The impact and effect of using weblog peer feedback to promote EFL high school students' writings

• Main Author: Huang, Zhi-Yong
• Published: Queen's University Belfast 2015
• Subjects: 428
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.695373

With the widespread use of networked computers and the advent of technology, there has been an increasing emphasis on the integration of technology into English as a foreign language(EFL)writing instruction. The study aims to investigate Taiwanese senior high school students' perceptions of different types of feedback received from the face-to-face peer discussion and in the blog-based communications. Furthermore, the purpose of the study is to seek to a) explore the impact and effect of peer feedback in face-to-face discussion and blog-based environment, b)investigate students' perceptions of different modes of peer feedback, c) examine the way students give comments and types of comments that were made in different peer-feedback modes, d) provide insightful suggestions for implications and future research. One of the most important findings to emerge from this study is that students have the tendency to provide more comments on the local level of writing in both face-to-face peer discussion and blog-based peer communications. However, the peer feedback types emerged from the face-to-face discussion were more evenly distributed across various areas in the writing. The study has also shown that the participants incorporate a higher number of comments made in both peer feedback modes. However, the participants are more interactively engaged in the face-to-face peer feedback activity. Factors influencing the process of peer feedback activity are identified: a) intrinsic factors, b) extrinsic factors, c) environmental factors. The limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are also addressed.