Improve writing skill through peer feedback

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THANH TU IMPROVING WRITING SKILL THROUGH PEER FEEDBACK Field: Theory and methodology of English language teaching MA

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI THANH TU

IMPROVING WRITING SKILL THROUGH PEER FEEDBACK

Field: Theory and methodology of English language teaching

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr.NGO ĐINH PHUONG

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “ Improving writing skill through peer feedback for

grade 10 students at Nguyen Trung Thien high school” is the result of my own

work, and that the thesis or my any parts of the same has not been submitted to any university or institution

ABSTRACT

This thesis focuses on the effect of peer feedback on improving writing skill for students in grade 10 and comparing peer feedback strategy with the traditional learning method to know which is more effective Because many teachers prefers teacher feedback to peer feedback (PF), this study will focus on whether PF is really useful and important or not.In this thesis we will look at the definition of writing, writing approach, rules of PF as well as methods and some strategies for using peer feedback in ways that will be the most helpful in improving writing skill This thesis also provides discussion of the results of the study, some implications and suggestions for both ESL teachers and learners besides recommendations for future research and conclusion

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ngo Dinh Phương, for his kind help, careful guidance, valuable advice and encouragement from the first draft till the completed thesis

I am also grateful to my colleagues and students of grade 10 at Nguyen Trung Thien high school who helped me to finish the study

I wish to thank my parents and my loved family who love, support and encourage

me a lot in the production of this thesis

Finally, I am too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, the thesis is far from perfect, it is, therefore, my sole responsibilities for any inadequacies that it may be considered to have

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESL: English as a Second Language

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

PF: Peer Feedback

TL : Traditional Learning

MD : Mean Difference

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

CHAPTER 1 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope and limitations of the study 3

1.5Methods of the study 4

1.6 Design of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2 5

LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1.Definition of writing 5

2.2 The nature of writing 7

2.3 Approaches to teaching writing 9

2.3.1 The product approach 9

2.3.2 The process approach 11

2.3.3 A summary of the differences 12

2.3.4 The genre approach 13

2.3.5 Which approach to use 15

2.4 Stages in a writing lesson 16

2.4.1 Prewriting 16

2.4.2 Drafting 16

2.5 Collaborative writing 19

2.6 Feedback 20

2.6.1 Definition of feedback 20

2.6.2 Principles for feedback practice 21

2.6.3 Feedback in writing classes 21

2.6.3.1 Peer feedback 22

2.6.3.2 Benefits of peer feedback 23

2.6.3.3 Difficulty of applying peer feddback in writing classes 24

2.6.3.4 Key Strategies for peer feedback 25

2.6.3.4 Empirical studies on PF 27

2.7 Assessing students’ writing 31

2.7.1Some general principles 32

2.7.2 Means of Responding 34

2.7.3 Rubrics: Tools for Response and Assessment 35

2.7.4 Simple ways to assess the process 37

2.7.5 Simple ways to assess the product 37

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 38

3.1 Research questions 38

3.2 Participants 38

3.3 Materials 39

3.4 Procedure 41

3.4.1Steps of conducting peer feedback in the study 41

3.4.1.1.Before the treatment starts 41

3.4.1.2 Before the first peer review session 43

3.4.1.3 During Peer-Review Sessions 44

3.4.1.4.After Peer-Review Sessions 46

CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 48

4.1 The judges and judging 48

4.2 Equivalence of the experimental group and control groups before receiving treatment 48

4.3 Essay scores in the pre-test 49

4.4 There were significant differences between scores for the first drafts and those for the second drafts in the six lessons……… 49

4.5Pre- and post-test scores for the essays of students in the experimental

group………52

4.6 There was also a significant difference in the control group between the pre-test and the post-test……… 58

4.7 There was a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group 62

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 677

5.1 Discussion of the study findings 67

5.2 Implications and suggestions for ESL teachers and learners 70

5.3 Implications for further research 71

5.4 General contribution of the study 72

5.5 Conclusion 72

REFERENCES 74

APENDIX A RUBRIC………79

APENDIX B - The experimental group’s pre-test scores 81

APENDIX C - The control group’s pre-test scores 82

APENDIX D - The experience group’s scores for the first draft ( written before receiving PF ) and the second draft ( written after receiving PF ) 83

APENDIX E - The control group’s post-test scores 84

APPENDIX F The experimental group’s post-test scores 85

APPENDIX G THE GENERAL TEST 86

APPENDIX H THE PRE-TEST AND POST -TEST FOR EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS (45 mins) 88

APPENDIX I Examples of peer feedback sheet 1……….89

Examples of peer feedback sheet 2……… 90

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter is written in order to give the rationale, aims of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study, the scope of the study, an

overview of research methodology and finally introduces the outline of the thesis

1.1 Rationale

English is a useful and even necessary language to know It is the most common

foreign language That’s why everyone needs to learn the language in order to get in touch on an international level Knowing it will help you communicate with people from countries all over the world In many countries, children are taught and encouraged to learn English as a second language Even in countries where it is not

an official language, such as Lao, Vietnam, we will find many syllabi in science and engineering are written in English, because it is the dominant language in the sciences, most of the research and studies you find in any given scientific field will

be written in it as well At the university level, students in many countries study almost all their subjects in English in order to make the material more accessible to international students On the Internet, the majority of websites are written and created in English.It's also the primary language of the press: more newspapers and books are written in English than in any other language, and no matter where in the world you are, you will find some of these books and newspapers available.With good understanding and communication in English, you can travel around the globe Because it is the international language for foreigners, it is easy to get assistance and help in every part of world You can test it by online travel Any travel booking site you can find will have English as a booking option.English skills will also help you in any business venture you choose to follow If you visit some offices, companies, governmental organizations, or even math or engineering companies, you will see the importance of English Any big company will hire their professional staff after getting to know whether the people they are hiring are good

at English or not Companies who want to function at an international level only

consider their staff well educated if they are good English speakers, writers, and readers

