A Study Of Peer Feedback Literacy Of Chinese University Students In English Writing

Student feedback literacy refers to students’ capacities of,and attitudes towards implementing received feedback,which are influenced by various individual and contextual factors.In peer feedback activities,students have dual identities,being both feedback providers and feedback receivers.Thus,students’ peer feedback literacy possesses its own particularity compared with general feedback literacy of students in other learning contexts,which mainly focuses on students’ receiving feedback.Research on peer feedback literacy is still in the embryonic phase.A clear definition and a reliable and valid measurement of peer feedback literacy are both needed.And there is little comprehensive research on peer feedback literacy,the relationship between peer feedback literacy and students’ peer feedback performance,and the influencing factors of peer feedback literacy.This study defines students’ peer feedback literacy as the abilities in and attitudes towards providing and receiving peer feedback.Based on the conceptual frameworks of student feedback literacy,the theoretical model of ability effects on peer assessment and ICAP Theory,this study proposes its theoretical framework of peer feedback literacy in English writing.Guided by the proposed theoretical framework,this study took peer feedback literacy as its research topic,recruited altogether 1033 Chinese undergraduates and postgraduate students as research participants in various research stages,collected a large amount of data(including questionnaire responses,interview recordings,students’ reflective journals,writing drafts,and peer feedback comments)and coded the text data.Specifically,the study aims to answer the following four research questions.Research Question 1: what is the factorial structure of peer feedback literacy in English writing of Chinese university English learners?Research Question 2: what is the status quo and features of of students’ peer feedback literacy?Research Question 3: what is the relationship between students’ peer feedback literacy and their peer feedback performances?Research Question 4: what are the influencing factors of peer feedback literacy?This study employed both quantitative research methods,such as item analysis,exploratory factor analysis,confirmatory factor analysis;and qualitative research methods,including text analysis,thematic analysis and case analysis.The research findings are as follows.(1)By developing and validating the peer feedback literacy scale of Chinese university students,this study found that the emergent concept,students’ peer feedback literacy in English writing was a complex four-factor construct.The four factors were “feedback-related knowledge and abilities”,“willingness to participate”,“cooperative learning ability” and“appreciation of peer feedback”.This factorial structure was consistent with the proposed peer feedback literacy concept and covered both abilities and attitudes in both providing and receiving peer feedback.(2)The questionnaire survey results showed that students’ peer feedback literacy was at an intermediate level.Among its four factors,“willingness to participate” was at the high level and the other three factors were all at the intermediate level.By comprehensively analyzing multiple data of the focal students,it was found that students had strong “willingness to participate” and appreciated the peer feedback activities on the whole.However,they conspicuously differed in “feedback-related knowledge and abilities”.The focal students had low scores in “cooperative learning ability”.Most of them were worried about cooperative learning.(3)A series of regression analyses were conducted on peer feedback literacy,peer feedback motivation,peer feedback anxiety,scores of final writings,the number of students’ provided comments and the implementation rates of each type of peer comments.On the whole,peer feedback literacy,together with the scores of students’ first drafts,could positively predict the final scores.From the perspective of proving feedback,peer feedback literacy can positively influence the amount of the whole provided comments,as well as the amount of each type of peer comments.When peer feedback anxiety and peer feedback motivation were considered,the explanatory power would be even stronger.As for implementing feedback,peer feedback literacy could positively predict the implementation rate of the whole number of peer comments as well as that of the various kinds of peer comments.(4)The coding of students’ interview data revealed that the influencing factors of peer feedback literacy could be classified into two major categories: contextual factors and individual factors.Specifically,the contextual factors included instructional design,textual contents,class atmosphere and interpersonal relationships.Instructional factors included a large range of subfactors,such as the workload of other courses,the frequency of peer feedback activities,the process of peer feedback,anonymity,peer grading and the reviewing rubrics.Textual contents included topic familiarity and peer feedback quality.Class atmosphere embraced both the learning atmosphere of the whole class and the influence of nearby peers.The individual factors included five subfactors: feedback beliefs,feedback experience,English ability,feedback anxiety,and feedback motivation.Among them,feedback anxiety included self-anxiety and score anxiety.Feedback motivation included both the external motivation,such as completing the tasks assigned by the instructor,and the internal motivation,such as enhancing one’s writing competence.The study had the following theoretical contributions.(1)The comprehensive theoretical framework of peer feedback literacy in English writing was proposed and optimized.Thus,the understanding of peer feedback literacy had been deepened;(2)The factorial structure of peer feedback literacy in English writing had been proposed,which proved that peer feedback literacy was a muti-factor complex construct;(3)The status quo of students’ peer feedback literacy and its positive influence on providing and receiving peer feedback had been revealed;(4)The two influencing factors,i.e.contextual factors and individual factors,of peer feedback literacy had been specified and expanded.The present study’s practical contribution was that it could offer a reliable and valid measurement for front-line teachers,which can help teachers know their students’ level of peer feedback literacy and design their writing instruction accordingly.The pedagogical implications are in the following.Teachers should pay more attention to the complex nature of peer feedback literacy,and thoroughly consider how to cultivate students’ various factors of peer feedback literacy.The imbalance of peer feedback literacy among students and that of different peer feedback literacy factors deserve further consideration,which require teachers to carefully consider students individual characteristics while teaching.The positive function of peer feedback literacy on peer feedback activities should be recognized.Teachers should explore the more effective route of improving students’ peer feedback literacy.Teachers are also responsible to set up conducive contextual factors to peer feedback literacy and fully mobilize students’ individual factors.