Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to leam more about how EFL (English as Foreign
Language) students interacted during peer feedback conferences. Thirty EFL students
from Mexico aged 10 to 14 years old participated in this study. The following four main
questions were addressed:
1
.
What criteria did the students use to evaluate their peers' writing?
2. What revisions were made in relation to peer feedback comments?
3. What was the students' behaviour like during peer feedback conferences?
4. What were the students' perceived attitudes concerning peer feedback
conferences?
Each of the 30 students wrote a first and a second draft and then took part in a peer
feedback conference. All students were interviewed and asked to rate a story and provide
a peer feedback comment for the author during interview.
The study found that the EFL students were able to provide comments to their
peers' writing, but only after their third conference were they actually able to provide
higher level comments. The majority of students said that they liked peer feedback
sessions. The results also indicated that the students needed more practice with their
revisions because they did not make a lot of revisions to make their writing clearer with
fewer mistakes. This study concludes that there still needs to be further research. First of
all, it would be useful to conduct a similar study with EFL students but one that is
conducted over a longer period of time in order to determine if the students continued to
develop their peer feedback comments and revision strategies.
