Investigating the impact of peer feedback in foreign language writing

ABSTRACT

The present quasi-experimental study aimed at investigating the impact of trained and untrained peer feedback on students’ written comment types and writing quality. Significant differences were found in terms of comment types provided: trained students provided a significantly higher number of comments focused on organization and content (global aspects) than untrained students, who provided a significantly higher number of comments based on grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation (local aspects) than trained students. However, the results of the study showed no differences in terms of increased writing quality between the trained and untrained groups, with both groups showing significantly higher writing quality in the final draft as compared to the first draft.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative learning
• constructivist approaches
• foreign languages
• writing
• scaffoding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Laura Levi Altstaedter is Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies and Coordinator of the Foreign Language Teacher Education Program at East Carolina University. Her research focuses on peer feedback in foreign language writing, as well as on Co-teaching in the pre-service foreign language internship experience. She also investigates learners’ perceptions of studying foreign languages in a variety of instructional contexts.

Notes

1. In this study, training refers to the 30-minute session in which students in the Trained Group participated.