In TESL (teaching English as second language) or TEFL (teaching English

as foreign language), writing is one of the four English macro skills Writing, among the other English skills; listening, speaking, and reading; is regarded as the most valuable and important skill although it is difficult to possess In fact, it can

be argued that writing skill is even more important now than ever despite the rise of

digital media

However, one study states that 85% of high school graduates are unable

to pass the English GCSE and suffer from weaknesses in English The poor results o129+f the English GCSE have shocked parenthood for the last few years.Almost 90% of students left out writing task in their English GCSE papers because they did not know how to write a short passage Only 10% of students at high school can write their English compositions University graduates in Vietnam do not attract employers because of their poor English, particularly in speaking and writing, in addition to other problems.Therefore, we should look into the way we teach writing skill as a "matter of urgency"

As an English teacher, the author always expects to see an improvement in students’ process of learning writing skill in spite of the fact that the Ministry of Education and Training has decided to omit writing task in the GCSE paper.The expectations are that teachers ensure that high standards are met and students are fully prepared for the rigorous academic ielts , tofel exam The author has been studying and trying some different methods in teaching writing skill As a result , the author has found out peer feedback can be used as a critical technique for improving students' writing although it has been little discovered and applied in writing lessons at high school in HaTinh province so far It is also an effective way

to make lessons more student-centered oriented

There have been researches on the role of written corrective peer feedback

in improving writing skill (e.g Ellis, 2009; Ferris, 2006; Hyland and Hyland, 2006)

But they suppose written corrective peer feedback is a controversial matter Through this study the researcher wants to determine whether peer feedback is really useful and important in learning writing skill

For the above-mentioned reasons, the author aims at conducting the study entitled “Improving writing skill through peer feedback ”

1.2 Aims of the study

The purpose of this study was to determine whether peer feedback is really useful in learning writing skill and from that,propose some effective ways to improve writing skill

1.3 Research questions

Based on the purposes of this research,this research question were designed:

1 To what extent will peer feed back affect students’ writing skill?

2 Will peer feed be more effective than the traditional learning method with only teacher’s feedback?

1.4 Scope and limitations of the study

Although there are a variety of ways to improving students’ writing skill, this thesis only focuses on whether peer feedback can help improve writing accuracy and to what extent it can affect students’ writing skill This research was carefully prepared; however, I am still aware of its limitations and shortcomings

First of all, the research was conducted in the two grade 10 classes which have lasted for ten weeks Ten weeks is not enough for the researcher to observe all of the students’ writing performance in their classes and their improvement It would

be better if it was done in a longer time

Second, the population of the experimental group is small, only forty students and may not represent the majority of the students of grade 10

In addition, since the assessment of the pretest and post test was conducted by the author herself, it is unavoidable that in this study, certain degree of subjectivity can be found In fact, it would have been sort of objective if it had been decided by two or three examiners

1.5 Methods of the study

This study employs two types of research method; quantitative, which includes a quasi-experimental study to investigate the efficiency of peer feedback on students’ writing, and qualitative, where results are collected from observation

1.6 Design of the thesis

The thesis consists of the following parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This part introduces the issues leading to the study, including rationale, aims,

methods, scope, and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

This chapter provides theoretical background relevant to the topic such as the definition of writing and peer feedback , stages in a writing lesson, the importance

of feedback , rules of giving peer feedback and its roles in improving writing skill

Chapter 3: Research methodology

This part presents the study and these include, research questions, participants, material, procedures and results

Chapter 4: Analysis and finding

This chapter presents their analysis and interpretation

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Main points and contents of the study are summarized based on the results of the

study The discussion,the implication of the study and the recommendation for further research will be presented

Consequently, students must have an acceptable level of mastering different aspects of language such as : the graphic system, the grammatical structure, and select appropriate vocabulary (mechanisms of writing) related to the subject matter Another definition was given by Crystal (1999: 214) who stated that : “Writing is not a merely mechanical task, a simple matter of putting speech down on paper It is

an exploration in the use of the graphic potential of a language -a creative process-

an act of discovery”

Sohel (2014) stated that : “Writing is the record or the recorded form of speech It is a medium of communication that represents language through the inscription of signs and symbols The development of writing, as we know it, is a relatively recent phenomenon” Olshtain (1991 235) stated that “writing as a communicative activity needs to be encouraged and nurtured during the language learner’s course of study” Writing is considered to be a tool which enables students

to express and communicate their ideas, feelings, and different attitudes in a written form Writing can be an individual, a personal, 11 and social endeavor (Cited in Maarek, S 2009) As it is reported by Miller (2001, as cited in Richards &

Renanya,2003: 25) “even though the writing production is an expression of one’s individuality and personality, it is important to remember that writing is also a social endeavor, a way of communicating with people” Richards and Schmidt (2002) supported this idea where it is stated “writing is viewed as a result of complex processes of planning, drafting, reviewing and revising” (p.529) Which means,various operations cause the final draft Also, Pincas (1992: 125 Cited in Ghothbene, N 2010) claimed that “writing is a system of graphic symbols, i.e., letters or combinations of letters which relate to the sounds we produce while speaking” Writing can be defined as much more than the production of these symbols For that, the graphic symbols must be arranged according to some conventions in order to form words, and words to form sentences, and sentences to form paragraphs and essays Accordingly, writing is not producing or making list of words, as inventories of items of a shopping list."Although this shopping list may not seem to provide an example of sophisticated writing, it tells us something about the writing process”

The achievement of writing is linked to the existence of coherence between the words or the sentences which are arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain ways and above all, holding a meaning In this respect,

“learners at schools [and universities] must master the academic writing which was needed in writing essays and paragraphs or other assignments for exams” (Bailey, 2003: 1)

Furthermore, Kate and Guy (2003: 1480 Cited in Ghothbene, N 2010) stated that:“writing is a process of exploring one’s thoughts and learning from the act of writing itself from what thoughts are It means that writing is a tool of learning rather than a process limited to express thoughts via written symbols As it

is considered to be the most difficult and complex skill to be mastered by EFL students, Rivers and Temperley point 12 out: “To write so that one is really communicating a message isolated in place and time, is an art that requires

consciously directed effort and deliberate choice in language” (Rivers and Temperley 1979: 263 Cited in Azzioui, A.2009)

