A Study On The Application Of Peer Review To The Teaching Of English Writing In Senior High Schools

English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(Experimental)(Ministry of Education,2003)states that one of the requirements is to develop students' ability of autonomous learning and collaborative learning.Besides,it also puts forward the requirement of English writing that students are able to elaborate their points of view and review others' opinions with appropriate and decent words.However,through the classroom observation in Anyang No.1 Senior High School,the author discovered that teachers ignored students' development of autonomous learning and collaborative learning.In view of the present situation,the author proposed to apply peer review to the teaching of English writing.It refers to that peers exchange their writings,and revise their writings on the basis of peer's evaluation.In the action research,forty-eight students in Anyang No.1 Senior High School were taken as research subjects.Questionnaires,tests,interviews and classroom observation were employed throughout the four-month action research to study the following two research questions: 1)What problems may arise in the application of peer review to the learning of English writing in senior high schools? What are the causes for these problems? 2)What methods can be used to solve these problems?Analyzing the results of the data collected throughout the four-month action research,the author discovered that 1)during the implementation of peer review,most students' interest in English writing has been improvement.They began to pay more attention to English writing and spend much time on writing.Their interest in writing and their ability of writing had been improved a lot.However,there existed some problems in the application of peer review to the teaching of English writing.For example,the moderate-level students were reluctant to take part in the activities of peer review,because they did not believe students could find out advantages and disadvantages.As to the low-level students,they had negative attitude towards English writing and peer review.They might talk about something which was not related with the topic during the process of peer review.Through the interview and classroom observation,the author discovered that the inappropriate grouping method contributed to the problems above.Thus,the author adjusted the method of grouping,and divided students into heterogeneous groups instead of homogeneous groups.The results showed that these problems had been eliminated or lessened to some extent.