An Experimental Study On The Application Of Trained Peer Feedback To Senior Two Basic Writing

Since the reformation of the College Entrance Examination of Guangdong in2007,writing has become more important and has caught more attention from teachers andstudents. However, to improve the students’ writing proficiency has been a hard nutfor both of them. Having reviewed lots of literature about writing, the author of thisthesis thinks the application of trained peer feedback to the teaching of basic writingcan bring some benefits to the students. This study attempts to explore the effects oftrained peer feedback on Senior Two students’ basic writing proficiency.Two classes with80students in Senior Two in a middle school in Guangdong,were chosen as the research participants. In the experiment, the students were requiredto write six compositions about different topics. Before the experiment, theexperimental group (40students) were trained to give peer feedback by the teacher.During peer feedback sessions, they were divided into small groups of four. Then theyread their peers’ compositions and gave feedback to them orally or in written forms.After peer feedback sessions, they were required to rewrite their draft for each topicbased on their peers’ feedback and then hand in the second drafts for the teacher tocheck and mark. While in the controlled group (40students), students receivedteacher feedback on their compositions and were asked to rewrite the compositionsbased on teacher feedback and then hand in their second drafts for the teacher tocheck and mark.The research lasted16weeks, from September17thin2012to January4thin2013.The research instruments include writing tests, students’ drafts, peer feedback sheetsand an interview. The data of the study were analyzed by Excel and SPSS17.0.The research aims to answer two questions:(1) Can trained peer feedback improve Senior Two students’English basic writingability?(2) Can training make the students give and incorporate more peer feedback？The results of the data and related materials indicate that students from EG have made more progress in basic writing than students from CG, and they made significantprogress in the three aspects including language use, content and organization, whichproves that trained peer feedback is effective in improving students’ basic writingability. Besides, the analysis of the students’ drafts and peer feedback sheets indicatesthat students from EG can give and absorb more peer feedback on the three aspectsafter the experiment. According to the interview, after the experiment, most studentsthink peer feedback can bring them benefits in writing and they accept trained peerfeedback in the writing classes.Therefore, the author suggests that trained peer feedback be applied to theteaching of English basic writing in senior high schools.