| Peer review,also known as peer feedback,refers to a kind of teaching activity in which students use certain means to exchange writings with each other and put forward suggestions for revision in order to improve the quality and skills of writing(Liu&Hansen,2013).Many scholars have explored the influence of peer review on students’writings from different perspectives and proved that peer review plays a positive role in improving students’writing skills and writing ability.In recent studies of peer review,efforts are made to combine psychological factors(such as self-efficacy and anxiety)with reviewing process to explore its impact on learners’performance.Although some studies have delved into the relationship between students’writing anxiety and provision and implementation of feedback,this line of research is still in need of further and comprehensive investigation.Also,in the feedback analysis,researches often deal with its focus of what students say rather than its forms referring to how students say and its stances focusing on what students stand for,which needs more exploring.Therefore,this study selects 50 English major postgraduates in a research-oriented university in Northeast China as research participants,makes deep analysis of 100 writings(two drafts)of one writing assignment and 1272implementable comments by these participants through peer review,and intends to answer the following three research questions from three analytical theories:Tobia’s three-stage model,Zone of proximal development and scaffolding,and cooperative learning:(1)What is students’level of English writing anxiety?(2)How does students’English writing anxiety relate to the form and the stance of peer feedback they provide in peer review?(3)How does students’English writing anxiety relate to the form and the stance of peer feedback they implement in peer review?By using correlation analysis and stepwise linear regression analysis,the results show that:(1)students’writing anxiety is at a moderate level(M=60.28).That’s to say,students have a medium level anxiety on English writing.(2)writing anxiety negatively correlates and predicts students’providing of different feedback forms and stances.Specifically,it negatively predicts giving suggestions or solutions(F=12.26,p<0.001,R~2=0.44),and interpretative stance(F=4.448,p<0.05,R~2=0.162)in the high anxiety group.Among the sub-dimensions of writing anxiety,avoidance behavior and classroom anxiety are more significant negative predictors for providing feedback.However,for low anxiety group,moderate writing anxiety can also positively enhance students’feedback provision,especially giving suggestions or solutions and collaborative stance(F=9.973,p<0.05,R~2=0.302).(3)writing anxiety negatively correlates and predicts students’implementation of two forms of feedback:identifying problems(F=4.40,p<0.05,R~2=0.094),giving explanations(F=4.29,p<0.05,R~2=0.103),and one stance of feedback:collaborative stance(F=5.86,p<0.05,R~2=0.163).Among the sub-dimensions of writing anxiety,constructive anxiety is the most negative predictor for implementation.This study reveals that writing anxiety has impacts on student performance in providing and implementing peer feedback,suggesting that concerns should be given to modulate student writing anxiety in order to improve student performance in peer review.The limitations of this study is that the number of participants selected is not big enough,and the effect of writing anxiety on writing improvement through peer review is not included in this study.Therefore,further research should include more research participants,and explore the impact of writing anxiety on writing improvement through peer review. |
