A Study Of The Effect Of Peer Feedback On English Writing In Senior High School

As a basic skill in language application,writing is very important in language learning.The English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(2017:35)indicates that the language skill is an important part in language application ability,while writing belongs to expressive skills.In order to set up a foundation for real language communication,it also points out that students are supposed to develop language skills through comprehensive language practice activities.Based on the process writing approach,cooperative learning theory and the zone of proximal development theory,peer feedback aims to promote students’ writing enthusiasm by communicating feedback on their peers’ composition,and gradually cultivate students’ learning autonomy and critical thinking competence.However,most of studies on peer feedback both at home and abroad take college students as their subjects,while few of them pay attention to its effects on students in senior high schools.Based on above backdrop,the author applies peer feedback to English writing classes in senior high school.Two research questions are addressed: 1)What are the students’ attitudes towards peer feedback in senior high school? 2)Does peer feedback have significant influence on the students’ English writing ability? If so,how does it work? The subjects of this research are two parallel classes of Grade two in Senior High school in Datong City,Shanxi Province.During the teaching process,the experimental class carries out peer feedback teaching,and the control class uses traditional teacher feedback teaching.The research instruments include tests,questionnaires and interviews.After the experiment,the author makes quantitative analysis on the test and questionnaire results by SPSS 22.0,and makes qualitative analysis and discussion on the interview results.After analysis and discussion,the author obtains the following results.Firstly,a large number of students hold positive attitudes towards peer feedback.Students are more willing to accept the approach of peer feedback to promote their writing interests and enthusiasm.Secondly,students’ writing ability has been improved.The post-test writing results of the experimental class are significantly higher than those of the control class,according to the results of questionnaire and interview,a majority of students have improved on the consistency of using language,accuracy of words,complexity of sentence structure,and the logic of text.Especially,students can accumulate the vocabulary widely and know how to use them in different ways,or find synonyms to express the same meaning;the use of grammar is also more flexible;the structure of the composition is clearer;students can employ what they have learned in their further writing.On the other hand,they can also use the conjunction correctly,thus the logic of writing is gradually closer.In addition,peer feedback facilitates students’ audience awareness and reflective ability,so that students’ critical thinking and autonomous learning can also be cultivated gradually.Therefore peer feedback has a positive effect on English writing in senior high schools.