The effects of facebook based peer comments on non english major students writing quality at hcms university of science ma

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE THE EFFECTS OF FACEBOOK-BASED PEER COMMENTS ON NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ WRITING QUALITY AT HCMC UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By LƯƠNG THỊ KIM PHỤNG Supervised by Assoc Prof Dr PHẠM VŨ PHI HỔ HO CHI MINH CITY, DECEMBER 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Pham Vu Phi Ho, Vice-President of Van Hien University, who was always willing to spend his precious time answering my questions and offering me valuable advice on my thesis His passion and broad knowledge about EFL research are a source of inspiration for me to accomplish my thesis I am much obliged to Mr Nguyen Dinh Huy, Vice Academic Advisor, for allowing me to experiment with the students at HCMC University of Science Also, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the students who participated in the present study; without their effective participation, I could not have finished my thesis I am grateful to my friend Nguyen Thi Lien for proofreading my writing My thesis would not be as good without her help Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my family for their support during the months I worked on this thesis I owe my deepest thanks to my father, who is always supporting my studies and watching over me I STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled THE EFFECTS OF FACBOOK-BASED PEER COMMENTS ON NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ WRITING QUALITY AT HCMC UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE in terms of the statement of the requirements for the Theses in Master’s program issued by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institutions Ho Chi Minh City, February 2019 LUONG THI KIM PHUNG II RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Luong Thi Kim Phung, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan, or reproduction of the thesis Ho Chi Minh City, February 2019 LUONG THI KIM PHUNG III TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES ABSTRACT CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.1.1 EFL non-English majors’ writing problems 1.1.2 Writing teachers’ problems 10 1.1.3 Peer comments in L2 writing teaching 11 1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 14 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 14 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 14 1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 15 1.6 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS 15 1.7 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS 16 CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 18 2.1 APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING 18 2.1.1 Product approach to writing 18 2.1.2 Process approach to writing 19 2.1.3 Genre- approach to writing 20 2.2 OTHER THEORIES UNDERPINNING PEER COMMENT ACTIVITIES 21 2.2.1 Collaborative learning theory 22 2.2.2 Vygotskian Zone of Proximal Development 22 2.2.3 Interactionist theory of L2 acquisition 23 2.3 PEDAGOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF PEER COMMENT ACTIVITIES 24 2.3.1 Traditional peer comment activities 25 2.3.1.1 Benefits of traditional peer comment activities 25 2.3.1.2 Constraints of traditional peer comment activities 26 2.3.2 Computer-mediated peer comment activities 27 2.3.2.1 Benefits of computer-mediated peer comment activities 28 2.3.2.2 Constraints of computer-mediated peer comment activities 29 2.3.2.3 Studies on computer-mediated peer comment activities (2003-2018) 30 2.4 THE APPLICATION OF FACEBOOK IN EFL WRITING CLASS 38 2.4.1 Pedagogical rationale for utilizing Facebook as a platform in an EFL writing class 38 2.4.2 Previous research about the application of Facebook as a platform for peer comment activities in EFL writing classes 39 2.5 RESEARCH GAPS 44 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 46 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 46 3.2 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 48 3.3 PARTICIPANTS 50 3.4 PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY 53 3.4.1 Teaching materials 53 3.4.2 Teaching method 55 3.4.3 Training in peer commenting activities 56 3.4.3.1 Assigning students to peer commenting groups 56 3.4.3.2 Designing “Guidelines for peer comments” 58 3.4.3.3 Training students to give peer comments based on “guidelines for peer comments” 60 3.4.3.4 The Writing Cycle of the Training 64 3.5 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 65 3.5.1 Tests 67 3.5.2 Scoring rubric 68 3.5.3 Inter-rating students’ writing 69 3.5.4 Revision analysis rubric 71 3.5.5 Feature “Compare two versions of a document” of Microsoft Word 72 3.5.6 Questionnaire for the experimental group 73 3.5.7 Semi-structured interview 77 3.6 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE 78 3.6.1 Administering pre-test 78 3.6.2 Collecting students’ drafts and peer comments from three writing assignments 79 3.6.3 Administering Post-test 79 3.6.4 Administering online Questionnaire 79 3.6.5 Conducting semi-structured-interview 80 3.7 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE 81 3.7.1 Research question 1: 81 3.7.2 Research question 2: To what extent the students incorporate Facebook-based peer comments into revision? 82 3.7.3 Research question 3: What are students’ attitudes toward the use of Facebook-based peer comment activities in studying writing? 83 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 84 4.1 RESEARCH QUESTION 84 4.1.1 Analysis of data 84 4.1.2 Discussion of results 88 4.2 RESEARCH QUESTION 90 4.2.1 Analysis of data 90 4.2.2 Discussion of results 92 4.