The Effects of Peer-Response Activities on Senior High School Students in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chia-ning Liao, 廖家寧
• Other Authors: Kai-ling Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/66881503939768772987

碩士 === 東海大學 === 外國語文學系 === 93 === The Effects of Peer-Response Activities on Senior High School Students in Taiwan Chia-Ning Jenny Liao, M.A. Tunghai University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Kai-Ling Wu ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of peer-response activities on senior high school students in Taiwan. It was designed to examine: 1) EFL senior high school students’ attitudes towards peer-response activities before and after the implementation of the activities, 2) benefits of the peer-response activities, and 3) problems the students encountered throughout the peer-response activities. Forty second-year students in a senior high school in Taichung County were included in this study. The students were taught how to write English narratives and were guided to participate in the peer-response activities throughout the study. The data collected from this study consisted of attitudes questionnaires, peer-response questionnaires, text analyses of students’ narrative paragraphs, and audiotaped interviews with students. The results showed that the peer-response activities had positive effects on EFL senior high school students. First, most students held positive attitudes towards peer-response activities before and after the implementation of the activities. Additionally, the majority of the students reported that they benefited from the peer-response activities linguistically, cognitively, and socially. Moreover, most students reported that they did not encounter problems throughout the peer-response activities. Only a limited number of the students indicated that they had difficulties providing specific comments on their peers’ writings and felt nervous when participating in the peer-response activities. Based on the research findings, some pedagogical and research implications are discussed in the conclusion of the study.