Using peer feedback to improve students’ writing = Sử dụng phản hồi đồng đăng để nâng cao kỹ năng viết của học sinh

Therefore, to help teacher to decrease the overloaded work of marking students‟ papers and to make the process more effectively, one of the most effective ways of giving feedback on writ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DƯƠNG THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING PEER FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE

STUDENTS’ WRITING

SỬ DỤNG PHẢN ĐỒNG ĐẲNG ĐỂ NÂNG CAO

KỸ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DƯƠNG THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING PEER FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE

STUDENTS’ WRITING

SỬ DỤNG PHẢN HỒI ĐỒNG ĐẲNG ĐỂ NÂNG CAO

KỸ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Vũ Thị Thu Thuỷ, M.A

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements i

Declaration ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

Lists of tables, figures and appendices vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 The rationale of the study 1

2 Scope of the study 2

3 Aims of the study and research questions 2

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of feedback in students‟ writing 5

1.1.1 Definitions of feedback 5

1.1.2 Roles of feedback 5

1.1.3 Types of feedback 6

1.1.3.1 Teacher‟s feedback 6

1.1.3.2 Self-editing 7

1.1.3.3 Peer feedback 8

1.2 Previous studies on peer feedback and students‟ writing 10

Chapter 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Learning situation in writing class 13

2.2 Methodology 14

2.2.1 The participants 14

2.2.2 Instrumentation 15

2.2.3 Data collection procedure 15

2.2.4 Data analysis procedure 17

Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The current practice of students‟ peer feedback in writing 19

3.1.1 The use of articles 22

3.1.2 Punctuation 23

3.1.3 Prepositions 23

3.1.4 Word order 24

3.2 Improvement of students‟ writing after receiving peer feedback

25

3.3 Students‟ perceived difficulties when giving feedback to their peers‟ writings 28

3.3.1 Students‟ perceived difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peers‟ writings 28

3.3.2 Students‟ perceived difficulties in providing suggestions for the mistakes in their peers‟ writings 31

3.4 Implications for the teaching and learning of writing using peer feedback 33

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion 35

2 Limitations of the action research 36

3 Suggestions for further study 36

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Lists of tables

Table 1: Students’ feedback given by peers

Table 2: Examples of students’ giving peer feedback in sentence writing Table 3: Students’ improvement in the use of articles and punctuation after receiving peer written feedback

Table 4: Students’ improvement in prepositions and word order after receiving peer written feedback

Table 5: The students’ levels of difficulty in indicating the mistakes

Table 6: The students’ levels of difficulty in providing suggestions for the mistakes

Appendix 2: Criteria used to analyze the peer feedback on writing

Appendix 3: Symbols for correcting mistakes

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, education and training in Vietnam has tried to apply the latest methodology in teaching language skills in general and in teaching writing skills in particular in order to make language teaching and learning as effective as possible Hai Phong Community College (HPCC) is certainly not

an exception Since its establishment in 2000, HPCC has paid great attention

to English as one of the important subjects so that students after graduating should be able to use English confidently in their jobs and read documents written in English in their majors Therefore, all students at HPCC study English for 4 terms During these terms, they learn and practice the four basic

skills and some ESP lessons The textbooks such as New Cutting Egde - Elementary (Cunningham, Moor and Eales, 2005), New Cutting Egde - Pre- intermediate (Cunningham, Moor and Carr, 2005) are chosen as the materials

at HPCC The students share the same English course for all the four terms (each term includes 60 periods, 45minutes/period) and some ESP (English for specific purposes) for extra in each term In these four terms, students learn different skills, which are integrated in a module as organized in the textbooks However, writing skills are especially necessary for them

Each of the textbooks like that consists of fifteen modules with specific topic, vocabulary and grammar At the end of each lesson, students are usually asked to write a short paragraph of about 5 to 7 sentences based on the topic of the lesson to revise what they have learnt This writing not only helps students revise the vocabulary and grammar but also gives them a chance to get used to writing and expressing ideas in English However, in order to write a short paragraph like that writing correct sentences plays the crucial

role Thus, the importance of writing in general and the importance of sentence writing in particular is undeniable, yet, it places a heavy burden on teachers Besides that, each teacher at HPCC has responsibility to work with

at least 4 classes each term and there are about at least 40 to 80 students in each class A large amount of feedback from teachers is required Therefore,

to help teacher to decrease the overloaded work of marking students‟ papers and to make the process more effectively, one of the most effective ways of giving feedback on writing - peer feedback in sentence writing- was introduced And this study was carried out during the first term of 2011-2012

school year and the textbook is New Cutting Egde - Elementary (

Cunningham, Moor and Eales, 2005) with the first year students learning English at elementary level at HPCC who graduated from High School with English level of 7 years