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 94 4.3.1 Analysis of data 94 4.3.2 Discussion of results 104 4.4 SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS 106 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 108 5.1 CONCLUSION 108 5.2 PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR EFL WRITING INSTRUCTION 109 5.3 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 111 5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 111 REFERENCES 113 APPENDICES 119 APPENDIX A: GUIDELINES FOR PEER COMMENTING 119 APPENDIX B: WRITING TASKS FOR PRACTICE 120 APPENDIX C: WRITING TASKS FOR PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST 123 APPENDIX D: SCORING RUBRIC 126 APPENDIX E.1: QUESTIONNAIRE 128 APPENDIX E.2: BẢNG KHẢO SÁT 131 APPENDIX F: DATA CODING EXPLANATIONS AND EXAMPLES 135 APPENDIX G.1: QUESTIONS OF THE SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS 136 APPENDIX G.2: CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN SINH VIÊN 137 APPENDIX H.1: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 139 APPENDIX H.2: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 143 APPENDIX H.3: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 146 APPENDIX H.4: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 149 APPENDIX H.5: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 152 APPENDIX H.6: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 155 APPENDIX I: THE FACEBOOK GROUP INTERFACE 158 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Demographical Information of Participants 52 Table 3.2 New Cutting-Edge writing skills section Modules 9-15 54 Table 3.3 The link between research questions, instruments, and data analysis methods 66 Table 3.4 Interraters’ Pearson Correlation coefficient 70 Table 3.5 Revision analysis rubric 72 Table 3.6 Description of the questionnaire content 74 Table 3.7 Reliability Statistics 76 Table 4.1 Independent Samples t-test 85 Table 4.2 Paired Samples t-test 86 Table 4.3 Paired Samples t-test 87 Table 4.4 Independent Samples t-test 88 Table 4.5 Revisions from 1st versions to 2nd versions 90 Table 4.6 Descriptive statistics - Students’ attitudes toward Facebook based peer comment activities 95 Table 4.7 Descriptive statistics - Questionnaire for students’ attitudes toward Facebook based peer comment activities 97 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Research Design (Adapted from Creswell, 2009) 48 Figure 3.2 An example of how students were supposed to give comments on Facebook 61 Figure 3.3 Procedures of peer comment and teacher comment activities (24/2/2017- 2/6/2017) 62 Figure 3.4 The writing cycle for each writing assignment of both groups 65 Figure 3.5 The layout of the function “Compare two versions of a document” in Microsoft Word 73 Figure 3.6 An overview of the data collection procedure 78 Student 2: On reading my friends’ writing, I pointed out this mistakes in their writing, and I could learn from their mistakes as a result In addition, I could learn more knowledge of English and the requirements of the writing assignments thanks to negotiating with my friends about the mistakes in their writing Interviewer: Did the fact that you had to post your writing on Facebook make you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 2: If you had marked my writing on Facebook, I would have paid more attention to the quality of my writing Interviewer: Suppose there were two cases: (1) you had to hand in your writing only to your teacher for giving comments, (2) you posted your writing on a Facebook group for both your teachers and peers to give comments; in which case would you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 2: In the former case I would pay more attention to the quality of my writing because in that case, I would be officially forced to hand in a writing assignment If I handed in my writing to you, you might not mark my writing; however, because I was not sure whether you would carry out any assessment on my writing abilities based on my writing, I focused more on the quality of my writing Interviewer: Was it convenient to provide comments on your peers’ writing on Facebook? Student 2: It was convenient to provide comments over Facebook Still, because there was no absolute time restriction, not many people seriously got involved in the activities Interviewer: Was it motivated to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 2: Little was I motivated to the activities I was lazy so I did not post highquality writing on the group However, the activities were interesting The problem was that I was too lazy to fully take part in the activities If I had effectively participated in the activities, I would definitely have benefited a lot from it 144 Interviewer: So, if I had marked all your posts, would you have paid more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 2: Yes, I would Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities helped you to improve your writing? Student 2: These activities did not help me much because I did no put effort into studying English, which is a minor subject in my study program If I had taken part in these activities seriously, I might have positively affected on my writing ability Interviewer: In brief, you think that Facebook based peer comment activities helped you to improve your writing? Student 2: Yes, I Interviewer: Did your peers’ comments help you to revise your writing? Student 2: In the previous course, my peers did not comment on my writing Only the teacher commented on my writing Interviewer: When you revised your writing, did your incorporate the teacher’s comments into revision, or you just revised your writing based on your own ideas? Student 2: The teacher’s comments were really useful to me They helped me to realize the errors I made in my writing On revising my writing, I incorporated the teacher’s comments