Chinese EFL learners’ perception of peer oral and written feedback as providers, receivers and observers

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the perception of Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students towards the written and oral peer feedback they provided, received and observed in triads during an English writing course. Sixty-nine sophomores in a Chinese university who participated in the course filled out a questionnaire; nine of them, whose oral peer feedback interaction was closely observed, attended a stimulated recall interview afterwards. Questionnaire results showed that students enjoyed providing and receiving oral and written feedback, as well as observing the peer feedback interaction between the other two peers in the group. However, they preferred to give positive oral feedback and receive negative written feedback. Receiving oral feedback was perceived as being more useful than offering it. Interview responses reveal the reasons behind these perceptions. Finally, pedagogical implications are drawn.

KEYWORDS:

• collaborative learning
• learner perceptions
• negative feedback
• peer feedback

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lili Tian

Dr. Lili Tian is an associate professor of School of Foreign Languages at Renmin University of China. She gained her doctoral degree from University of Oxford in 2009. Her research focuses on classroom codeswitching, language use, learner perception, vocabulary acquisition, and so on.

Li Li

Ms. Li Li is a graduate student at Renmin University of China researching second/foreign language writing.