2 Scope of the study

Feedback in writing is such a broad topic including teacher‟s feedback and peer feedback However, it is not my intention to cover both of them because of the time and the length of the study, only peer feedback in sentence writing skills among first year students learning English at

elementary level in the first semester at Hai Phong Community College

3 Aims of the study and research questions

The study is designed to investigate how peer feedback can be applied

to improve students‟ writing

In order to achieve this aim, the study attempts to answer the following questions:

1 How do students respond to their peers‟ writings?

2 How do students improve their writings after receiving peer feedback?

3 What are students‟ perceived difficulties when giving feedback to their peers‟ writings?

4 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the study proves that peer written feedback is crucial to the teaching and learning of writing Peer feedback in students‟ writing offers

a number of advantages Indeed, peer feedback gives both the readers and the writers more chances for collaboration, consideration and reflection than oral negotiation and debate It also gives the teacher a better chance of effectively following the progress of individuals and groups, both in terms of the feedback offered and revisions made

The study, practically, points out that using peer feedback not only eases the teachers‟ burden in giving feedback to students‟ writings but also helps students improve their writing skills Obviously, when students read their peers‟ writings, they not only help their peers recognize and correct the mistakes but also help themselves and become more critical writers

5 Methods of the study

An action research was conducted to carry out the study with qualitative features including document analysis and survey questionnaire to obtain adequate information for the study

First, document analysis of 210 students‟ drafts with peer written feedback was done to find out how students provide feedback to their peers‟ sentence writing Then, the students‟ first paragraphs were compared with their second one and third with fourth and all with fifth paragraphs (all these

paragraphs were given peer written feedback) to see whether the peer written feedback helps them improve their writings

Second, the survey was done on the 42 students who had given peer written feedback to find out the students‟ perceived difficulties in responding

to their peers‟ writing

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion The first part – Introduction gives reasons for choosing the topic, the aims, the methods of the study and the significance of the study It also narrows the scope of the study and briefly presents an overall out-line of the research study

The second part - Development is sub-divided into three chapters Chapter 1 is Literature review, in which the related literature is reviewed Chapter 2 - The study - describes in detail the research methodology which comprises the information of the learning situation, the participants, instrumentation, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3 - Results and Discussion - presents the analysis and discussion

of the data and then draws the implications for the teaching and learning of writing using peer written feedback

The last part - Conclusion - offers some suggestions, limitations and conclusion for the teaching and learning of writing using peer feedback

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of feedback in students’ writing

1.1.1 Definitions of feedback

Though there have been so far few attempts in the literature to define the term “feedback” in teaching writing skills, many researchers, such as Raimes (1983); Chaudron (1988); Ur (1996); Ellis (1985); Stemler (1997), seem to have reached a consensus of the nature and function of feedback Feedback, which can be inferred from the above researchers‟ point of views, has been traditionally identified as the teacher‟s response to the students, and motivated by some actions related to student‟s learning

Feedback is “any input from a reader to a writer with the effect of providing information to the writer for revision” - Keh (1990:294) In other words, when giving feedback, the reader gives the writer comments, questions and suggestions with an aim to help him/her revise the writing

