Peer Feedback for Increasing EFL Learners’ Writing Skill in ELESP
of Sanata Dharma University
Diana
Kurniawati- 111214002
Abstract
Peer
feedback is common instruction in EFL learners’ learning activity. However, it
is necessary to be provided in classroom activity, especially in writing
activity. Peer feedback is considered as the important learning technique to
develop EFL learners’ writing skill. Therefore, they need partner to give
opinion or correction on their writing draft or result. The writer will discuss
the influence of peer feedback for EFL learners’ writing skill. By interviewing
four respondents, the writer found that EFL learners need partner to give
comments.This essay is made to inform the reader about how peer feedback helps EFL
learner to improve their writing skill.
Key
words: writing skill, peer feedback, EFL learners.
Introduction
Writing is one of the important
skills in English Language Learning that should be learnt by students. It will
help students to increase their English skills because they will learn about
sentence structure, vocabulary or diction, sentence organization and mechanics
(punctuation and spelling). Therefore, students need to learn how to express
their thoughts in writing form and to be accustom to write in English. In fact,
make a written text in English is not easy for students especially for EFL
learners. They often face many
difficulties and make mistakes in their writing projects so that they need help
from others to check or give comments to their writing draft. One strategy that
can be used to help them in writing process is peer feedback. According to
Anderson and Brophy (1982) in Hyland (2006), feedback is widely seen in
education as crucial for both encouraging and consolidating learning which has
been working in the field of second language writing. It can be said that
feedback is a key element of students’ growing control over writing skill in
which knowledge is involved. Peer feedback is kind of comments which have its
role in learning process. Peer feedback is about giving comments on particular
reason in pairs.This essay will discuss how peer feedback helps EFL learners to
improve their writing skill and what advantages of peer feedback that will be
got by EFL learners to increase their knowledge and social interaction skill.
Review
of Literature
Writing isthe process of
transforming the material discovered by research inspiration, accident, trial
or whatever into a message with a definite meaning (Lannon, 1989 in Thu Ha,
2011). It means, writing is a process of deliberate decision that must convey a
message with a meaning. There are three types of writing – narrative, argumentativeand
persuasion.
According to Hyland (2006),“from
socio – cognitive perspective, peer review can be seen as a formative
developmental process that gives writers the opportunities to discuss their
text and discover others’ interpretations of them.”It gives students a chance
to enrich their writing knowledge and build their social skill.
The students refer to English as
Foreign Language students (EFL). “EFL means English as studied by people who
live in places where English is not the first language of the first language of
the people who live in the country” (Gebhard, 1996). The subject of this study
is Indonesian learners and they are ELESP students who included in EFL learners
and use English only in learning process activity in campus actively.Alderson
(2005) students whose first language is not that of the presenter institution
need to be able to write in the language that is in the medium of instruction. Therefore,
EFL learners need to be guided in learning process.
Liu (2005) in Jahin (2012) stated
that peer review is supported by several theoretical frameworks, including
process writing, collaborative learning theory, Vygotsky’s Zone Proximal
Development, and interaction and second language acquisition. ZPD theory of Vygotsky
in theory of cognitive skill which focuses in social practice in learning
process, students need to interact with others to develop their knowledge,
understanding and improve their learning skill. Peer feedback provides social
practice in learning so that students get chance to communicate and interact
when they are learning. It means that learning process is not only focused on
cognitive aspect but also affective and psychomotor. Thus, by doing peer
feedback, learners will learn and improve their knowledge and social skill that
is needed for developing their life skill.
Methodology
The
method of research was a survey conducted by interviewing the respondents
directly. All the respondents are students of English Language Education Study
Program (ELESP) of Sanata Dharma University. The writer did interview to four
students in the same semester (semester five) at Sanata Dharma University by
asking some questions about their experience and opinion about peer feedback in
writing process directly. The following is the list of questions interview:
1.
