Peer Assessment In Improving English Writing Based On Squad Organizational System In Military Academy

Feedback to students' writing has always been a subject of extensive research in the field of writing instruction. Peer Assessment has been considered to be an effective approach to give feedback to students' writing. Till now, many researchers home and abroad have done researches to verify the effectiveness of Peer Assessment in teaching English writing. They have verified that Peer Assessment in class is valid and reliable in teaching English writing (Tim Roskams, 1999. Paul Rollinson, 1998. Caulk, 1994. Chen Qin, 2006 et al.). Besides, researchers have concluded that conducting Peer Assessment has three necessary conditions, that is, students' positive attitudes, proper organization and enough time for Peer Assessment. These researchers have mainly focused their attention on the students' improvement of their cognitive factors. In their studies, they have also mentioned the improvement of students' psychological and affective factors. Meanwhile, these researchers have taken advantage of the questionnaires and interviews to gather data on students' psychological and affective factors, and then mostly used the SPSS (software) for data analysis. Very few researches that have studied Peer Assessment in teaching English writing after class, mostly because Peer Assessment after class is short of proper organization; besides, students during Peer Assessment after class are less positive and enthusiastic in cooperation (Tim Roskams, 1999).In review of the related theories, the study attempts to testify the feasibility, efficacy and reliability of Peer Assessment in teaching English writing based on squad organizational system in military academy from the three indexes of educational goals. The three indexes are psychological factors, cognitive factors and affective factors (Bloom, 1956). This study is carried out in students' spare time, which has three necessary requirements, students' positive attitudes, proper organization and enough time.Altogether 150 students from team three, College Nine of National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, Hunan, participated in the quasi-experiment. Randomly assigning one hundred students as the experimental group and the other are as the control group. The writing topics used in the experiment are chosen from CET Band Four examinations and students' textbook. This study has used the following tools, software SPSS 11.5, questionnaires and interviews. Software SPSS 11.5 was used to do data analysis of students' writing (cognitive improvement), while questionnaires and interviews were used to have a better understanding of students' status of their psychological and affective factors. A pretest and a posttest were administered respectively. This study had lasted for twelve weeks. The first week was used to exchange ideas with students to let students know what Peer Assessment is, the methods to do Peer Assessment and proceedings should be noticed. The first week's work could reduce students' pressure to conduct Peer Assessment and let students know that Peer Assessment was scientific and peer response was reliable. In the following two weeks, the pre-test, pre-questionnaire and interviews were carried out. This part was to testify students' real status of their psychological factors, cognitive factors and affective factors. Then the following eight weeks were used to conduct writing exercises and Peer Assessment; this part was divided into two parts, both parts had four weeks. The four writing topics in the first part were chosen from the CET Band Four, while another four writing topics in the second part were chosen from students textbook by students themselves in the experimental group. The purpose of this section was to find out whether students' interests and attitudes of writing would influence their writing or not, and if it really influenced students' writing, then how students' interest of writing would influence students' writing. The last week of the experiment was used to conduct post-test, post-questionnaire and interviews to testify students' change on psychological factors, cognitive factors and affective factors. In the experiment, tasks designed for Peer Assessment were the independent variables, and the scores of their writing, students' changes in the field of psychology, cognition and affective factors were dependent variables.The present study is to answer the following questions:1. Is Peer Assessment after class in teaching English writing based on squad organizational system in military academy is feasible? Is Peer Assessment able to improve students' writing ability?2. What has happened to students' psychological, cognitive and affective factors after the experiment? What are the changes?3. Is the squad organizational system in military academy is facilitative to do Peer Assessment? What are the squad organizational system's advantages in conducting Peer Assessment?The results of the study and the analysis indicate that:1. Peer Assessment after class was complicated and time-consuming in its organization, but was feasible.2. After experiment, students had got significant improvement in their English writing, and they had improved their ideas about writing and the rating process.3. Students had improved their psychological, cognitive and affective factors after the experiment more or less. Students mastered the Peer Assessment skills, built-up self-confidence and self-esteem, learned in a more relaxed, harmonious, and autonomous learning atmosphere.4. Squad organizational system in military academy could go well with Peer Assessment, since military discipline's requirements and Peer Assessment's conducting conditions had similarities in the following aspects such as organizing well, using time effectively and personnel's positive attitudes.This study is of great significance theoretically and pedagogically. Theoretically, the study testified the effects of Peer Assessment in teaching English writing based on squad organizational system in military academy. In addition, the results provided a positive evidence for teaching English writing after class. In practice, the study provides both language teachers and learners another approach to do English writing acquisition. Teachers could design their corresponding writing tasks after class as a good complement of their teaching English writing in class.