A Study On Reviewer Stance Of English Postgraduates In Peer Review Tasks Of Academic English Writing Course

In peer review,reviewer stance can not only explain student's behavior of participation,but also have influence on the effect of peer review and subsequent revision.Researchers have discovered different categories of reviewer stance.However,little research concerning reviewer stance has been done to explore the underlying reasons for the observed reviewer stance.In this regard,this study presents reviewer stances displayed in peer review and then explains the reasons for students' choice of different stances.Targeted at peer review activity of an Academic English Writing course in a university of foreign languages for the English postgraduates,this study adopted students' drafts and semi-structured interviews as instruments,and conducted three times of data collection and analysis.One hundred and three valid peer comments drafts were collected.Twelve students were selected as the interview participants and one-on-one interviews were conducted in the way of stimulated recall after each round of peer review.Findings of the study revealed that English postgraduates assumed four different reviewer stances in peer comments,which included collaborative,prescriptive,interpretive and reflective reviewer stance.Reviewers assumed more than one stance toward one text.Collaborative reviewers attempted to clarify the writers' intention and give suggestions from the writer's perspective.The prescriptive stance focused on identifying faults.The interpretive reviewers tended to summarize and paraphrase their peers' writing,while reflective reviewers made most of the comments to reflect on academic writing and themselves.Besides,the four types of stance reviewers focused on the content,whereas format was less emphasized especially for interpretive reviewers.Finally,five factors that appeared to influence the students' choice of reviewer stance were identified as: students' motives of participating in peer review,quality and content of the paper they reviewed,peer relationships,personalities and personal experiences,and teacher's instructions.The study enriches the existing literature pertaining to reviewer stance and peer review.It provided a holistic view of students' participation in peer review activity.Also,it contributes to the organization of peer review activity,the guidance of students' correct concept of peer review,the conduct of peer review training and the instruction of Academic English Writing course.