Do you like to write? Why?
2.
What kinds of written text that
you like to write? Why?
3.
What are your difficulties in
writing?
4.
What do you do to overcome your
difficulties?
5.
What factors that influence you
in make mistake?
6.
Have you ever done peer feedback
to check your writing?
7.
What do you think about peer
feedback in writing checking?
8.
How does peer feedback helps your
writing?
Those questions are the major questions that
always asked to all respondents. However, sometimes the writer gaveadditional
questions areasked as a respond ofrespondents’ answer.
Finding
The following are the interview
result. The numbers of respondents are four and the numbers of questions are
eight questions.The writer gave letter Q as question and Res as respondent.
|
Q 1
|
Do you like to write? Why?
|
|
Res A
|
No, because writing spends long time and difficult to get
inspiration.
|
|
Res B
|
No, because it should pay attention in many things especially
grammar and content.
|
|
Res C
|
No, because it needs to long process but lack of motivation.
|
|
Res D
|
Yes, it gives opportunity to share opinion and it can be a
personal library.
|
From the answer, the writer finds
that most of them do not like to write. It is because writing is not easy to do.
In addition, it needs long time to focus more in grammar and content.
|
Q 2
|
What kind of written text that
you like to write? Why?
|
|
Res A
|
Narrative – popular writing because it can be related to daily
life and easy to get references.
|
|
Res B
|
Narrative – popular writing because it can be related to
experiences and easy to get topic.
|
|
Res C
|
Narrative – popular writing because it has huge domain of topic
and related to social life.
|
|
Res D
|
Persuasion – popular because it was easy to get topic and it
could be made more creative and free.
|
The writer finds that all of
respondents choose to write popular article because it is easy to get an idea
for topic and to relate to their social issues. Therefore, they can get
information easily and make connection with their experience.
|
Q 3
|
What are your difficulties in writing?
|
|
Res A
|
Grammar and sentence
organization.
|
|
Res B
|
Grammar and found references.
|
|
Res C
|
Express idea into sentences and
diction.
|
|
Res D
|
Grammar and diction
|
The writer finds three of them get
difficulties in grammar and two of them in diction.
|
Q 4
|
What do you do to overcome your
difficulties?
|
|
Res A
|
Asking friends and using
computer grammar checking.
|
|
Res B
|
Asking friends and using
computer grammar checking.
|
|
Res C
|
Open dictionary.
|
|
Res D
|
Asking friends and go somewhere
to refresh mind.
|
Based on respondents’ answer, asking
friends is chosen by the respondents to overcome students’ difficulties and
confusion. Then, they also choose to use computer grammar checking.
|
Q 5
|
What are the factors that
influence you to make a mistake?
|
|
Res A
|
Less rigorous, lack of practice
and there was no willingness.
|
|
Res B
|
In a hurry and lack of
comprehension.
|
|
Res C
|
Lack of practice and work in a
hurry
|
|
Res D
|
Lack of practice and
carelessness.
|
According to the respondents’
answer, all of them are lack of writing practice so that it makes them become
careless and work in hurry because they lack of willingness to write.
|
Q 6
|
Have you ever done peer
feedback to check your writing?
|
|
Res A
|
Yes, sometimes
|
|
Res B
|
Yes, usually
|
|
Res C
|
Yes, usually
|
|
Res D
|
Yes, seldom
|
Based on the answer, the
respondents usually find partner to give comments in writing project and they also
make a discussion when they were checking each other writing. In addition, respondents
ask 1 up to 3 friends to check their writing.
|
Q 7
|
What do you think about peer
feedback in writing checking?
|
|
Res A
|
Helping to develop writing
content and improving grammar.
|
|
Res B
|
Helping to get more information
in writing e.g. generic structure of the text, the grammar is used.
|
|
Res C
|
Getting more information,
learning more about writing.
|
|
Res D
|
Developing writing and the
meaning of content and get more information.