into revision and also produced new ideas to add to my writing I also got ideas from reading my peer’s writing Interviewer: Did you face any issues when taking part in this Facebook based peer comment activities? If so, what were the issues? Student 2: I did not face any issues when doing these activities Interviewer: Thank you very much 145 APPENDIX H.3: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT General description Date: 16 June, 2017 Participants: Student 3, Interviewer Text transcript Interviewer: Good morning! I will ask you a few questions about Facebook based peer comment activities In addition to answering my questions, you can also share your own ideas about these activities I hope you will honestly answer all my questions Were you interested in Facebook-based peer comment activities? Why or why not? Student 3: Good morning Miss I find these activities highly practical Interviewer: So, were you interested in Facebook-based peer comment activities? Student 3: Yes, I was I prefer your English class to other classes Facebook-based activities made your course less boring compared with other English courses Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities were helpful to you? Student 3: To me the activities were not very effective because we the students did not actually write the emails We usually either put our Vietnamese emails in Google Translate and have Google translate them into English or plagiarized the emails from the Internet in order to earn scores Interviewer: Did you benefit from reading your peers’ writing and comments on the Facebook group? Student 3: Yes, I did It helped me in revising my first drafts better Interviewer: Did you benefit from giving comments to your peers? 146 Student 3: Proofreading my friends’ writing is like reading my own writing It helped me learn from my friends’ mistakes it is also a chance for me to check my knowledge of English Interviewer: Did the fact that you had to post your writing on Facebook make you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 3: Yes, that partly made me pay more attention to the quality of my writing Interviewer: Suppose there were two cases: (1) you had to hand in your writing only to your teacher for giving comments, (2) you posted your writing on a Facebook group for both your teachers and peers to give comments; in which case would you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 3: I would pay the same attention to the quality of my writing in both cases Interviewer: Was it motivated to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 3: Yes, it surely was It was because giving comments over Facebook using laptops or smartphones was much more convenient than writing up a comment on a piece of paper Interviewer: Was it motivated to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 3: In fact, I was not very motivated to post my writing on Facebook mainly because I was lazy Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities helped you to improve your writing? Student 3: Yes, I Every time a mistake was pointed out, I made an effort not to commit that mistake again Interviewer: Did your peers’ comments help you to revise your writing? 147 Student 3: I found the teacher’s comments more helpful than my peers’ comments My peers’ comments were rarely useful and I guessed they commented on writing just because the teacher asked them to (They did the job without enthusiasm.) Interviewer: When you revised your writing, did your incorporate your peers’ comments into revision, or you just revised your writing based on your own ideas? Student 3: I incorporated both my peers’ comments and my ideas into revision Interviewer: Did you face any issues when taking part in this Facebook based peer comment activities? If so, what were the issues? Student 3: I think conducting these activities made the course more interesting than traditional course I did not meet any difficulties; in contrast, I found the course less burdensome because I could post my writing and comment on my peers’ writing any time before the deadline I usually finished my tasks a couple of days before the deadline Interviewer: Thank you very much 148 APPENDIX H.4: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT General description Date: 16 June, 2017 Participants: Student 4, Interviewer Text transcript Interviewer: Good morning! I will ask you a few questions about Facebook based peer comment activities In addition to answering my questions, you can also share your own ideas about these activities I hope you will honestly answer all my questions Were you interested in Facebook-based peer comment activities? Why or why not? Student 4: Yes, I was pretty interested in the activities Every time a post or a comment was posted on the Facebook group, I received a notification of it from Facebook This notification reminded me of the written assignment, which was helpful to me because I was sometimes forgetful of home assignments At no time did I forget to the writing assignments thanks to notifications from Facebook Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities were helpful to you? Student 4: The activities were incredibly helpful to me In a few first emails that I wrote, I wrote very simple functional sentences But when reading my peers’ emails, I found that they used advanced sentence structures, which I knew but rarely used; I learned the high-level sentence structures and styles from my peers to improve my writing skills as a result Interviewer: Did you benefit from reading your peers’ writing and comments on the Facebook group? If so, what were the benefits? If not, why not? 149 Student 4: Yes I did The benefit I got was that my mistakes were pointed out and I learned from my mistakes Interviewer: Did you benefit from giving comments to your