer review in complicated ways because their performances are influenced by the performances and L2 proficiency of their peers.The asymmetric grouping of learner L2 proficiency should be recommended in future peer review practices as the largest amount of feedback produced in this way is more likely to improve learner revision.However,the non-positive effects of explanation should remind instructors to consciously provide extra support and training during peer review so that learners can comment with more responsibility and benefit from deeper thoughts.Overall,this study provides valuable implications for EFL writing teaching and learning as well as for peer assessment research.The limitations of the study are the small data size and the neglect of feedback adoption in peer review,which can influence the accuracy of the research findings.