1.1.2 Roles of feedback

Dheram (1995) and Brown (1988) agree that feedback seems to be central to the process of teaching and learning of writing Feedback in writing

is considered as an important aspect to develop students' language awareness

so that they can perform effectively in the writing classroom

Feedback, as for Zamel (1981), is most effective when it points out critical features of the language; gives information that allows the student „to discover by oneself‟ rules and principles of language; and reduces ambiguity

of choice for the learner

Lewis (2002) also pointed out that feedback is not only motivational factor but also provides students with information First, feedback provides information for both teachers and students It gives teachers information about individual and collective class progress and, indirectly, is a form of evaluation

on their own teaching For students, feedback is an ongoing form of assessment which is more focused than marks or grades In addition, feedback provides students with advice about learning That means not only descriptions of students‟ language use are provided simply but also comments can be made on students‟ learning processes Moreover, feedback provides students with language input Through feedback, students can learn new vocabulary and structures Besides, feedback is also a form of motivation when it encourages students to study and to use language to the best of their ability by taking into account whatever teachers know about students‟ attitudes Finally, feedback can lead students towards autonomy by leading students to the point where they can find their own mistakes

1.1.3 Types of feedback

A review on the literature on writing reveals three major areas of feedback as revision These areas are: teacher‟s feedback, self-editing and peer feedback

solve the assignments and in the difficulties previous learners encountered (Topping, 2003)

Teacher‟s feedback plays a very important role in enhancing students‟ achievement Obviously, it is the teachers who can give their students high-quality, focused, constructive feedback It is also the teachers who monitor and maintain students‟ performance and progress by moving through the class, assessing, suggesting, explaining, questioning, listening and commending students‟ writing

Beside that, teacher‟s feedback also has its own drawbacks Some studies showed that often teacher feedback is not “text specific”, can be incorrect, or may not address the issues that it intends to (Ferris, 2006; Reid, 1993) In addition, Caulk (1994) found that teacher feedback was quite

“general” Thus, it can be seen as “complementary”, as Berg (1999) and Chaudron (1984) note Moreover, other research suggests that there may be a

“mismatch” between the feedback that students want or expect and the feedback that is actually given (Ping, Pin, Wee, & Hwee Nah, 2003)

1.1.3.2 Self-editing

According to Raimes (1984:149), “What students really need more than anything else is to develop the ability to read their own writing and to examine it critically, to learn how to express their meaning fluently, logically, and accurately” Self-editing, in his opinion, means students need to be able to find and correct their own mistakes Thus, one of the crucial factors for students‟ success is students‟ attempt in language learning If a learner was aware of self-editing and tried to learn from his own failure, he would receive more chances of overcoming difficulties in learning than others who did not care for the reason why they failed Besides, self-editing also develops

students‟ critical skills to their own writing However, in order to help students to revise their own writings effectively, the teacher should provide students with correction codes to work with

1.1.3.3 Peer feedback

As mentioned above, peer feedback is considered to be a hotly debated topic And the term “peer feedback” is differently defined by various researchers, such as: (Hyland, 2005); Hansen and Liu (2005); Zainurrahman (2010); Topping (2009); Lewis (2002) However, these researchers seemed

to reach a consensus of the definition of “peer feedback”

According to Bartels (2004), peer feedback means feedback from your fellow students If one student is working on the same assignment as another student, peer feedback can mean exchanging drafts and comments on each other‟s drafts

Peer feedback is defined by Yang (Zeng, 2006) as feedback that is given by peer That means having other students to read and to give comments, corrections, criticisms, and suggestions on what other students have written

The significant advantages of peer feedback have been realized and widely acknowledged by language researchers and tearchers as well Through studies and practice, not only students but also teachers take advandges of peer feedback

For students, when using peer feedback on writing, firstly, they “can and do revise effectively” on the basis of comments from their peers - Rollinson (2005) It also may be that becoming a critical reader of others‟ writing may make students more critical readers and revisers of their own writing Secondly, the peers will let the writer (student) know if his/her

message was effective, and will encourage the writer to formulate his/her writing in line with the characteristics and demands of the readers Thirdly, the peers are also potentially more sympathetic and provides instant feedback than the teachers Furthermore, peer written feedback also changes students‟ role in the class As Jacobs (1989) says that with the teacher feedback, the students‟ role is limited to producing writing which will be read and evaluated solely by the teacher In contrast, peer feedback on writing broadens students‟ involvement by giving them the additional roles of reader and advisor to go with that of writer Finally, Keh (1990) also discovered that when students read the writings of their peers, they can find out their mistakes and at the same time, this helps to remind them to avoid and correct such mistakes

