Abstract Based on the previous studies of the feasibility and effectiveness of peer feedback in EFL writing instruction, this paper aims to provide several pedagogical suggestions for college English writing in China. Results show that students hold positive attitude towards peer feedback; students are capable of assessing others’ essays; significant improvements have been made in writing proficiency, especially for the reviewers; the reviewers become good self-revisers. Then pedagogical implications are provide based on the above conclusions, including 1) training students to be effective peer reviewers; 2) designing the procedure and steps of peer feedback with care; 3) establishing more operational scoring criteria; 4) combining peer feedback with teacher feedback effectively. Peer feedback plays a significant role in college English writing instruction in China.53095

Keywords: English writing; peer feedback; teacher feedback

摘要本研究旨在归纳同伴反馈在英语写作教学中可行性和有效性的基础上，提出几点中国大学英语写作教学方面的建议。研究表明：学生对同伴反馈持积极肯定的态度；学生具备评价他人作文的能力；同伴反馈使提供反馈的学生在写作水平上有了明显的进步；同伴反馈使得提供反馈的学生能更好地修改自己的作文。基于以上结论，笔者提出如下教学方面的建议：1) 培训学生，使其能提供更有效的同伴反馈；2) 严密设计同伴反馈的过程和步骤；3） 建立易于操作的评分标准；4）将同伴反馈和教师反馈有效地结合 。同伴反馈在中国大学英语写作教学中有着积极的意义。

关键词：英语写作；同伴反馈；教师反馈

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 Definition of Feedback and Peer Feedback 1

2.2 Theoretical Bases 2

2.3 Studies of Peer Feedback in Writing 4

3. The Feasibility and Effectiveness of Peer Feedback 5

3.1 The Feasibility of Peer Feedback 5

3.2. The Effectiveness of Peer Feedback 7

4. Pedagogical Implications for College English Writing Instruction 10

4.1 Training Students to be Effective Peer Reviewers 10

4.2 Designing Peer Feedback with Care 11

4.3 Establishing Operational Scoring Criteria 12

4.4 Combining Peer Feedback with Teacher Feedback 13

5. Conclusion 13

Works Cited 15

1. Introduction

EFL Writing as one of the most important language skills has been receiving more and more attention worldwide. How to improve Chinese students’ English writing proficiency remains a difficult job for experts and English teachers.

Product approach has long been dominant in the traditional teaching of writing. Usually the teachers spend a lot of time evaluating and informing students’ types of error. To teachers, it is too much work involved in the reading of students’ writing after class and too low efficiency is achieved. To students, who spend a lot of time practicing writing, the effect is not always satisfactory. What’s more, students cannot fully understand their teachers’ comments, and they cannot incorporate teacher feedback properly, thus the Chinese students’ writing proficiency has not been improved significantly.

Under such circumstances, various methods have been adopted in English writing instruction, including the “process approach”, which attaches more importance to the writing process. Writing becomes a multiple-draft issue, and students have more autonomy. Peer feedback as one of its approaches, has been widely used in EFL writing instruction. This paper aims to provide several teaching suggestions for Chinese college English writing instruction by using effective peer feedback.