allen presentation v4_(0419)

Graduate students’ self-reported perspectives regarding peer feedback and feedback from

writing consultants

Presenter: Pei-Lun Allen Lee

Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Teresa Hsu

Date: April 20, 2011

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Citation

Chen, C. W. –Y. (2010). Graduate students’ self-reported perspectives regarding peer feedback and feedback from writing consultants. Asia Pacific Education Review, 11, 151-158.

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Content

Introduction

Literature Review

Research Methodology

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion

Reflection

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Introduction

4

Feedbackwriting a second

language

Introduction

5

others respond

Writing

learn

Purpose

To examine students’ perceptions of writing consultants feedback and peers feedback

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feedback

Peers

Writing consultants

Literature Review

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Students also recognize the importance of peer feedback.

(Miao et al., 2006)

Teacher feedback

Peer feedback

Literature Review

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(Thompson, 2009; Thonus, 2002, 2004; Weigle & Nelson, 2004; Williams, 2004; Williams & Severino, 2004)

A survey of the literature reveals that much research has been conducted on different aspects of writing center practices. Many studies focus on the interaction between tutor and tutees.

Literature Review

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There is a need to expand the research to other kinds of students in other kinds of setting.

(William, 2004)

Research Methodology

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• The research setting and participants

• Data collection methods and analysis

The research setting

Writing consultants

from the writing center

Their peers from the writing

class

5 Taiwanese teachers

3 native English speakers

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First draft of the final paper

50-min free session

Filling out an evaluation form

The participants

Place

Participants

10 sophomores

All of them passed a competitive entrance exam(with an admission rate of less than 10%)

Course title Thesis Writing

Course

1. To help students become familiar with the format and style of thesis writing

2. To develop analytical skills needed for thesis writing 12

Data collection methods

Writing portfolio

The first draft of final paper

Comment sheet

(appendix 1)

Peer feedback sheets

(appendix 2)

A completed revision

feedback sheet

(appendix 3)

A revised version of the final

paper

Other assignments

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Data collection methods

Semi-structured interview

Chinese Audio-

recordedOnce for 30 min.

Portfolio

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Data analysis

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Data analysis

An inductiveOngoing process

3 major themes

Three major themes

Positive

• Providing and receiving peer feedback

Positive

• The experience with the writing consultants

Comments & Questions

• To serve different functions for students

• To serve as prompts for writing consultation sessions

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Findings

Providing and receiving peer feedback

• Theme 1

Receiving feedback from writing consultants

• Theme 2

The nature and interaction of the two types of feedback

• Theme 3

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Providing and receiving peer feedback

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Providing and receiving peer feedback

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The students’ own writing

Responding

Reading

Providing and receiving peer feedback

Eric Mandy

Eric: I was inspired by some good sentences that Mandy wrote in her draft and thought that I could imitate her writing style.

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Providing and receiving peer feedback

Monica Julian

Monica: I felt that Julian did not digest the information from the research articles well enough before citing it in her paper.

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Providing and receiving peer feedback

Students were quite cautious toward peer comments.

Christy:My two peer reviewers corrected the same grammar points in my paper. I was not sure if they were right or not. I checked my grammar books before I made some revision.

Eric: Even more doubt on the “correctness” of many of my peers’ comments on grammar. I would reflect on my peers’ comments after receiving them.

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Receiving feedback from writing consultants

Julian: I felt that although Ms. Lin, an teacher of the TESOL program, was not familiar with her thesis topic, she was able to share her thesis-writing experience and gave me some concrete suggestions on how to organize my ideas.

Eric: I felt that I benefited from Ms. Chang’s expertise in translation. I enjoyed how Ms. Chang applied her knowledge in translation to help me select more precise words to express my ideas

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Students The writing consultantspositive experience

The nature and interaction of the two types of feedback

Cindy: The writing consultants can only focus on the surface errors because they don’t know what you are doing. They don’t know what is difficult for you. But your peers know because they are doing the same thing themselves.

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The peers

The surface-level linguistic

errors

The content and organization of

the paper

The consultants

The surface-level errors

The nature and interaction of the two types of feedback

Some questions arose from the peer editing process served as prompts for writing consultation sessions.

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Cindy: In the oral feedback meeting, Amy and I spent almost the entire 2h on discussing when to use “the”. We were surprised that after studying English for so many years, we are still not sure of how to use this small word in formal writing.

The nature and interaction of the two types of feedback

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Cindy:Ms. Davison gave me a few tips, which I found very useful.

Cindy Ms. Davidson

“the”

Discussion

Students held a more cautious attitude toward comments made by their peers.

“In getting a response from a peer, the student cannot just take the advice as given and make the change, as is likely when the expert provides feedback.”

(Berg, 1999)

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Discussion

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Compared to writing consultants, many peer comments went beyond surface errors.

Conclusion

Students generally enjoyed and benefited from seeking feedback from their peers and writing consultants.

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Conclusion

While the writing consultants mainly served as proofreaders of local errors in the brief consultations sessions, students’ peer reviewers were able to comment more on higher order issues.

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Reflection

The methodology and findings are clear and easy to understand.

It can examine more closely decision-making process of learners.

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Thanks for your listening