For teachers, when using peer feedback on writing, their time may be saved by eliminating certain editing tasks, especially in large classes, thus freeing them for more helpful instructions and guidance (Rollinson, 2005) Peer feedback on writing also gives the teacher a better chance of closely following the progress of individuals and groups (Rollinson, 2005) First, peer written feedback helps teachers check if students are giving the proper type of feedback and can provide actual examples of positive and negative feedback, which is difficult to do with accuracy and depth in oral feedback Second, when writing assignments are turned in accompanied by the previous draft(s) and the peers' comments, it is easier for the teacher to ascertain which ideas originated with the student author and how well the student was able to respond to and incorporate the feedback and suggestions from peers, something that would not even be possible with oral feedback

However, it is said that every coin has two sides, peer feedback is not

an exception Against those enthusiastic claims and generally positive findings, the only thing that makes peer feedback difficult to be applied in

many writing classes is the time constraints In fact, the peer written feedback usually consists of reading a draft (probably more than one), making notes, then write the comments, or engaging orally with the writer in a feedback circle All these stages will certainly consume a significant amount of time

In sum, there are a number of reasons why many teachers have chosen

to use peer feedback on writing in the ESL writing classroom because of its many advantages above And from these advantages, peer feedback on writing can be very useful in a wide variety of classes with students of different levels Peer feedback on writing can also be valuable in classes where improving speaking skills is just as important as improving writing skills Overall, this technique can be instrumental in helping students understand the process of writing and become independent thinkers and writers

1.2 Previous studies on peer feedback and students’ writing

Many researches have been implemented to find out whether peer feedback has impact on students‟ writing and there have been many various results Every researcher has given his/her evidence to support his/her arguments about this matter

In the article “Using peer feedback in the ESl writing class”, ELT Journal, 59(1), pp.23-29, Rollinson (2005) brieftly summarized some of the main arguments in favor and against peer feedback He points out many advantages of peer feedback on writing with illustrated figures and these are the reasons why teachers have chosen to use peer feedback in the ESL writing classroom Beside many avandtages of peer feedback, he also points out some drawbacks when using peer feedback and the suggested ways to limit these drawbacks by explaining how teachers can establish a positive context for

effective peer group response by organising proper procedures and training, such as: (a) properly setting up the groups and establishing effective procedures, b) adequate training, that is, coaching students in the principles and practices of effective peer group interaction and response.Then he determines that only if the class is adequately set-up and trained can the benefits of the peer feedback activity be fully realized, and even so when using peer feedback, teachers should take considerations of students‟ age, cultural background, class size, and interlanguage level which may affect the whole outcomes significantly

According to Durham, Ph D., Department of Middle Grades, Secondary and Special Education, School of Education, Fayettevilie State University, peer evaluation is considered as an Active Learning Technique in the writing classroom (as in the article “Peer Evaluation as an Active Learning Technique” Journal of Instructional Psyctiology, Vol 32, No.4) She implemented an action research during the fall of 2003 to determine the impact of using peers in the evaluation of a partial research paper In general, through her studies, peer feedback (peer evaluation) is proved to be another very effective way to evaluate student research papers The students are allowed to make corrections and revisions that were from their peers rather than the teacher In addition, peer feedback gave the students a chance to defend their research design and statements that they had written Finally, peer feedback also allowed the teacher an opportunity to evaluate their skills

as evaluators

Another study “Effects of Peer Feedback on EFL Student Writers at Different Levels of English Proficiency: A Japanese Context” (TESL Canada Journal, Vol 23, No 2, Spring 2006) was conducted by Kamimura to explore the nature and effectiveness of peer feedback in EFL writing classrooms His

participants in the study were both high- and low-proficient Japanese EFL

learners The students exchanged comments with their peers after receiving

training in peer feedback They were divided into two groups (A and B) of 12

Japanese university freshmen who majored in English The students' levels of

English proficiency were graded by a commercially available proficiency test

called General Tests of English Language Proficiency (G-TELP, Level 3 of

the test of used in the present study, with Level 1 being the highest and Level

4 the lowest) The test comprised three sections (listening, grammar and

vocabulary, and reading) with a total mark of 300 points In this study, the

students in A Class and B Class were regarded as high-proficient and

low-proficient respectively The students were compared in terms of their pre- and

post-tests, original drafts and rewrites, peer comments, and responses to the

comments It was found that peer feedback had overall positive effects on the

compositions for both the high- and low-profícient students, with different

patterns observed in the relationship between the comments and revisions that

characterized the two groups

In short, there have been many other researchers studying, practising and recognizing the advantages of peer feedback on writing All of them points out different strong points and weak points of the use of peer feedback on writing However, the advantages over the limitations of peer feedback on writing are obviously undeniable

