An Action Research On Improving Senior High School Students’ Autonomous Learning Ability Through Peer Evaluation

English writing is an important part of high school English learning,and it is also a concrete manifestation of “language competence”,one of the four major connotations of key competences in English.However,the students in my studied class are afraid of writing.It is of practical significance to explore a teaching method to improve senior high school students’ English writing ability.The key competences of English subjects have received much attention in recent years.As one of the four elements of English key competences,the learning ability is regarded as the necessary condition and entry point for the development of English key competences,but the students’ autonomous learning ability in my studied class is not optimistic.In order to improve the writing ability of the students in my studied class and promote their autonomous learning ability,this research uses the method of peer evaluation to conduct an action research in English writing classes of my studied class based on the theories of Zone of Proximal Development and Cooperative Learning.Therefore,the main research question is: “how to conduct peer evaluation in English writing classes so as to develop students’ autonomous learning ability”? In order to answer the question,the research has to solve the following two sub-questions:(1)Does the implementation of peer evaluation in English writing classes improve students’ autonomous learning ability?(2)If so,how does peer evaluation affect students’ autonomous learning ability?Specifically,the action research involved in this research includes two rounds.The implementation time is from the 1st to 16 th week in the first semester of the second year of senior high school.The research approach is mainly quantitative research,supplemented by qualitative research.The participants of the study are 55 students in one Class of Grade 2 in one senior high school of Jiaozuo.The research data mainly comes from questionnaires and interviews before and after the action research.First of all,this research uses questionnaire and interviews to investigate the current situation of students’ autonomous learning ability.Then,the peer evaluation was introduced into the English writing teaching process.Through training and the first round of action research,I found some problems:(1)Students’ autonomous learning ability hasn’t been improved significantly and students have less interest in English learning after the first action research.(2)Students had some misunderstanding about the Peer Evaluation Scale.(3)Students wasted some time before the writing classes,and some of them talked about something unrelated to the class in group discussion during the peer evaluation.Before conducting the second round of research,I reflected on the problems emerged in the first round and made relevant adjustments during the second round of action research by talking with the professional teacher.The adjustments include(1)regrouping the students according to their composition(2)redesigning the Peer Evaluation Scale(3)arranging students’ seat in advance(4)allocating task to every member of the group(5)and giving clear topic of the group discussion.After the second round action research,I found the problems of the first round have been solved,but there appeared some new problems.For example,students’ autonomous learning ability hasn’t been improved significantly.Students’ language limited the implementation of peer evaluation.Some students are easily influenced by the model essays when they rewrite their compositions.Through two rounds of action research in the studied class,I draw the following findings:(1)Peer evaluation in writing teaching significantly improved students’ autonomy in English learning methods.(2)Peer evaluation in writing teaching had positive impacts on students’ English learning motivation,autonomy in learning process,learning results and learning environment.(3)Students had a positive attitude to peer evaluation in English writing teaching.(4)Peer evaluation in writing teaching improved students’ writing ability.At the same time,some research enlightenment can be proposed:(1)It is very important to cultivate students’ autonomous learning ability,and the peer evaluation in writing teaching provides method and guidance for improving student’ autonomous learning ability.(2)When teachers conduct peer evaluation in writing teaching,they should provide different instructions to students of different levels according to the actual situation of the students.(3)Teachers should create more conditions and opportunities for students to output language so as to promote the improvement of students’ language ability.(4)Teachers must have the awareness of cultivating students’ autonomous learning ability.However,there are still some limitations in the research.For example,the research time is only 16 weeks,and only two rounds of action research have been conducted,but the cultivation of autonomous learning ability cannot be achieved in a short period of time.The research object is also limited to one class,and the research results may only provide some valuable enlightenment for students who have the similar problems of the studied class.Besides,the reward mechanism setting in this study is not obvious enough,and it may have an impact on students’ participation enthusiasm.In response to the limitations of the research results,I propose the following corresponding opinions,such as extending the research time,expanding the scope of the research object,setting up a complete reward mechanism,explaining English sentence patterns to students,and holding regular peer evaluation discussion meetings,etc.So that the peer evaluation in writing classes can be better used to improve students’ English writing ability and autonomous learning ability.In short,this action research aims to improving the condition of the students’ weak English autonomous learning ability in my studied class.At the same time,it is also expected to provide some enlightenment for the writing teaching of students who have the similar problems of the class studied by the author.Moreover,this research is also expected to provide new research methods for cultivating students’ autonomous learning ability.