The Effectiveness of Peer Feedback on the Efl Students' Composition Writing Performance; Raya/Mekhoni Preparatory School in Focus
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The major objective of th is study was to inves tigate th e effectiveness of p ee r feedback
!ecllniqu e in Raya / Meklwni I]''' gra de student s' compos ition wri ting. Th e specific objectives
were: a) to exa mille in what aspects of th e writing skill the techn iqu e was more he lpfitl to
the learners, b) to fin d out th e percep tions of the students to wa rds the practice of p eer
feedba ck, and c) to find alit so me of the possible adva ntages and drawba cks of this
tec liniqlle.
To acllieve these objectives a sa mple of 32 students were selected random ly and th e
required da/a were collected through exp eriment and students qu es tionnaire. The 32
saillp ies of th e st udy were divided into two equal treatm ent groups. Th e first experimental
groups were laught through strict adherence to th e p eer feedback. Bu t th e control groups
we re laught wit hout peer f eedback treatment. This was purpos efitlly don e to see to what
extent sludents who received p ee r feedback showed significan t diffe re nce in their writing
{Jelformance with sludenls who did nol get such trea tm ent. Th e adm.inistere d qu estio nnaire
was diss eminllted to the 16 exp e rim ental students who knew more about how peer f eedback
is practiced in writillg classes.
This exp erimental study lasted for two month s. During th e first two we eks of th e study
pretes t was give n in order to see whet her th e two groups had sim ilar p e rformanc e in
paragraph writing. Th en, training was given to th e exp erim ental grou p on how they can
receive and give peer feedback for one mOllth . The remaining two weeks were used for
poslles t writing to both groups. Two qualified writing teachers rated th e pre alld posttest
res ults of th e two g roups. The first and th e secon d revised draft of expe rim enta l g roup and
th e firs t but ul/revised draji of the control group we re submitted to be marked by the two
rat ers. Allalysis of th e res ults was don e lI sing I-test set at 0.05 level of significance and 30
(N-2) degree of freedom. Analysis of th e students' p erceptiolls towards the use of peer
feedback tech nique was also don e qualitatively and quantitatively,
The ca lculated t-test res ult revealed that there is no statistically sign ifica llt difference ill th e
overall writing pelformance between s tudents who received p eer feed back wit h students
without such treatment. As a res ult of this the formulated null hypothesis, no signijica nce
differenc e in o ve rall writing pelformance between th e two groups is accepted. However, th e
stu dy showed th at, p eer feedba ck has strong co rrelation with students' progress on
cohesion, mechanics and sp eiling features of writing. Th e analysis 0/ the data obtained
through student questionnaire indicated that students had positive attitude to wa rds th e
practice of p eer revision.
Th erefo re it was reco mm ended that if th ere is a nee d to bring remarkable change and exten sive
progress in co hes ion, mec hanics (m d spelling asp ects of writillg, we ll managed and consistent
peer revisio n training is co nsidered necessa ry, Furth erm ore Engli sh language teachers should
mot ivale their sllldenls to cOlll lll ent each oth er 's paper in stead of dominant!F employing tea cher
feedbuck as a sale effective technique in composition classes.
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Keywords
Peer Feedback