Chapter 2: THE STUDY

2.1 Learning situation in writing class

As have been mentioned previously, all students at Hai Phong Community College (HPCC) share the same course for all the four terms

They study New Cutting Edge – Elementary (Cunningham, Moor and Eales, 2005) in the first and second term, and New Cutting Edge – Pre-intermediate (Cunningham, Moor and Carr, 2005) in the third and forth term

The students share the same English course for all the four terms (each term includes 60 periods, 45minutes/period) and some ESP for extra in each term In these four terms, students learn different skills, which are integrated

in a module as organized in the textbooks However, writing skills are especially necessary for them

Each of the textbooks like that consists of twelve modules (and three modules are optional) with specific topic, vocabulary and grammar At the end of each lesson, students are usually asked to write a short paragraph of about 5 to 7 sentences based on the topic of the module to revise what they have learnt This writing not only helps students revise the vocabulary and grammar but also gives them a chance to get used to writing and expressing ideas in English

Then, the paragraphs are handed to the teachers who make comments and give grades to the writings In general, students, upon receiving their paragraphs checked, tend to focus on the grade given to the text and put it away, paying little attention to the meticulous comments provided by the teacher Although teachers have to spend a lot of time marking students‟ writings, the comments that the teachers make are not very useful to motivate

students and help them improve their writing skills The writing tasks are just

a burden on them and they do the tasks quite unwillingly

Therefore, the study was carried out in the first term of the course,

students studied the first six modules of the textbook New Cutting Edge – Elementary (Cunningham, Moor and Eales, 2005) Because of the limitted

time and the contents of the language teaching, 4 aspects of mistakes were chosen to teach: the use of articles, prepositions, punctuation and word order

2.2 Methodology

There are many methods to carry out a research such as: case study, survey research, experimental research, ethnographic research Howerver, an action research was implemented to investigate how peer feedback can be applied to improve students‟ writing

Therefore, this section presents the participants, instrumentation and data collection procedure, and data analysis procedure

2.2.1 The participants

The participants chosen for the study are 42 students from one of my

classes who are studying with the New Cutting Edge – Elementary in their

first term The teacher of this class is also the author of this paper Actually, it

is difficult to select a random sample of individuals due to the large number of students Therefore, instead of randomly selecting individuals, the author randomly selected the class for teaching In this case, it is convenient for the investigator to observe the participants to give feedback to each other‟s paper

as well as complete the questionnaire in class More importantly, this class has been assigned with a relatively equal proportion of good, average, and

poor English proficiency students and there are both males and females Therefore, the result would be more objective

2.2.2 Instrumentation

In this study, in order to obtain adequate data for the study, two main instruments were used They were documents analysis of students‟ peer feedback on writing and the survey questionnaire for students

Documents analysis of students’ peer feedback

The students in the first term have to study the first six modules of the

New Cutting Edge – Elementary with six different topics such as food,

personal attitudes and qualities, leisure and fitness activities, etc However, the students in this term have to complete five writing tasks Then, the author collected 42 writing sheets with peer feedback on writing provided by the students themselves in each writing task There were five writing tasks, so, there were 210 writing sheets in total The presentation and analysis of the written feedback were carried out to obtain the most truthful information concerning the current practice of peer feedback on writing which were provided by the students learning English at HPCC at elementary level In addition, this presentation and analysis of the written feedback given by peers were implemented to find out what benefits of the feedback the students get

