Effects Of Peer Feedback On The Use Of Connectives In English Writings Of Senior High School Students:An Empirical Study

Cohesion and coherence are regarded as significant standards of writing scoring in the new curriculum standards for senior English and a variety of important English examinations in college.The theory of cohesion and coherence points out that the coherence of the inner meaning in discourse is achieved by the cohesive devices on the surface of discourse.According to the previous research,for senior high school students,most students tend to use more connectives(one of the cohesive devices)to achieve cohesion and coherence.Connectives include conjunctions in the traditional grammar as well as some adverbs,pronouns and prepositions which indicate the connection.Domestic teaching of English writing has always been dominated by teachers' corrections and explanations,which brings little effect;the problems such as the use of connectives as well as the cohesion and coherence of articles remain outstanding.In view of this,this research explores the effects of peer feedback on the use of connectives in senior high school students5 English writings on the basis of process writing theory,cooperative learning theory as well as cohesion and coherence.Based on the three primary dimensions of connectives used in English writings:quantity,type and appropriacy,this research tries to answer the following two questions:1)What are the effects of peer feedback on the quantity and type of connectives used in senior high school students'English writings?2)What are the effects of peer feedback on the appropriacy of connectives used in senior high school students' English writings?The experiment was carried out in two parallel classes in Grade three in a middle school in Changsha,40 students in each class.The experimental class received peer feedback,while the control class continued to follow the conventional method.A review of the relevant knowledge of connectives was made in the two classes before the experiment.Through the analysis of scorer reliability,the students in the experimental class accepted the examination of the ability to revise compositions.The experiment had lasted 16 weeks and the two groups of test classes had participated in 8 writing tests.The results were obtained by the analysis of collected data through Independent Sample T-test and Paired Sample T-test.Here are the findings of the study:1)Peer feedback exerts a positive impact on the quantity and type of connectives used in senior high school students5 English writings,and the increase of the quantity of connectives is more apparent.2)Peer feedback also exercises a positive influence on the appropriacy of connectives used in senior high school students' English writings,and among the three dimensions,the increase of appropriacy is the most obvious.The results show that peer feedback can effectively improve the use of connectives in senior high school students' English writings,thus facilitating the cohesion and coherence of discourse.This study explores the effects of peer feedback on the use of connectives in senior high school students' English writings and provides guidance for domestic English writing teaching.However,due to small sample size and short experimental period,the experiment needs further optimization.