A Study Of Teacher-instructed Peer Feedback Mechanism And Its Effects On Senior High School English Writing

Writing provides a full reflection of students’ language skills.Since the introduction of the process approach,an integrated teaching concept of teaching,learning and evaluation,and their application in English writing teaching,writing feedback has attracted the attention of researchers both at home and abroad.Peer feedback has been a topic of general interest for a decade,and a large number of researchers have investigated the integration of peer feedback with English writing teaching,but their research is limited to university levels and the effects of research at the senior high school level are debatable.At present,feedback in senior high school English writing is primarily based on teacher feedback,with a relatively single feedback mode.Because senior high school students have a lower level of cognition than college students,the instruction of teachers in the feedback process is especially important.In light of this,this study combines the current situation of senior high school English writing teaching to construct a teacher-instructed peer feedback mechanism to assist students in peer feedback activities,intending to improve students’ English writing levels and broaden feedback channels.This study primarily addresses the following two questions:（1）How does teacher instruction influence students’ peer feedback?（2）What are the effects of the teacher-instructed peer feedback mechanism on students’ written performance?This four-month study is conducted in a naturalistic setting of two parallel classes in a senior high school in Guangdong Province involving sixty-four participants,who are divided into an experimental class and a control class.To complete writing evaluation activities,the experimental class implements teacher-instructed peer feedback,while the control class uses traditional teacher feedback.Simultaneously,relevant data are collected through tests,questionnaires,interviews,and reflective texts,which are organized and analyzed to draw research conclusions.The results show that:（1）teacher instruction plays a positive role in guiding students’ feedback processes and,to a certain extent,can change their perceptions of peer feedback activities,influence their feedback behaviors,and improve the quality of feedback and the efficiency of the activities;（2）the teacher-instructed peer feedback mechanism can broaden students’ access to feedback,enabling them to benefit from their peers’ compositions and comments and thus improve their English written performance.It can be seen that the teacher-instructed peer feedback mechanism have a positive impact on senior high school students’ English writing and help them improve their English writing level.The process and the results of the study may contribute to some implications for the implementation of teacher-instructed peer feedback in senior high school English writing teaching.Some suggestions for further research are also presented.