A Study On The Application Of Integrating Teacher Feedback And Peer Feedback To English Writing In Senior High School

As an important part of writing teaching,feedback plays a crucial role in the development of second-language writing skills and is conducive to improving learners’ writing proficiency.Traditional writing classes focus on teacher feedback in which teachers play a leading role in English writing.The kind of one-way evaluation of students’ writing leads to a lack of interaction between teachers and students and reduces students’ motivation and initiative to learn.In recent decades,a large number of scholars argue that peer feedback,based on cooperative learning among students,can stimulate students’ learning initiative and improve their learning efficiency.However,in the peer feedback,students’ limited English proficiency prevents them from providing constructive feedback for their peers.Given that neither teacher nor peer feedback is satisfactory,it is necessary to integrate the two types of feedback.The present study represents a research endeavor in this field.This study attempts to compare the combined peer-teacher feedback with teacher feedback in the context of senior high school English writing.Based on the process-oriented writing approach,cooperative learning theory,zone of proximal development,and activity theory,this study proposes the following three questions:(1)What are the effects of the integration of teacher and peer feedback on students’ general writing performance?(2)What are the effects of the integration of teacher and peer feedback on students’ specific writing performance in terms of content,structure,vocabulary,grammar,and technical details in English writing?(3)What are the students’ attitudes towards the integration of teacher and peer feedback in English writing? In order to answer these questions,100 students participated in the study.They were from two intact classes in Wendeng Nanhai Experimental Senior High School.The number of students in the experimental class and the control class was 50 respectively.Teacher feedback was used in the control class(Class 1),and the integration of teacher feedback and peer feedback was used in the experimental class(Class 2).After the three-month teaching experiment,both groups took a writing test.A questionnaire and an interview were also conducted to further investigate the effects of different feedback types upon the participants’ writing.The results showed that both types of feedback can help students improve their general writing performance,but students who received the integration of teacher and peer feedback improved significantly and made greater progress in their English writing in terms of content,structure,and vocabulary.In addition,students had positive attitudes towards the integration of peer and teacher feedback.They believed that the integration of teacher feedback and peer feedback can improve their English writing.This study provides some pedagogical implications for future English writing instruction in senior high school.It suggests that teachers should try to combine teacher feedback with peer feedback to optimize the writing teaching.In order to make peer feedback have a better effect,teachers should pay more attention to peer feedback training.