A Research On The Application Of Peer Assessment In English Writing Of Secondary School Students From The Perspective Of Cooperative Learning

The important role of English writing in testing students’ language acquisition cannot be denied.The publication of the English Curriculum Standards for Secondary Vocational Schools(2020 Edition)(hereinafter referred to as “the standards”)and the reform of the secondary school curriculum have put forward higher-level requirements for secondary school students’ English writing skills and learning styles.In terms of English writing skills,secondary school students are required to be able to fill in simple forms;to imitate job application resumes and emails based on samples,etc.In terms of learning styles,group discussion,peer support and cooperative learning are advocated to improve students’ language application skills and learning efficiency.However,in the concrete teaching practice,there is still a certain gap between the English writing skills and learning styles of secondary school students and the requirements of the curriculum.Writing teaching is still the weak link in secondary English teaching,and is a hot issue of common concern for teachers and students.The research on peer assessment at home and abroad has been analyzed in terms of both the target group and the content of the research: the target group of peer assessment research is mostly students with high English proficiency,good foundation and some writing experience,but there are only a few researches on vocational students with weak English foundation and limited writing experience;the attitudes of foreign researchers towards peer assessment are contradictory and the results of researches in native English-speaking environments are not applicable to students in vocational education.The results of the research in the native English-speaking environment are not applicable to the English-speaking classroom environment in China;as most of the empirical researches on peer assessment in China are based on foreign researches,their credibility needs to be further investigated.Based on the summary of previous researches,this research took 70 secondary school students as the research subjects,relied on cooperative learning theory,nearest development area theory and writing self-efficacy theory,adopted quantitative and qualitative research methods and aimed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of peer assessment applied in secondary school English writing teaching,explored the inspiration and suggestions of peer assessment in secondary school English writing teaching,so as to improve students’ English writing level.This research mainly addressed the following three questions:(1)Did the English writing performance of secondary school students improve after the implementation of peer assessment?(2)What was the impact of peer assessment on the quality of secondary students’ English writing texts?(3)Did the writing self-efficacy of secondary school students change after the implementation of peer assessment? If so,in what dimensions?This research used quantitative research methods to compare the pre-and post-test scores of students’ English writing in two classes and to analyse whether peer assessment could effectively improve the English writing of secondary school students.By analyzing the composition texts of the students in the experimental class and the peer assessment dimensional scale,the research was able to identify the specific dimensions in which the quality of the English writing texts of the secondary school students improved.The questionnaires were collected and interview data were collated through a qualitative research method to investigate whether and in what dimensions the students’ writing self-efficacy changed after the implementation of peer assessment.Through a 14-week experiment,the results of the research showed that(1)The English composition text scores of both the experimental and control classes improve,but that of experimental class improves more significantly,with a post-test score of 10.45 higher than the pre-test and an improvement value of 2.27 higher than the control class,a significant change in performance and a significant increase in writing output.Peer assessment can effectively improve secondary school students’ English writing performance.(2)From the whole and the part,peer assessment had a positive impact on the dimensions of content relevance,chapter structure,sentences,vocabulary and technical specifications in secondary students’ writing texts,and the effect of improving the quality of secondary students’ texts is considerable.(3)Peer assessment stimulates secondary students’ self-efficacy in writing.Their self-efficacy in writing skills,self-efficacy in writing tasks and self-efficacy in writing in general can directly contribute to the writing process,which is beneficial to creating a learning atmosphere,promoting text revision and enhancing confidence in writing.Although the experiment proved that peer assessment is feasible and effective in teaching English writing at secondary level,there are still many limitations in this research,such as the small sample size,the general design and the long period of research.In addition,this research suggests pedagogical implications such as blending assessment forms,creating a collaborative atmosphere,and paying attention to students’ emotions,and concludes with directions for future research that could be based on the innovations in this research,such as asymmetrical grouping.