Influence Of Peer Feedback On English Attributive Clause Writing Accuracy

Previous studies on written corrective feedback(WCF) have analyzed and proposed how it effects on students’ writing accuracy through establishment and enhancement of unconsciously correct use in repetitive feedback. However, no conclusion has been reached on which type of WCF is more effective.The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of peer feedback on students’ English attributive clause writing accuracy. These following research questions are answered in the study: 1. What is students’ attitude towards peer feedback in English writing? 2. In peer feedback, can feedback givers detect errors in English attributive clause writing? 3. What is the influence of peer feedback on students’ English attributive clause writing accuracy?In this 93-day-long experimental classroom study, thirty first-year English majors did questionnaires about attitude towards peer feedback, attributive clause and writing. At the meantime, pre-tests were conducted to know their attributive clause proficiency level. After that,each of them finished four pieces of argumentative compositions to implement peer feedback. At the end of the research, questionnaires and post-test papers are provided to find out if there are changes of their attitude and progress in attributive clause accuracy. The test papers are error correction tasks including errors in disagreement, errors in using wrongly of relative words,errors in ellipsis of the relative word.Under a mixed-methods(quantitative and qualitative) research design, four types of data were collected: data from the questionnaires, data from the test papers, data from the compositions and data from the interviews. The quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS 19.0.The major findings are briefly summarized. 1. Through the analysis of questionnaires and interviews, though the learners were found supportive in peer feedback, they had a more positive attitude towards giving feedback than accepting. 2. From their comments and interviews, the subjects could find grammatical errors especially in attributive clause. 3. Most of the learners did believe the positive influence of peer feedback on writing. The test scores of the subjects have obviously improved, which indicated that after peer feedback, English attributive clause writing accuracy had been developed. The most significant achievement was that during peer feedback,they had generally developed the abilities of self-editing, self-monitoring.