In addition to the complexity of writing, it needs a considerable training to

be mastered Hedge (2000) had completely investigated this issue and came with a result “all the time spent in communicative activities, adults devote 45% of their energies to listening, 30% to speaking, 16% to reading, and 9% to writing” (Hedge, 2000: 305) This explains why the majority of students feel stress which prevents them from conveying the desired message Accordingly, Brookes and Grundy (2009: 11 Cited in Ghothbene, N 2010) reported that "it must be worth asking precisely what is difficult about writing and, especially, about writing in a second language”

Moreover, Ramet (2007: 9) stated that : " Whatever your writing interest may

be, fiction or nonfiction, literary novels or specialist articles, you should read anything and everything in your chosen genre" This may refer to the importance of reading before the process of writing takes place The following quotation shows that writing is viewed as a powerful tool "although writing is not this explosive, it is one of the humankind's powerful tool But they are sometimes confused about the source of its power"(Mc Arthur, Graham, & Fitzgerald, 2008: 1 Cited in Ghothben,

N 2010) Also, to clarify things about this skill, we have to investigate its nature which is the next point

2.2 The nature of writing

Writing is a complex process that demands the mastery of many language levels; morphological level, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and discourse level In contrast to speaking, writing includes more elaborated linguistic systems, complex clauses, different syntax and vocabularies Many experts, therefore, consider writing the barometer of one’s 13 proficiency on a particular language They also think that writing is the most difficult basic language skills due to its complexity and complete reliance on these language levels

Also, writing is considered to be a productive skill that urges the writer to carry out the meanings or messages in the written form In the writing process, the writer tries to interact with the readers by exploring the ideas in the written form

The ideas usually contain the context, prior knowledge, and discourse As writing is transactional and message-oriented, its goal must be conveyed information accurately, effectively and appropriately The writer must be able to express the ideas explicitly using the effective language and avoiding the ambiguous words The writer must be aware that the readers cannot confirm the ideas being delivered to writer immediately as what they can do in speaking process Therefore, it is the writer’s duty to make his writing clear enough before the readers

For Bloomfield:“Writing is not language, but merely a way of recording language by means of visible marks.”(Bloomfield;cited in Crystal 1994: 178) For him it means that writing is considered to be limited in visible marks Further, Crystal (2006: 257) specifies that: “writing is a way of communicating which uses a system of visual marks made on some kind of surface It is one kind of graphic expression” Here, Crystal also explained the nature of writing in the use of graphic and visual marks Also, Byrne (1991: 1) stated that: “writing can be said to be the act of forming these symbols : making marks on a Flat surface of some kinds” In addition, Nancy Arapoff (1967: 23 Cited in Selmen, S 2006) described writing as “ much more than an orthographic symbolization of speech It is, most importantly, a purposeful selection and organization of experience” According to her,

“experience” includes all thoughts, facts, opinions, or ideas, whether acquired first hand through direct perceptions and/or actions or second hand through reading and hearsay To explain more about the complexity of writing Scrivener(1994:192 Cited in 14 Maarek, S 2009) argued that Writing is a great challenge to produce a fluent and coherent piece of writing “….involves a different kind of mental process There is more time to think, to reflect, to prepare, to rehearse, to make mistakes and

to find alternative and better solutions

The overall difficulty of writing was fairly observed by Collins and Genther (1980: 62 Cited in Ouskourt, M 2008) who saw that :

Much of the difficulty of writing stems from the large number of constraints that must be satisfied at the same time In expressing an idea the writer must consider at least four structural levels : Overall text structure paragraph structure sentence structure (syntax), and word structure clearly the attempt to coordinate all these requirements is a staggering job

This quotation may refer to the complexity of the writing skill, and to what

extent students should aware about this productive skill in order to be able to produce well structured and meaningful productions

2.3 Approaches to teaching writing

There are different types of approaches to teaching writing The next production will include the three main types of approaches that are : the product approach, the process approach, and the genre

2.3.1 The product approach

The main focus of the product approach is on the production of well- produced composition “The product approach to writing focuses on the end results

of the act of composition, i.e the letter, assay, story and so on The writing teacher who subscribes to the product approach will be concerned to see that the end product is readable, grammatically correct and obeys discourse conventions relating

to main points, supporting details and so on “ (Nunan, 1989: 36 Cited in Maarek,

S 2009)

The product approach is concerned with the writers’ knowledge of the structure of the language, and writing in this case is considered to be an imitation of texts produced by the teacher Basically, writing in product-based approaches has served to reinforce L2 writing in terms of grammatical and syntactical forms There are a variety of activities in the product writing which can raise students’ awareness

in second language writing from the lower level of language proficiency to advance

like English major students such as the use of model paragraphs, combining, and rhetorical pattern exercises Writing in the product approach is viewed as a simple linear model of the writing process which proceeds systematically from prewriting to composing and to correcting Tribble (1990) Besides, instructors and learners believe that planning stage of writing in text based approaches begins and finishes in the primary period of composition However, Raimes (1983) found that product-based writing can in no way be described as linear or as neat as is generally believed:

sentence-“Contrary to what many textbooks advise, writers do not follow a neat sequence of planning, organizing, writing and then revising For while a writer’s product - the finished essay, story or novel - is presented in lines, the process that produces it is not linear at all Instead, it is recursive.” (Raimes, 1985: 229)

Nevertheless, the pattern-product writing approach is widely accepted among writing teachers because they have found several advantages in it for the writing classroom Firstly, learners learn how to write in English composition systematically from using the pattern-product techniques, namely the logic of English rhetorical patterns such as narration, description, and persuasion They also learn how to use vocabulary and sentence structures for each type of rhetorical pattern appropriately Finally, product-based writing helps instructors raise learners’ L2 writing awareness, especially in grammatical structures However, there are also disadvantages associated with the use of the product-based writing Writing with this approach gives little attention to audience and the writing purpose since learners and instructors tend to overemphasize on the importance of grammar, syntax, and mechanics Learners will lack motivation in learning and have high pressure in creating their writing tasks, as their instructors mostly focus on the accuracy of the language structures

