The Impact Of Peer Feedback On College Students' English Writing Proficiency

Peer feedback is a collaborative activity, which has been used in English Writing teaching classes. Although there have been a number of studies abroad and at home, no consistent conclusions have been drawn. In this situation, this study is designed to evaluate the validity and feasibility of peer feedback in college English writing. More specifically, the following questions will be addressed in the study:1. Is peer feedback an effective pedagogical activity in the EFL students'writing teaching?2. What is the students'attitude towards peer feedback?3. Are students capable of providing effective peer feedback?The study lasted one semester and it was carried out in two classes with the size of 45 and 55 students in a regional University. The two intact classes were assigned as EG (45) and CG (55). The scores of two groups in pre-test were analyzed with Independent Sample t-test by SPSS 15.0 and the result showed there was no significant difference between EG and CG. In the experiment, each student wrote 3 compositions in class. The first drafts in EG were evaluated by peers and revised according to the peer feedback, and the revised drafts were evaluated by the teacher and the final drafts were written based on teacher feedback. While the students in CG only received teacher's written feedback, with the second and final drafts revised based on teacher feedback.In the study, a pre-test and a post-test, a questionnaire survey before the study, a questionnaire survey after the study, and the interview were carried out. Meanwhile, the students also accomplished three writing tasks. The data were collected and analyzed with SPSS 15.0. The results showed that peer feedback had very effective impacts on students' writing proficiency development, students held positive attitudes towards peer feedback, and they were capable of implementing feedback.So in the future college English writing classes, peer feedback should be adopted as a complement to teacher feedback to promote college students'writing proficiency.