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

The study was carried out in the first term of the course with the first year elementary students At the beginning of the term, students had taken a written exam including writing a short paragraph (7-10 sentences) following the given topics The exam was used to test students‟ level that helped the

teacher have an overview of students‟ English ability After that, students

started studying the first six modules of the textbook New Cutting Edge – Elementary (Cunningham, Moor and Eales, 2005) Because of the limitted

time and the contents of the language teaching, four aspects of mistakes were chosen to teach: the use of articles, prepositions, punctuation and word order The students were asked to write a short paragraph as homework after they had finished each module to revise the vocabulary and the grammar In the following class, the teacher first trained the students the way to give peer written feedback using symbols to show the kind of mistakes with carefully explained criteria In addition, the teacher also reminded the students of the aim of the peer written feedback, how to give comments and to provide suggestions to correct the mistakes in their peers‟ writings Actually, students were provided with a list of commonly used symbols which were presented in the appendix 2 and they were all familiar with those symbols The students were encouraged to provide suggestions that they think are correct for the mistakes indicated Then, the teacher asked students to swap their paragraphs basing on her different diagrams in which she paired her students on the criteria of students‟ English ability such as very good - good, good - fairly good, fairly good - average so that students can help together In the next step, the teacher asked students to choose two sentences in their peers‟ paragraphs to give feedback Students were asked to read the paragraphs silently, taking notes and giving feedback to their peers‟ writings Finally, the students were given the opportunity to make changes or to rewrite their text before handing it into the teacher The teacher then collected all the students‟ writing sheets which were given peer feedback

The process was carried out through students‟ five paragraphs The students were asked to write the first paragraph after finishing the first two

modules and the second paragraph after module three Students were asked to choose two sentences in each paragraph and to give peer written feedback for the same aspects of the use of articles and punctuation in the first and second paragraph

The teacher asked students to write the fourth paragraph after module four and the fifth one after module five Students were asked to choose two sentences in each paragraph and to give peer written feedback for the same aspects of preposition and word order in the fourth and fifth paragraph

Students were asked to write the last paragraph after they had finished module

6 This time, the teacher asked students to give peer written feedback for all aspects of the use of articles, punctuation, prepositions and word order for all the sentences in the paragraph

The students‟ drafts contained written feedback in sentence writing provided by their peers were examined, analyzed and compared

The next stage was the questionnaire for students 42 sheets of the questionnaire were distributed to the elementary students at the end of the term and returned in full To make sure that all students understood the questions properly, the researcher also gave students careful explanation if there were something required that were unclear or confused

2.2.4 Data analysis procedure

Firstly, the analysis of the peer feedback on students‟ writing was done

on 210 writings basing on 5 writing tasks in order to investigate the current practice of peer written feedback giving among elementary students at HPCC

Secondly, it is necessary to compare the students‟ first paragraph to their second one and third to fourth and all to fifth paragraph (all these

paragraphs were given peer written feedback) to see whether the peer written feedback helps them improve their writings

Finally, the analysis of the survey questionnaire was also done to find out the students‟ perceived difficulties in giving peer written feedback to their peers‟ writings

Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 The current practice of students’ peer feedback in writing

When giving sentence peer written feedback to their peers‟ writing, the students were guided to focus on the four main aspects of giving sentence feedback They are the use of articles, punctuation, prepositions and word order Therefore, this part only discusses the way students gave feedback in

terms of the four aspects above

Types of

mistakes

The total number of mistakes

The number

of mistakes indicated

The number

of correct suggestions

The number of incorrect suggestions The use of

Table 1: Students’ feedback given by peers

The table 1 above shows that the total of mistakes of the four types were 145, 74 of which were indicated by the students accounting for 51% However, the percentage of the indicated mistakes in each type is not equal The number of mistakes related to the use of articles is the greatest (49) and it seems quite difficult for students to indicate (47%) Punctuation mistakes seem not difficult for students to indicate and they have the greatest percentage of the indicated mistakes (70%) The percentage of indicated

mistakes related to prepositions is a little lower than all of the other types (38%) Thus, preposition mistakes seem to be the most difficult for students to indicate and provide suggestions The mistakes related to word order also seems not difficult for students to indicate and 62% of the mistakes were indicated (15 out of 24 mistakes)

Having a look at the correctness of the suggestions which the students provide, the figures in the table 1 also show that there were a total of 59 suggestions, 34 of which were correct, making up 46% The percentage of correct suggestions for mistakes related to punctuation, prepositions and word order are the same (47%) while the percentage of correct suggestions for mistakes related to the use od articles is the lower with 43% These figures prove that peer feedback is rather useful as to some extent it helps students improve their sentence writings in general and their grammar in particular