2.3.2 The process approach

The process approach came as a reaction to the weaknesses of the product approach It started to gain ground in the mid 1970s It developed from the assumption that:

“If we can analyze the different elements that are involved in a longer piece

of writing, and can help learners to work through them, and use this knowledge positively in their own writing, then such writing will have a lot of stress taken out

of it “ (Brookes and Grundy, 1991: 7 Cited in Maarek, S 2009)

Process-based writing is viewed as the way writers actually work on their writing tasks from the beginning stage to the end of the written product O’Brien (2004 Cited in thanatkun, T 2008) defines the concept of this approach as an activity in which teachers encourage learners to see writing not as grammar exercises, but as the discovery of meaning and ideas Writing in the process approach can thus be seen as a dynamic and unpredictable process Due to the number of its benefits Process-based approaches are well-known tools for writing instructors to teach L2 writing Students can improve their writing step by step since instructors will guide them through the whole process of their writing tasks by giving them feedback and enough time and opportunity through peer and teacher review to develop a sense of audience, which allows them not only to reflect upon their previous writing but also to consider the possible existence of other viewpoints Also, they have to spend quite a long time to complete one particular piece of writing in the classroom Badger and White (2000) also point out that learners have no clear understanding about the characteristics of writing and are provided insufficient linguistic input to write in L2 successfully in a certain text type

The following figure shows how we might produce a longer text such as a composition:

18 generate/ gather ideas for content ( brainstorming)

↕

organize and order ideas

write final draft

Figure 1 The Process Approach (Adapted from Lindsay and Knight Cited

in Thanatkun, T 2008)

The next explanation tries to make the previous diagram clear:

“Notice that the arrows between the stages in the diagram of the writing process go in both directions This is because the process of writing and re -writing does not just develop in a straight line For example, you might decide at the first draft stage to re-order some of the ideas, or to take some ideas out and put different ones in So, when we write we move backwards and forwards between the different stages “ (Lindsay and Knight, 2006: 86 Cited in Thanatkun, T 2008)

Finally, to summarize it the process approach comes as a reaction to the product approach The former stresses the creativity of the individual writer and sees writing as a highly complex activity This orientation pays attention to the development of good writing rather than the imitation of model texts The process approach emphasized that writing is an activity that is composed of a variety of activities, and that these different activities are typically recursive The teacher in the process approach becomes a facilitator

2.3.3 A summary of the differences

Process-driven approaches show some similarities with task-based learning,

in that students are given considerable freedom within the task They are not curbed

by pre-emptive teaching of lexical or grammatical items However, process approaches do not repudiate all interest in the product, (i.e the final draft) The aim

is to achieve the best product possible What differentiates a process-focussed approach from a product-centred one is that the outcome of the writing, the product,

is not preconceived

2.3.4 The genre approach

Genre approaches are relative newcomers to ELT However, there are strong

similarities with product approaches and, in some ways, genre approaches can be regarded as an extension of product approaches Like product approaches, genre approaches regard writing as predominantly linguistic but, unlike product approaches, they emphasize that writing varies with the social context in which it is produced According to Badger and White (2000), writing in the genre approach is regarded as an extension of the productoriented approach since learners have an opportunity to study a wide variety of writing patterns, for instance, the business letter, the academic report, and the research paper Like other writing approaches, the genre approach is increasingly used in the L2 writing classroom due to having

Process writing Product writing

- text as a resource for comparison

- ideas as starting point

- more than one draft

- more global, focus on purpose, theme,

text type, i.e., reader is emphasised

- collaborative

- emphasis on creative process

-imitate model text -organisation of ideas more important than ideas themselves

-one draft -features highlighted including controlled practice of those features -individual

-emphasis on end product

certain strengths The focus of writing in this approach aims to integrate the knowledge of a particular genre and its communicative purpose, these help learners

to produce their written products to communicate to others in the same discourse community successfully

“Learning to write is part of becoming socialized to academic community - finding out what is expected and trying to approximate it.…The reader is a seasoned member of the hosting academic community who has well-developed schemata for academic discourse and clear and stable views of what is appropriate The text is a more or less conventional response to a particular task type that falls into a recognizable genre.” (Silva, 1990: 16 Cited in Thanatkun, T 2008)

Thus, learning specific genre construction can be considered as a way to help learners come up with appropriate actual writing in their real life outside the classroom Genre writing reflects a particular purpose of a social situation and allows students to acquire writing skills consciously by imitation and analysis of each writing genre (Badger and White, 2000)

The negative side of the genre approach is that learners may not have enough knowledge of appropriate language or vocabulary to express what they intend to communicate to a specific audience Another weakness, as Badger and White (2000) point out, is that the genre approach undervalues the writing skills which learners need to produce a written product and ignores the writing abilities that learners have in other aspects In order to combine and use the genre approach effectively as a part of the integrated approach in the writing class, its weaknesses should be modified in the following ways Instructors should describe clearly the genres which students have to learn at the beginning of the writing class so as to allow learners to prepare and have ideas about the language use for each genre Furthermore, teachers should help learners to produce their written products step by step For example, teachers may use a brainstorming technique to help students generate their ideas and come up with the appropriate language use or specific vocabulary for what they want to communicate to people in a particular discourse

community Finally, instructors should pay attention to the skills that will help learners develop their writing competence through the writing process

2.3.5 Which approach to use

The approach that you decide to use will depend on you, the teacher, and on the students, and the genre of the text Certain genres lend themselves more favourably to one approach than the other Formal letters, for example, or postcards,

in which the features are very fixed, would be perhaps more suited to a driven approach, in which focus on the layout, style, organisation and grammar could greatly help students in dealing with this type of writing task

product-Other genres, such as discursive essays and narrative, may lend themselves

to process-driven approaches, which focus on students' ideas Discursive activities are suited to brainstorming and discussing ideas in groups, and the collaborative writing and exchanging of texts help the students to direct their writing to their reader, therefore making a more successful text

One or the other, the two approaches are not necessarily incompatible I believe that process writing, i.e re-drafting, collaboration, can be integrated with the practice of studying written models in the classroom