peers? Student 4: To me, commenting on my peers’ writing was just like proofreading their writing for their sake I obtained no benefits from it Interviewer: Did the fact that you had to post your writing on Facebook make you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 4: Yes, it did I tried to write coherent and cohesive emails in order to receive positive comments from my peers Interviewer: Suppose there were two cases: (1) you had to hand in your writing only to your teacher for giving comments, (2) you posted your writing on a Facebook group for both your teachers and peers to give comments; in which case would you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 4: In the latter case I would pay more attention to the quality of my writing Interviewer: Was it motivated to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 4: Yes, it was motivated to post my writing on Facebook because the activities helped me a lot Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities helped you to improve your writing? Student 4: Yes, the activities gave me a chance to learn new things from my peers In the traditional way there is just a two-way interaction between the teacher and students; however, with these activities incorporated in the course, I had a chance to interact with a lot of peers in class and with the teacher, I could write better as a result Interviewer: Did your peers’ comments help you to revise your writing? 150 Student 4: Yes, they did since peers’ comments on grammar and sentence structures helped me revise my sentences Interviewer: When you revised your writing, did your incorporate your peers’ comments into revision, or you just revised your writing based on your own ideas? Student 4: I revised my friends’ writing based on my peers’ comments because their comments were better than my ideas Interviewer: Did you face any issues when taking part in this Facebook based peer comment activities? If so, what were the issues? Student 4: No, I didn’t Interviewer: Thank you very much 151 APPENDIX H.5: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT General description Date: 16 June, 2017 Participants: Student 5, Interviewer Text transcript Interviewer: Good morning! I will ask you a few questions about Facebook based peer comment activities In addition to answering my questions, you can also share your own ideas about these activities I hope you will honestly answer all my questions Were you interested in Facebook-based peer comment activities? Why or why not? Student 5: I enjoyed posting my writing on Facebook but I think peer comment activities were not effective because my friends could not realize the mistakes that I usually made and vice versa; so I find these activities not practical It was not until you (the teacher) commented on our writing that the activities worked As for posting our writing on Facebook, I think it is a good way to hand in our writing assignments because we the students can decide when to hand in the assignments before the deadline In addition, if we don’t understand the teacher’s requirements for the assignment, we can have a look at our friends’ posts on Facebook to figure them out and make sure we meet the requirements That’s why I think students posting their own writing assignments on Facebook is a good thing Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities were helpful to you? Student 5: I think peer comment activities were beneficial Still, my friends’ level of English was low, their comments were not correct Interviewer: Did you benefit from reading your peers’ writing and comments on the Facebook group? If so, what were the benefits? 152 If not, why not? Student 5: Yes, I did It was because I sometimes made mistakes in language use After reading my friends’ emails, I could realize my mistakes and write better emails Interviewer: Did you benefit from giving comments to your peers? Student 5: On giving comments on my peers’ writing, I could avoid the mistakes that my peers made Interviewer: Did the fact that you had to post your writing on Facebook make you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 5: Yes, it did Some posted low quality emails Meanwhile, others posted high-quality emails, from which I learned a lot After I wrote a not-so-good first draft, I learned from my peers’ emails and tried to edit my first email in order to post a better version of my email on the Facebook group Interviewer: Suppose there were two cases: (1) you had to hand in your writing only to your teacher for giving comments, (2) you posted your writing on a Facebook group for both your teachers and peers to give comments; in which case would you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 5: If I posted on writing on Facebook, I would pay more attention to the quality of my writing because more people would read it and it could help a lot of peers What’s more, when a student posts his writing on Facebook, the mistakes in his writing can be pointed out right away by his peers and corrected right after that by the author of the writing In contrast, if a student hands in his writing to his teacher, the mistakes he makes are either usually not corrected right away or not corrected since teachers tend to correct only mistakes made by a majority of students I think posting our writing on Facebook is a better way because when posted my writing on Facebook, both the teacher and peers can read my writing, but when handing in my writing to the teacher, only the teacher reads my writing 153 Interviewer: Was it convenient to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 5: Yes, it was highly convenient because almost all the class members have a Facebook account and a smartphone to log in Facebook any time they want Interviewer: Was it motivated