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

English writing is the comprehensive embodiment of students' English competence, and it is an important and difficult part in English teaching. The aim of English writing teaching is to cultivate students' communicative ability in English, and the cultivation of students' writing ability can improve students' English competence. However, due to the exam-oriented education system, teachers hope to improve students' English writing ability by the large infusion of writing strategies and writing models, neglecting the process of revising and rewriting the composition which is very important to the improvement of their English writing ability. Besides, the feedback on students' compositions mainly comes from the teachers, so the evaluation method is too simple. As a result, the disadvantages of traditional teaching method of English writing have appeared gradually. Students' interest and confidence in English writing decreases day by day, so their English writing ability develops slowly, too. Therefore, the effective innovation in the teaching of English writing has been the focus of many English educators.Previous studies show that peer review has been put forward in the teaching of English writing. However, the focuses of these studies are quite different and the results of them are inconsistent. Previous studies mainly focus on the comparison between peer review and teacher feedback, comparing their advantages and disadvantages through the experiment. Some studies focus on the application of peer review in college, studying its feasibility and effectiveness. Only a few studies focus on students in senior high schools. Besides, some researchers believe peer review is an effective teaching method to help students improve their English writing ability, while some researchers do not think so. Thus, to verify the effectiveness of the application of peer review in the teaching of English writing in senior high schools, the author conducted this research based on Constructivism Theory. Constructivism believes that knowledge is not obtained from the teacher. Learners get knowledge by meaning construction in a certain situation with the help of their partners and relative learning materials. Students are the center of the class, and the teacher acts a role of an organizer, guide and helper. Collaborative learning is the main form of the class which plays an important role in meaning construction. In the English writing class which employs peer review under the guidance of Constructivism Theory, students are the subjects of the evaluation, the teacher is the organizer and helper of peer review, and collaborative learning is the major learning method.This research chose two parallel classes as subjects, Class One and Class Two, in senior grade three in the author' s practice school. The author adopted the experimental method to conduct this research. The experiment had lasted for three months. It tried to solve the following three questions. What are the problems of the present teaching of English writing in senior high schools? What are the reasons for these problems? Can peer review improve students' English writing ability? At the start of the experiment, students in the experiment class were required to do a pre-questionnaire and pre-interview. Students in these two classes were asked to take a pre-test. During the three-month experiment, the experiment class employed peer review in the teaching of English writing while the control class still used the traditional teaching method. Three months later, these two classes were required to take a post-test. Besides, students in the experiment class needed to do a post-questionnaire and post-interview. The result of the tests showed that students' English writing ability in the experiment class made bigger progress than those in the control class. The results of the questionnaires and interviews indicated that students' interest and confidence in English writing in the experiment class increased a lot after the experiment.In conclusion, this research manifests that the effective application of peer review in the teaching of English writing in senior high schools can improve students' interest and confidence in English writing and their English writing ability also improves a lot accordingly.