What I take from the process approach is the collaborative work, the discussion which is so important in generating and organising ideas Once students have written their first drafts, model texts can be introduced as texts for comparison Lightbown found that learning appeared to be optimal in 'those situations in which the students knew what they wanted to say and the teacher's intervention made clear

to them there was a particular way to say it.Teacher intervention through model texts could thus aid the learning process I also like to incorporate the exchanging

of drafts, so that the students become the readers of each others work This is an important part of the writing experience as it is by responding as readers, both during the collaborative stage of writing in groups, as well as when reading another group's work, that students develop an awareness of the fact that a writer is producing something to be read by someone else

2.4 Stages in a writing lesson

2.4.1 Prewriting

Prewriting is everything you do before you begin to draft the paper Look

over an assignment handout, choose and narrow your topic, and assess your audience and purpose Research is also an important aspect of prewriting You can use certain prewriting strategies to help you to choose and develop a topic:

• Make lists of ideas on a topic

• Read and take notes on a topic

• Make a cluster, which is a visual map of ideas and concepts related to your topic

• Ask questions about a topic

• Discuss ideas about a topic with others and take notes

• Make an outline of your paper You may also need to consider your audience before you begin to write To make sure that your writing will fit the audience you are addressing, you need to consider who they are To do that you might want to assess your audience by considering the following:

• How much does my audience know about my topic?

• How do they feel about my topic: enthusiastic, neutral or hostile?

• What are their personal characteristics that might affect their views on my paper: age, gender, culture, socioeconomic background, values, politics, etc.?

Your audience, typically, will be the professor who assigned the paper, but occasionally classmates may read it Once you have thought about your topic, developed your ideas on the topic, and taken into account your purpose and audience, you are ready to draft the paper

2.4.2 Drafting

Drafting is the stage when you begin to put the paper in paragraph form When you begin to draft your writing, you need to keep in mind five separate writing techniques that will help your reader to understand your paper:

1 Thesis statement: At the end of your introduction, write a one-sentence statement that is the basis for your entire paper A good thesis statement lets the reader know what your paper will cover For example, you might write this thesis statement: “There are four possible causes for alcoholism, yet not all alcoholics

drink for these reasons.” The paragraphs that follow should support this statement,

and each paragraph should focus on one of the possible causes

2 Topic sentences: Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that states the main idea of that paragraph Just like the thesis statement, the topic sentence lets you know what the paragraph contains

3 Sufficient support: While your opinions are important, they cannot be the legs your paper stands on You need to support you topic ideas by developing the paragraphs with evidence from credible sources Support comes in many different forms: statistics, researched information, observations, descriptions, case studies, interviews, personal experience, hypothetical situations, definitions, etc.The more specific the information, the more interesting the paragraph

4 Coherence: This means it all comes together If an essay is coherent, all the paragraphs relate to the one before it and all the sentences relate to the one before it Transitional words and phrases help to create bridges between sentences, words such as: however, for example, in other words, in contrast, nevertheless, etc You set up the key words to an essay and a paragraph within the thesis statement and the topic sentences

5 Unity: The idea here is not to veer off into the woods Stay on the path Make sure all sentences relate to the topic sentence and all paragraphs relate to the thesis As you draft your paragraphs, you want to try to include all these effective writing techniques

2.4.3 Revising:

1 Check to see if the essay fits the thesis

2 Make sure each paragraph has a topic sentence

3 Make sure there are smooth transitions between paragraphs

4 Check for digressions

5 Do you have sufficient support in all paragraphs?

6 Is your paper logical in order?

7 Do you have an introduction and a conclusion?

2.4.4 Editing and Proofreading: Here is where you check on your spelling and

grammar and mechanics Spell check is your friend! In a research paper, you would also check to see if your documentation is done properly Most students skip this

step, but most teachers take off points for papers that are not proofread It might be

in your best interest to take a look, and sometimes four eyes are better than two

Have a friend look over it, or take it to the writing center for extra help

The act of continuous non-stop writing forces your mind to come up with new ideas Getting these on paper then allows the creative juices in your brain begin

to flow

2.5 Collaborative writing

In its broadest definition, group writing includes “…any writing done in collaboration with one or more persons” (Ede & Lunsford, 1990: 14) According to Noel and Robert (2004), collaborative writing was first investigated in the 1970s; however, the process was not actually explored until the late 1980s In the field of second language writing, a number of researchers (e.g., Daiute, 1986; Wells et al., 1990) suggest that students should work collaboratively during the writing process in order to develop their 40writing skills During this collaboration, learners share responsibility for the quality of the produced text, making decisions on different aspects of that text In addition, researchers have shown that collaborative writing fosters reflective thinking (e.g., Higgins et al., 1992; Keys, 1994).Peer Feedback (PF) in writing is one example of collaborative writing which has been found to be highly effective in educational contexts (Ruys et al., 2010; Tsuei, 2011) It involves, if presented in a well structured design, a mechanism of turn taking (i.e., the learners take turns to assume the roles of sender and receiver) in each given learning activity (Tsuei, 2011), signifying learner accountability in learning writing In addition, as PF technique involves giving and receiving PF in one-to-one conferences, it can develop a sense of criticality that can have a positive influence on a learner’s own writing, as will be discussed later

on in this chapter

Feedback, as a central component of PF technique, in the field of second language writing can provide elaborated information (i.e., detailed and given with much care; for example, do this add or avoid etc), which can

be used effectively to overcome a learner’s weaknesses Additionally, it can

include justifications for seeing something as an error in the task in question (for example, this is wrong because ) In this regard, Gielen et al (2010a) suggest that associating feedback with proper justification can have a positive effect on writing skills In this sense, it can be said that feedback can help improve students’ writing, as will be discussed in the following sections

