The role and perception of peer and teacher feedback in multiple-draft feedback provision on foreign language learners’ writing

This paper presents the findings of an experimental study which examines how effective peer feedback is as a substitute for teacher feedback in computer-mediated multiple-draft feedback provision on undergraduate EFL learners’ writing. Sixty-five university students were assigned to two comparison groups to receive different feedback treatments. The first group (N = 33) was given multiple-draft feedback on three subsequent drafts of the same text only by the teacher, while the second group (N = 32) was given feedback by three peers on the first draft, and by the teacher on the second and third drafts. The study adopted a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design, with two comparison groups which differed in the source of feedback they received on their writing. The data analysis was conducted by employing the Wilcoxon rank test to evaluate changes in writing quality scores after the treatments. Moreover, the paper discusses how learners in the comparison groups perceived teacher-only and combined peer-teacher feedback, specifically focusing on giving and receiving peer feedback. The findings of the study indicate that both peer-teacher and teacher-only feedback contributed to significant improvement in writing quality in both comparison groups regarding all three perspectives from which the writing quality was assessed – overall quality, genre, and register. The findings confirm learners’ strong preference for teacher feedback, but also show that peer feedback helps develop learners’ writing ability and performance, and aids learners with their own learning process.