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Instr Sci (2010) 38:371394
DOI 10.1007/s11251-008-9086-1
Received: 31 July 2007 / Accepted: 16 December 2008 / Published online: 8 January 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract This paper reports on a study designed to investigate (a) whether peer review is an effective pedagogical activity with adult Chinese students in the teaching of second language (L2) academic writing and (b) how factors such as perceptions of the inuence of peer reviewers L2 prociency, previous experience with peer review, feedback preferences, and culturally-based beliefs and practices relate to the effectiveness of the pedagogical activity. Participants were 20 English-as-an-L2 learners from China who were enrolled in an academic writing class for postgraduate students at a Singaporean university. Data included rst drafts of an academic writing assignment, written peer comments, revised drafts of the assignment, responses to a questionnaire, and interviews. Quantitative analyses of the peer comments and revisions to the drafts show that signicant improvement in the revised drafts was linked to peer feedback. Further statistical analyses indicate that the learner variables of interest did not affect the effectiveness of the peer review activity. In addition, qualitative analyses of the questionnaire data and the interviews reveal a general acceptance of peer review as a socioculturally appropriate pedagogical activity for Chinese students. The results of the study are interpreted with an understanding of its limitations, and directions for further research are also discussed.
Keywords Second language academic writing Chinese ESL learners
Feedback on student writing Peer review Process-oriented writing instruction
Revision in second language writing
G. Hu (&)
English Language and Literature Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Republic of Singapore e-mail: [email protected]
S. T. E. Lam
Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, Peoples Republic of China
Issues of cultural appropriateness and pedagogical efcacy: exploring peer review in a second language writing class
Guangwei Hu Sandra Tsui Eu Lam
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372 G. Hu, S. T. E. Lam
Introduction
In recent years, peer review as a pedagogical activity has received increasing attention from both L2 writing practitioners (e.g., Campbell 1998; Harmer 2004; Porto 2001) and researchers taking a social constructivist perspective on second language acquisition (see de Guerrero and Villamil 1994; OBrien 2004; Swain et al. 2002; Villamil and...