2.6 Feedback

2.6.1 Definition of feedback

Feedback is a key element in language learning It can promote minimal or deep learning Hattie and Timperely (2007) state that feedback is "information provided by an agent regarding some aspects of one's task performance" (p.81) Narciss (2008) also defines feedback as "all post-response information that is provided to a learner to inform the learner on his or her actual state of learning or performance" (p.127) what is clear from these definitions is that feedback is designed to provide an understanding of performance through offering guidance on the knowledge that they possess One of the factors which seems to be of great importance in dealing with feedback is that it helps students to reconstruct their knowledge or skill to what is desired Mory(2003) discusses four perspectives on how feedback supports learning First, feedback can be considered as an incentive for increasing response rate and/ or accuracy Second, feedback can be regarded as a reinforcer that automatically connects responses to prior stimuli (focused on correct responses) Third, feedback can be considered as information that learners can use tovalidate or change a previous response (focused on erroneous responses) Finally, feedback can be regarded as the provision of scaffolds to help students construct internal schemata and analysis their learning processes A part from these perspectives on how feedback supports learning, the type of feedback varies considerably as well Nelson and Schunn (2009) identified two types of feedback, namely; cognitive and affective In cognitive feedback, more attention is given to the content of the work and involves summarizing, specifying and explaining aspects of the work under review Affective feedback concentrates on the quality of works and uses affective language to bestow praise ("well written") and criticism

("badly written"), or uses non-verbal expressions, such as facial expression gestures and emotional tones

2.6.2 Principles for feedback practice

Nicole and Macfarlane-Dick (2006)suggested seven principles for feedback practice They claimed that good feedback practice:

1 - Helps clarify what good performance is (goal, criteria, expected standards)

2 -.Delivers high-quality information to students about their learning

3- Facilitates the development of self-assessment (reflection)in learning

4- Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning

5- Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem

6- Provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance 7- Provides information to students that can be used to help shape teaching (p.205) Based on these principles, it is clear what feedback is trying to achieve Sadler (1998) asserts that good feedback lies at the heart of good pedagogy with its source(i.e teachers or peers) It must be stated that various kinds of feedback have been used in the class namely; peer feedback, conferencing, and written teacher feedback Some innovative methods also are recommended in the class for learning such as taped commentaries and computer- based respond It is important to mention that based on the way these types of feedbacks are given, their effect can

be either positive or negative (Musa et al., 2012).Walker (2009) acknowledges that feedback must be usable by students He points out that to be usable by students, peer feedback must be designed to help students to reduce the gap in their performance and look beyond the assignment just submitted to future work

2.6.3 Feedback in writing classes

Given the importance claimed in the literature for the role of feedback

in language learning generally, it is not surprising that feedback is also seen

as central to the learner-centred approaches to writing instruction developed in the 1970s (Hyland & Hyland, 2006a) Before that time the feedback mainly took the form of marginal notes, as compared to the current form, which

commonly extends to include oral interaction between two parties (i.e., teacher-learner/learner-learner) (Hyland & Hyland, 2006a) The way feedback is given depends on the form of the written task and the intended effect For instance, giving feedback on communicative or creative writing (e.g., reports, stories or letters) requires our close observation and clear demonstration of points of interest within the content (Harmer, 2001) However, it should be mentioned that the way we give feedback to learners can significantly affect their attitudes towards writing and their motivation for learning in the future (Grabe & Kaplan, 1996: 377).evelopment of writing skills Its importance in this regard was first recognised when.There are several ways of giving feedback on a written task which can promote successful writing One is for the given feedback to respond to, rather than assess or evaluate, the students’ written task (Harmer, 2001; Hyland & Hyland, 2006b) This is accomplished by explaining how successful we think the text is and how it can be improved In this case our comments should

be helpful and not critical (Harmer, 2001)

Another method is by using codes, either in the body of the text or

in the corresponding margins These codes can be something like: S for incorrect spelling, P for punctuation etc These can act as neat, non-threatening and more helpful comments Additionally, teachers are advised to avoid the over–correction of scripts (Harmer, 2001; Bitchener & Ferris, 2012), since this will help learners to focus on other important issues rather than being distracted by too many comments (Harmer, 2001) After providing learners with feedback on a written task, we expect to receive a revised draft which responds to the given comments, and this can show how effective the feedback is within the learning process (Harmer, 2001)

2.6.3.1 Peer feedback

Peer feedback, which is referred to under different names such as peer response, peer review, peer editing, and peer evaluation, can be defined as "use of learners as sources of information and interactants for each other is such a way that

learners assume roles and responsibilities normally taken on by a formally trained

teacher, tutor, or editor in commenting on and critiquing each other's drafts in both

written and oral formats in the process of writing" (Liu and Hansen, 2002:1) The

rationale of peer feedback is explained by Vygotsky's sociocultural theory

Vygotsky (1978) claims that mind develops through one's interaction with the world

around him/her He emphasize that learning is not an individual activity; but rather

a cognitive activity that the nature of learning shifts the focus on learning from

individual to the interaction within a social context Thereby, peer interaction is

cardinal to the improvement of students' learning, because it allows students to

construct knowledge through social sharing and interaction (Liu et al., 2001)

2.6.3.2 Benefits of peer feedback

Firstly, students often learn more from people at their level of learning Teachers feel responsible for their students’ learning, however, it is useful to step

back and have students learn more independently; allowing the student to discover

knowledge for him or herself can be very powerful And one way that many

students learn well, is from one another (Boud, Cohen, & Sampson,

2014).Secondly Peer-review can build comfort and normalcy around receiving

constructive feedback

Being able to listen to others and utilize feedback effectively is important to

future career success When writing recommendation letters for students, I’ve

noticed that many graduate programs ask that we discuss the student’s openness to

feedback, as this is central to student success To better serve our students, it is thus

important that we help them develop their ability to effectively work with

constructive criticism early on With this, it is also important to monitor that

feedback remains constructive The teacher can assist in this by developing a guided

peer-review worksheet and by discussing acceptable feedback in class Next ,

Providing peer feedback can strengthen students’ own work.By providing feedback

to peers, students often begin to think more flexibly about their own writing For

example, by taking the grader’s perspective, a student might start to better

understand that the writer isn’t always successful in communicating something clearly This experience may then promote the student’s ability to take the grader’s perspective when they review their own work before submitting it for a grade Furthermore , peer feedback gives students responsibility for critiquing writing (and thinking), rather than letting all the responsibility for that rest on teachers The hope

is that they will internalize this process and carry it on independently, to the benefit

of their future work Additionally, by having students review each other’s writing assignments, they have to divide the paper writing process up into at least two stages: the draft and final paper Scaffolding assignments in this way is known to lead to more critical engagement and learning (Bean, 2011) Lastly , Peer review can save grading time

