Criteria for successfully recruiting online peer-tutors in foreign languages

Abstract

Informal discussions with final-year undergraduates majoring in French as a foreign language in a Malaysian public university revealed that they lacked confidence in their language proficiency. We believed that they needed some form of recognition and therefore developed a model of online peer-tutoring. In this study, nine final-year learners were selected to become online peer-tutors for 18 second-year learners. This article explains the selection procedure and the peer-tutoring model implemented in a reading and writing course. It also reviews the selection criteria based on the analysis of the peer-tutors' performances during the tutoring. The data consists of the results from online participation monitoring, self-reflective questionnaires and surveys. The findings were congruent with current research on peer-tutoring and validated the selection criteria (i.e., quantity of messages, quality of contributions, linguistic proficiency and accuracy of objectives). The peer-tutoring model was well received and benefited all participants. Its implementation revealed some traits in the tutor-tutee relationship specific to the Malaysian context.

Keywords:

• online peer-tutoring
• foreign language learning
• French as a foreign language
• Asian learners