EAL WRITERS AS PEER REVIEWERS
Challenges and Opportunities
Amanda Goldrick-Jones, SFU Student Learning CommonsShauna Jones, SFU Beedie School of Business
What is peer review?
An element of writing as a social, often collaborative process in which writers• give other writers non-judgmental feedback on how
to make a draft better• offer a helping hand through prompts, not a quick
fix through edits.
Why integrate peer review?
For Business Writing, we wanted to help students
Enhance their learning and writing skills learning by teaching
Prepare for collaboration at work move away from dependence on the “expert” or supervisor
Prepare to write for multiple audiences/stakeholders
Improve English fluency and confidence in the case of EAL writers
Why . . . and why not?
OPPORTUNITIESFor EAL students, the positive effects on learning and revision of giving oral & written peer feedback may be greater than the effects of receiving feedback. (Choi, 2013; Min, 2006; Vorobel & Kim, 2013).
CHALLENGESDevolves into mere editing for grammar or mechanics (Holst-Larkin, 2008; Rieber, 2010) “I don’t trust a peer’s writing ability” or “Only the prof/TA’s feedback counts.” Corporate culture: peer review has not been adopted broadly in business faculties (Rieber, 2010)
Integrating peer-review support in BUS 360W
SLC, Week 2: orientation to peer-review strategies
Peer-review RUBRICfor 1st submission SLC, Weeks 4-8:
sessions on argument, paragraphing, sentence structure
Peers revise based on peer reviews for 2nd submission
BUS 360W: Students assigned a
“peer buddy”
BUS 360W peer-reviewed assigns include• Portfolio
exercises• Email case
study• Letter case
study• Peer-review
buddy evaluations
Peer-review RUBRICsample …“checklist approach” (Rieber,
L.J., 2006)
Our research question
Can appropriate training in peer-review—emphasizing higher-order issues and supporting
second-order writing skills—raise the confidence of EAL writers as well as improve their writing fluency?
About BUS 360W: Business Writing at SFU
First, over to you! Discuss opportunities and challenges around ONE of these
questions . . .
How could peer review impact students’ revisions?How could peer review affect EAL students’ confidence in their writing?How might we help peers work through differences in language fluency?
What students said: anxieties
• peer feedback not as high in quality as teacher feedback
• peers should be more equally matched in writing ability
• writer’s mark might suffer if peer gives incorrect feedback
• a peer might unethically borrow a writer’s idea
• the rubric is too restrictive
What students said: positives
• gaining different perspectives• another pair of eyes to spot errors • promotes accountability• more incentive to meet deadlines &
do more revisions• chance to help each other improve• rubric a source of useful guidelines• builds community
Worried about offending the writer?
Confident about finding strengths/weaknesses?
Unsure about your ability to review peer writing?
Although the peer review process takes time and involves organization and planning, it proves its worth at grading time. (Rieber, 2006)
Our model predicts that, when controlling for cGPA, students in one of the sections where the supplemental writing strategies was [sic] incorporated would achieve, on average, almost one letter grade higher (.255 grade points) than those in a section without those supplemental strategies. (For example, the average could go from a B to, roughly, a B+.)
Results of comparative final-grades analysis (over 3 terms)
Although the peer review process takes time and involves organization and planning, it proves its worth at grading time. (Rieber, 2006)
Next step . . .
Analysis of “before and after” writing samples collected from 36 student participants over 3 terms. We’re looking for . . .
• patterns of language in PEER COMMENTS indicating confidence and approach to peer review (prompts? fixes?)
• linguistic features in DRAFTS and REVISIONS indicating writing improvement
We will present these findings in 2016.
Final research stage . . .
Next step . . . Wrap up: using peer review in your classes or in curriculum design
Greatest benefit or opportunity?Greatest challenge?Your main take-away from this session?
EAL Writers as Peer Reviewers: Challenges and Opportunities
Amanda Goldrick-Jones | SFU Student Learning Commons | [email protected] Shauna Jones | SFU Beedie School of Business | [email protected]
Thank you for participating!
ReferencesChoi, J. (2013). Does peer feedback affect L2 writers’ L2 learning, composition skills, metacognitive knowledge, and L2 writing anxiety? English Teaching, 68: 3, 187-213
Holst-Larkin, J. (2008). Actively learning about readers: audience modelling in business writing. Business Communication Quarterly, 71:75, 75-80. DOI: 10.1177/1080569907312878
Min, H. (2006). The effects of trained peer review on EFL students’ revision types and writing quality. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15, 118-141
Rieber, L. J. (2010). Using peer review to improve student writing in business courses. Journal of Education for Business, 81:6, 322-326, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.81.6.322-326
Vorobel, O. & Kim, D. (2013). Focusing on content: discourse in L2 peer review groups. TESOL Journal. DOI: 10.1002/tesj.126