It makes sure that all your students will get some feedback on a piece of writing immediately, the same day they bring it to class, rather than having to wait for you to write your comments This does not prevent you from commenting as well, later.However, implementing a peer-review component may not immediately save you time It is important to think about the design of the peer-review activity,

so that it is designed to integrate well with your current grading system

2.6.3.3 Difficulty of applying peer feddback in writing classes

Firstly , many students feel uncomfortable with the task of having to pronounce a judgment on their peers’ writing This discomfort may be the result of

their maturity level, their desire not to hurt a peer’s feelings (perhaps made more acute by the fact that they are anxious about having their peers read and judge their own writing), or simply their inexperience with providing constructive criticism on

a peer’s work A vaguely positive response allows them to avoid a socially uncomfortable situation and to create an environment of mutual support (Nilson 2003)

Secondly , if students are not given clear guidance from their teachers , they may not know how to comment on one another’s writing in a specific and constructive way In addition, it should be noted that students may not understand

how to comment on their peers’ writing because over the years they have not

received helpful feedback from instructors who have graded their papers

Thirdly , many students do not perceive feedback from peers as relevant to the

process of writing a paper for a course Especially at the beginning of their

undergraduate work, students are likely to assume that it is only the instructor’s

feedback that “counts.”.And even when they take seriously feedback provided by

their peers, students often do not know how to incorporate that feedback when they

revise their papers

To respond to the challenges described above , The resarcher have read a lot

of books, articles on the internet and come up with some strategies

2.6.3.4 Key Strategies for peer feedback

Firstly ,the teacher should identify and teach the skills required for peer

review I made a list of the skills that students should be learning and putting into

practice when participating in peer review These include reading skills (discerning

a writer’s main point, locating key points of support or relevant data, etc.), writing

skills (writing clear, specific comments and questions), and collaboration skills

(phrasing critiques in a descriptive, constructive way) Articulating what I saw as

the core skills involved in peer review helped me develop a coherent plan for

integrating peer review into my lessons and make more clear the specific

instructions my students would need as they learn how to review a peer’s paper and

how to use the comments they receive during peer review.Secondly ,teacher should

teach peer review as an essential part of the writing process , emphasize to students

that peer review is not just a course requirement: it is an essential part of the writing

process that all successful writers engage in at some point Your students may not

realize the extent to which scholars and other professionals practice peer review as

an integral part of producing effective writing in their fields Consider explaining

why, as a scholar, you find peer review helpful-even when you do not agree with or

appreciate every comment made by a peer- reviewer For example, you might tell

them about a specific instance when a reader’s comments helped you to clarify and

strengthen your writing

Remind students that the process of producing academic and professional

writing generally involves three steps: drafting, revising, and editing Peer review is

often most helpful to student writers when it is utilized between the drafting and

revision stages, or after each student has produced a complete draft, but while there

is still time to make substantial changes A writer might learn from peer-reviewers,

for example, that a paper’s introduction is its strongest point, or that the paper’s

main point or thesis is not yet clear, or that there are “gaps” in the logic or the

support that detract from the paper’s effectiveness, or that a paper’s conclusion

presents an interesting idea that leaves the reader with unanswered questions The

purpose of peer review as a prelude to revision is to help the writer determine which

parts of the paper are effective as is, and which are unclear, incomplete, or

unconvincing.In addition , describe peer review as an opportunity for students to

learn how to write for an audience High school students often do not perceive how

completing academic writing assignments will prepare them for work in the

professional world Participating in peer review can help them learn to shape their

written language as a medium of communication with readers For example, seeking

out peer feedback can help one student construct a convincing argument by

anticipating and answering counter-arguments that his readers might pose, while

peer review can help another student determine how to explain the significance of

her research to readers who are not experts in her field.Lastly , teacher should

define the role of the peer-reviewer as that of a reader, not an evaluator

Develop guidelines for peer-reviewers that ask them to complete specific tasks:

examples include indicating the strongest part of a paper; identifying or rephrasing

the thesis; listing the major points of support or evidence; and indicating sentences

or paragraphs that seem out of order, incompletely explained, or otherwise in need

of revision Some of these tasks are descriptive and others are evaluative However,

those that are evaluative should put the emphasis on the reader’s impressions and

responses and should not require the peer-reviewer to pronounce a judgment on the paper as a whole (Nilson 2003) This approach should help you develop specific instructions to students that will clarify how they should respond to one another’s writing and should also help you pare down your expectations of what students can realistically accomplish during in-class peer-review sessions Defining the role of the peer-reviewer as a reader will also help you underscore the fact that it is up to the writer to decide whether and how to make changes to the paper through revision In other words, the writer should think about all of the reviewers’ comments, but may decide to ignore some of the comments and to make changes in response to others

2.6.3.4 Empirical studies on PF

The literature includes an enormous number of studies that have investigated the field of PF as a collaborative learning technique in writing classrooms There is not space here to examine all of these studies, so those which are of particular relevance to the current study have been selected In this section, only four studies that were seen to have a close connection to the theoretical framework of the current study are presented, with the aim of providing proper justification for the design of the current study The aims, background, methodological designs, data collection instruments, and results of these selected studies are examined below

Hu and Lam (2010) investigated whether PF can be considered to be

an effective pedagogical activity in a Chinese L2 writing context, and whether factors such as perceptions of the influence of PF on writing, previous experience, feedback preference and beliefs, relate to its pedagogical effectiveness as an activity The subjects were 20 postgraduate students enrolled

on an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme, and the investigation lasted 12 weeks The subjects were required to write four assignments, three drafts each PF was given on the first draft, and teacher feedback was given on the second The first drafts, peer comments and revised drafts were collected as data for the study, as well as questionnaire and interview data The findings revealed that

there were significant improvements in the revised drafts, and that the level of learners’ interest in PF did not affect the effectiveness of PF as an activity Additionally, PF was generally accepted as a “socioculturally appropriate pedagogical activity” in a Chinese L2 context The use of questionnaires, interviews and documentary evidence are seen as points of relevance to our study

