A Study On The Application Of Peer Review In English Writing Teaching

English writing teaching is one of the important parts of English teaching in senior high school.In English writing teaching,there are various writing teaching activities,including: model essay appreciation,peer review.Among these writing teaching activities,peer review which emphasizes “student-centered” is the core stage of process writing approach.The essence of peer review is consistent with the requirements of English Curriculum Standards,both of which stress the importance of respecting students as well as cultivating students' ability of autonomous learning and cooperative learning.This research is based on two theoretical foundations: cooperative learning theory and process writing approach.Cooperative learning theory stressed communication and interaction among learners in 1970 s.Meanwhile,western scholars prompted “process writing approach” which emphasizes the importance of writing process in the late 1970 s.Based on these two theoretical foundations,the author desires to explore the current situation on the application of peer review in English writing teaching.In this research,the author takes Xi'an Foreign Language School as a sample and adopts questionnaire,text analysis and interview as research methods.Through investigating students and English teachers from Grade two in senior high schools,this research aims at studying these three questions:(1)What is the students' attitude towards peer review?(2)As to vocabulary,grammar,punctuation and cohesive words,which one of them is their biggest concern in the process of peer review?(3)What are the existing problems and corresponding solutions to theapplication of peer review in English writing teaching?Through investigating,there are three major findings.First of all,students in Xi'an Foreign Language School hold relatively positive attitude towards peer review in English writing teaching,who approve peer review effect,such as: cultivating the ability of cooperative learning,exercising thinking ability.Then,in the process of peer review,students focus on vocabulary,grammar,punctuation and cohesive words.And they mainly focus on grammar and vocabulary,but pay little attention to punctuation and cohesive words.Meanwhile,the causes include students' language habit,students' awareness and so on.Furthermore,through further investigating,it can be found that the existing problems of peer review in English writing teaching in Xi'an Foreign Language School mainly consist of time limitation,the difference of students' English proficiency and the quality of peer reviewed compositions.Based on these research findings,the author tries to list some pedagogical suggestions so as to provide reference about applying peer review in English writing teaching for English teachers.