to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 5: Not really I’m not really into studying English, but just because I thought the ability to write an email in English is essential for my future job, I had to try to fulfill the tasks with little interest Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities helped you to improve your writing? Student 5: Yes, I think so Realizing mistakes along with redrafting an email many times helps me improve my emails Interviewer: Did your peers’ comments help you to revise your writing? Student 5: Yes they did I usually commit grammar mistakes in my writing My peers’ comments helped me realize my mistakes and I can learn from the mistakes Interviewer: When you revised your writing, did your incorporate your peers’ comments into revision, or you just revised your writing based on your own ideas? Student 5: On revising my writing, I did incorporate my peers’ comments into my revision, but before doing so, I found out whether the comments were correct or not I also added my new ideas to the revised version Interviewer: Did you face any issues when taking part in this Facebook based peer comment activities? If so, what were the issues? Student 5: No, I didn’t Interviewer: Thank you very much 154 APPENDIX H.6: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT General description Date: 16 June, 2017 Participants: Student 6, Interviewer Text transcript Interviewer: Good morning! I will ask you a few questions about Facebook based peer comment activities In addition to answering my questions, you can also share your own ideas about these activities I hope you will honestly answer all my questions Were you interested in Facebook-based peer comment activities? Why or why not? Student 6: Yes I like these activities I prefer posting emails on Facebook to handing in emails on a piece of paper to the teacher because of Facebook’s notifications reminding me about the assignments Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities were helpful to you? Student 6: Yes Facebook always sent me notifications any time the teacher or peers post anything on Facebook; accordingly, I never forgot to my writing assignments Interviewer: Apart from Facebook’s notifications, are there any other aspects of these activities that were helpful to you? Student 6: These activities motivated me to work harder on my English writing What’s more, on reading my peers’ writing, I got the ideas what I had to write to fulfill the requirements a writing assignment Interviewer: Did you benefit from reading your peers’ writing and comments on the Facebook group? If so, what were the benefits? 155 If not, why not? Student 6: Yes, reading my peers’ writing helped me remember some English structures Interviewer: Did you benefit from giving comments to your peers? Student 6: On commenting on my peers’ writing, I had to struggle to write comprehensible comments, which helped me improve my writing skills Interviewer: Did the fact that you had to post your writing on Facebook make you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Suppose there were two cases: (1) you had to hand in your writing only to your teacher for giving comments, (2) you posted your writing on a Facebook group for both your teachers and peers to give comments; in which case would you pay more attention to the quality of your writing? Student 6: I would pay the same attention to the quality of my writing in both cases because I did the best I could However, I preferred posting my emails on Facebook because my handwriting is illegible Interviewer: Was it convenient to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 6: It was very convenient When posting my emails on Facebook, I received more comments than when I wrote the emails on a piece of paper because I tended to hand in my writing assignments on paper to the teacher immediately after I finished the assignments Interviewer: Was it motivated to post your writing on Facebook for your peers to comment? Student 6: It was a bit motivated to post my writing on Facebook because I knew my friends would read my posts and I often waited in suspense for the comments 156 Interviewer: Do you think that Facebook based peer comment activities helped you to improve your writing? Student 6: Yes, I It is because the activities helped us to receive peers’ comments which helped me to revise my second drafts Interviewer: Did your peers’ comments help you to revise your writing? Student 6: Yes, they did Interviewer: When you revised your writing, did your incorporate your peers’ comments into revision, or you just revised your writing based on your own ideas? Student 6: I revised my second drafts based on peers’ comments and I also added my news ideas to my revised drafts Interviewer: Did you face any issues when taking part in this Facebook based peer comment activities? If so, what were the issues? Student 6: The difficulty I faced was that only the members in the assigned four member group commented in my writing I hardly received comments from other classmates Interviewer: Thank you very much 157 APPENDIX I: THE FACEBOOK GROUP INTERFACE 158 ... students and non- English major students? ?? writing quality This study attempted to fill this gap 44 by examining the effects of Facebook based peer comments on writing quality of non- English major pre-intermediate... FACBOOK -BASED PEER COMMENTS ON NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS? ?? WRITING QUALITY AT HCMC UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE in terms of the statement of the requirements for the Theses in Master’s program issued by the Higher... teaching of English writing at HCMC US It provides EFL writing teachers and researchers with empirical data on the effects of Facebook- based peer comments on writing quality of non- English major students