|
Based on the result, the
respondents find that peer feedback helps them to be more aware and meticulous
in grammar and content.
|
Q 8
|
How does peer feedback helps
your writing?
|
|
Res A
|
More careful when writing.
|
|
Res B
|
More careful when writing and
aware about the weaknesses.
|
|
Res C
|
More careful when writing.
|
|
Res D
|
More careful when writing and
aware about the strengths and weaknesses.
|
Based on the data, the writer finds
that feedback helps respondents to be more careful when they write and aware
about their strengths and weaknesses in writing.Therefore, they can revise
their writing or improve their next writing projects.
Discussion
From social – cognitive
perspective, peer feedback can be seen as formative developmental process that
gives writers the opportunities to discuss their text and discovers others’
interpretation of them (Hyland, 2006). Peer feedback gives positive influences
for students’ writing performance. Therefore, it is aimed to improve their
writing skill. Producing good writing with little mistakes behind is not easy
for EFL learners. They face many difficulties when they are writing. Base on
the interview result most of them got mistakes in grammatical accuracy and
diction. Grammar and diction are considered as the two difficult parts of writing.
Students’ cultural background influences their knowledge of diction and
grammar. According to Sally (1999)as cited in McKay(2006) students whose
schemata do not occur with the ideas of the text will have greater difficulty
to read and write than who bring the same knowledge and culture as the text.
Based on the result of
interviewing, peer feedback has a role to help EFL students in writing process.
There are some benefits of peer feedback that the students can identify. According
to Mendoca and Jhonson (1994 in Chin Lin, 2009) peer feedback suggested as
pedagogy of providing more self-control to language learner. It provides more
flexible and non-coercive so that students get opportunities to read different
format of thinking and arguing. Then, students are able to self-evaluate
through reading their peers’ writing.
Peer correction allows students
to see similar problem and weaknesses in their own writing (Grabe& Kaplan,
1996 in Chin Lin, 2009). It gives studentsopportunity to have a discussion and
find out their strengths and weaknesses in writing. Later, students can try to
find the solutions to improve their next writing projects. Moreover, students
can improve their critical thinking skill as a reader because they also learn
to evaluate others’ writing projects. Allyn and Bacon (1989) stated that students
learn how to write by writing and they also learn how to write by reading.
Peer feedback builds students’
comprehension of information or knowledge. Knowledge associated the real life
is more valuable knowledge (Dewey, 1952 in Chin Lin, 2009). Students not only
build their cognitive skill but also build affective skill in learning process.
Students learn to interact with their friends and respect others.
Conclusion
In
conclusion, peer feedback is mostly used by students in writing process to help
them in revising their writing project and reducing their writing mistakes. Peer
feedback also improves students’ thinking skill critically when they evaluate
their friends’ writing project. Students can also get information and knowledge
from discussion and feedback that they have got. Through peer feedback,
students not only learn to write well but also learn to build and improve their
social interaction with others.
References
Alderson,
J.C. (2005). Diagnosing Foreign Language
Proficiency: The interface between Learning and Assessment. London: British
Library Cataloguing
Chin
Lin, G.H., &ChiehChien, S.P. (2009).An
Investigation into Effectiveness of Peer feedback.University of Southern
California.
Gebhard,
J.G. ( 1996). Teaching English as a
Foreign or Second Language; Teacher Self-development and Methodology Guide.Ann
Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Hyland,
K., & Hyland, P. (2006).Feedback in
Second Language Writing; context and issue.New York:Cambridge University
Press.
Jahin,
J.H. (2012) The Effect of Peer Reviewing
on Writing Apprehension and Essay Writing Ability of Prospective EFL Teachers.Australian
Journal of Teacher Education.
Retrieved
from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1802&context=ajte on December, 16 2013
McKay, P (2006). Assessing Young Language Learners.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thu Ha, T
(2011).Integrating reading and writing
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