Using an action research approach, McMahon (2010) sought to analyse

a common problem identified in previous PF studies that students could be reluctant to participate for fear of appearing critical (as discussed above in section 2.9.1 on the general benefits and limitations of PF) He observed that this reluctance led the students to act as a learning audience rather than as a learning community The subjects of this study were undergraduate social science students enrolled on an education module As this study was carried out over four years, four cohorts were examined, with more than 20 students in each cohort During the fourth cohort, a self-assessment technique was involved as an additional technique to PF No control group was used in this study The focus was on helping the students to generate high quality feedback for their peers The subjects were divided into groups, and they were required to provide on their classmates’ performances in written essays The main research technique was observation and reflection by the researcher, but data were also collected using questionnaires and written evidence, such as students’ written comments McMahon’s study revealed that by the end of the intervention the students had become participants who produced immediate, reflective and useful feedback They had also become more enthusiastic about taking part in the process, as opposed to feeling uncomfortable, as they had at the beginning The key factors in bringing about this change were the facts that the feedback was provided formatively rather than summatively; that proper training was provided

in how to use assessment criteria in the peer feedback technique, and that training was given in how to use and receive peer feedback The study concluded that PF can generate more positive results when used jointly with self-assessment

techniques, for the reason that it can play a role in motivating learners to improve their written work The fact that the study was a piece of action research in which a control group was not employed, and the fact that the researcher used his own observations, questionnaires and documentary evidence to collect the data are seen as points of relevance to our study

Zhao’s (2010) study was a comparative study comparing peer and teacher feedback The subjects involved in this study were 18 undergraduate students enrolled on a 16-week writing course He investigated learners’ use and understanding of both forms of feedback He argued that learners may use the feedback, but not necessarily with full understanding of why it was given As the feedback was given at both macro and micro levels, he collected data using three research methods, namely content analysis of the feedback provided, interviews designed to investigate learners’ understanding of this feedback, and interviews designed to investigate the factors that affected their responses to the feedback The students worked in pairs to give feedback on the first drafts, and then the teacher gave feedback on the second drafts The results suggested that the subjects incorporated more of the teacher feedback than that provided by peers The study revealed that the learners had incorporated a larger percentage of teacher feedback into their redrafts without understanding its value or significance, however Both the amount of the incorporated feedback and the level of understanding were mainly determined by interviews Additionally, learners accepted teacher feedback passively, and the use of their mother tongue on the part of the students when giving PF was considered facilitative in terms of ensuring better interaction The study concluded that the learners’ understanding of the feedback provided should be given a relative value when developing writing proficiency The duration of Zhao’s study, the use of pair work, the use of documentary evidence, and the use of interviews for investigating how students treated the PF they received, are seen as points of relevance to this study

Albesher (2011) carried out a study to investigate the effectiveness of collaborative learning with 48 ESL Saudi undergraduate students in writing classes The duration of the study was 3 hours a week for 11 weeks The aim of his study was to determine who produced better texts in terms of both macro and micro level features — those who worked individually or those who worked collaboratively Additionally, the aim was to determine whether collaborative learning had a positive impact on learners’ attitudes and perceptions The subjects worked in small groups and PF was given in these groups at the revising and editing stages

of the process approach during each session This study used two groups: an experimental (23 students) and a control (25 students) group The study used pre- and post-questionnaires and pre- and post-tests, and 4 subjects were randomly selected for interview at the end of the study The findings showed that the learners had improved their writing at the macro level as a result of collaborative work, in which an expert was included However, collaborative learning had not helped the students to improve at the micro level The questionnaires and the interviews revealed that students in the experimental group held more positive attitudes towards collaborative learning and towards macro level features (but not micro level features) after their involvement in collaborative writing The overall conclusion of Albesher’s study was that collaborative learning helped learners to improve their texts and to feel more positive about writing Points

of relevance in Albesher’s study are the use of the process approach to essay writing, the use of pre and post-questionnaires, pre- and post-tests, and interviews.In conclusion, the empirical studies included in this section have been selected with the aim of providing justification for the design of the current study The points of relevance which were highlighted in each study justify the current study’s use of, for instance, the data collection instruments, sample size, process approach, scoring rubrics, duration of the study, and training of the participants in using the peer feedback technique The fact that the other researchers had utilised these aspects in their studies encouraged me to use them in the current study

2.7 Assessing students’ writing

Assessment is the gathering of information about student learning It can be used for formative purposes−−to adjust instruction−−or summative purposes: to render a judgment about the quality of student work It is a key instructional activity, and teachers engage in it every day in a variety of informal and formal ways

Assessment of student writing is a process Assessment of student writing and performance in the class should occur at many different stages throughout the course and could come in many different forms At various points in the assessment process, teachers usually take on different roles such as motivator, collaborator, critic, evaluator, etc., (see Brooke Horvath for more on these roles) and give different types of response

One of the major purposes of writing assessment is to provide feedback to students We know that feedback is crucial to writing development The 2004 Harvard Study of Writing concluded, "Feedback emerged as the hero and the anti-hero of our study−powerful enough to convince students that they could or couldn't

do the work in a given field, to push them toward or away from selecting their majors, and contributed, more than any other single factor, to students' sense of academic belonging or alienation"

Writing assessment refers not only to evaluating a student's final paper and assigning it a grade, but also to measuring a student's knowledge of the elements of writing we have taught him Assessment is a crucial part of the instructional process and of a student's growth as a writer, but it also demands much of the teacher We might revise an old writer's saying to read that "we love everything about teaching writing except the paper work."

Yet it is not true that we must assess everything students write; if we did so, our students would not write nearly as much as they must if they are to improve Such purposeful writing requires a constructive response, feedback that helps students revise a specific paper and improve their future performance Students