Abstract：The use of peer teaching strategies has already been supported by general theories of language learning, principles of cooperative learning, the cognitive process theory of writing, and theories of second language acquisition. In order to identify students’ beliefs, expectations and attitudes in regard to the value of peer feedback on their writing, this paper presents a research in a real academic writing classroom in UCLA. Apart from the successful practice of peer feedback in the classroom, the author found some negative views of peer response from the qualitative and quantitative analysis. This study demonstrates that peer feedback is an effective way to improve students’ critical thinking as well as process writing quality, and provide some pedagogical implications for teachers to improve the quality of peer feedback and figure out an integrated method in applying both teacher feedback and peer feedback to writing class and make every student engage in these activities.

Key words: ESL writing; process writing; peer feedback;teacher feedback

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature review 2

3. Research design 4

3.1 Classroom observation 5

3.2 The Teacher 6

3.3 The Students 6

4. Findings 7

4.1 Findings in classroom observation 7

4.2 Findings in questionnaire 7

4.3 Findings in interviews 12

4.4 Findings in reflective journals 14

5. Conclusions and implications 15

5.1 Successful feedback strategies 15

5.2 Some suggestions for improvement 15

5.3 Summary 16

Acknowledgements 18

References 19

Appendix I 20

Appendix II 22

Appendix III 23

1. Introduction

Writing is a system for interpersonal communication using various styles of language(Jalaludin, 2011). It plays a fundamental role in our personal and professional lives. As the writingprocess approach has changed the way of teaching writing from students' final products to theprocess of writing, peer feedback has come to take an important part in writing instruction. Traditionally, teachers are only one who has high knowledge to provide feedback to students'writing. But nowadays, peer feedback has been known as a critical technique for improvingstudents' writing all around the world. A growing body of research has recommended the useof peer feedback because of its social, cognitive, and affective benefits (Hinkel, 2004;Lundstorm& Baker, 2009; Min, 2008; Pol et al., 2008; and, Storch, 2004). Indeed, goodfeedback helps students understand their subject area and gives them clear guidance on howto improve their learning (Orsmond et al., 2013). Unlike teachers’ feedback, whose forms are clearly classified, either conference or written feedback, peer feedback possesses different kinds of forms.

This paper intends to gain a better understanding of peer feedback through different forms by analyzing a case study of ESL25: academic writing class in UCLA, which is based on the author’s experience in UCLA as an exchange student last summer.

In order to examine how peer feedback works in pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing stage, the impact of peer feedback on students writing process, and the problems students may encounter through peer interaction, the author made questionnaires, took class observation and interviews, and collected reflective journals to analyze the result.

2. Literature review

Process Writing

The emergence of process writing in the field of ESL in the early 1980s has been well documented. As its name suggests, it is characterized by a shift in focus from the final product to the process of achieving the final product (Matsuda, 2003; Myers, 1997; Tribble, 1996). The process approach has many advantages, including developing student autonomy and evaluative skills by fostering students’ sense of ownership and responsibility for revising their own work (Wakabayashi, 2008). In addition, the emphasis of process over product has prompted a change in attitudes towards evaluation and assessment (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004-2005; Wada, 2006).