Peer-review as an Important Way to Improve the Teaching of English Writing in Senior High
School
Wang Jinhong
1. Introduction
Writing is an essential part of English study in senior high school which takes up 20 percent in the NMET. The new curriculum standards stipulate that we have to regard it as the general goal in the English teaching cultivating students’ capacity of utilizing language comprehensively. However, how to make the English writing teaching more effective has been puzzling many English teachers for many years. And correcting errors in writing is an indispensable component of writing teaching process. Traditionally, it was believed that correcting the students' writing is the teacher's tasks, but it often resulted in the low quality in writing teaching. Therefore, it's of great significance to explore the effective correction method to improve the teaching quality in writing. This paper is on the basis of the theory of "Cooperative Learning" and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development an d process teaching approach. Based on those , and according to the previous researches , the author designed a writing teaching model suitable for the senior high school students -- peer review to help the student to evaluat
e and revise their articles.
As is known to all, the teaching of writing focuses on the formal accuracy of the language, such as grammar, syntax, and words. Usually, the linear process of teaching writing is like the following: the
teacher assigning the writing topic, students writing, the teacher correcting the formal errors such as words spelling, sentence structure, etc. The students’ writing is an individual and isolated process. Besides that, teachers work their heart out of marking students’ homework underlining and correcting errors one by one, however, students turn blind eyes to exercise books and still make the same mistakes next time. It’s a pity that teachers spend a large quantity of time checking and evaluating homework earnestly in return of failure and ignorance. Peer
review is a writing activity in which students form pairs or groups to read each other's composition and make suggestions for revision (Mangelsdorf, 1992). It is also termed peer feedback, peer response,
peer revision, peer critiquing, peer evaluation, peer editing, etc. In the teaching of English composition , peer review refers to the practice of letting students review and correct the compositions f or each other . Studies have shown t hat students do not learn well when they are
isolated , silent “receivers” of knowledge ( Ellis, 1985) . Indeed , learning is most effective when students overcome both isolation and silence . Peer review exercises succeed in writing class because they give students the opportunity to become actively involved in t he activities with their peers .
Although peer review enjoys strong theoretical support and has become a regular feature of writing instructions abroad, it remains a rare scene in the teaching of English writing in China. Mangelsdorf (1992:117) said this is because peer review is a common activity of the process approach, whereas writing instruction in China is dominated by the product approach, in which only teachers respond to student writing.
In recent years, however, more and more Chinese teachers have become interested in the process approach. Ferris points out that as peer
review is highly recommended by process proponents, it's very likely
that Chinese teachers will try this activity when they adopt the process approach. This study intends to investigate three questions:
(1) How do senior high students of China react to peer review and teacher comments?
(2) What effect does peer review have on student revision?
(3) What kind of problems exist during the application of peer
review in senior high schools? How to avoid or solve these problems?
This study has great significance in China as nowadays in China,
big classes that characterize the teaching of English load the teachers greatly. Usually a teacher has to teach 100 students or so, and the number is going on continuously due to the increase of enrollment in recent years. That means, besides preparing and giving lessons, the teacher has to mark 100 compositions for each writing assignment. Due to the limited time permitted being spent in giving feedback, teachers
either decrease the assignment or reduce the corrections and comments. However, neither of the choices does any
good to the improvement of students’ writing ability. Under such circumstance, peer review can liberate teachers from stacks of papers
and ensure students much practice on writing. In addition, it can make students more responsible for their own learning so as to develop more learner autonomy. Therefore, it is necessary for the present study to explore the possibility of adopting peer review in EFL writing classroom.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Theoretical foundation
Keh (1990: 34 ) said Feedback is a fundamental element of a process approach to writing. In the process approach, reviewing is a greatly enhanced by “having more than o ne person working on it, and the generation of ideas is frequently more lively with two or more people involved than it is when writers work on their own”(Hammer, 2003). As several ESL composition researchers have noted, the peer review has the potential to be a powerful learning tool. Mittan (1989) wrote that peer reviews achieve the following: provide students with an authentic audience: increase students’motivation for writing; enable students to receive different views on their writing; help students learn to read critically their own writing; and assist students in gaining confidence
in their writing etc.
Cooperative learning (Johnson and Johnson, 1986: 3) is “ the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each others’leaning”. The research clearly indicates that Cooperation compared with competitive and individualistic efforts typically results in (a) higher achievement and greater productivity, (b) more caring, supportive, and committed relationships, and (c) greater psychological health, social competence, and self-esteem. Cooperative learning also resulted in more higher-level reasoning, more frequent generation of new ideas and solutions, and greater transfer of what is learned from one situation to another than did competitive or individualistic learning. Specifically, cooperative learning experiences promote positive effectiveness in the following areas: Student
achievement, critical thinking competencies, positive attitudes toward subject area,
peertime on task, interpersonal attraction and cohesion, social support, importance of peer relationships, accuracy of perspective taking, group interaction and social skills, self-esteem and mutual respect (Johnson & Johnson, 1999: 67).
Vygotsky holds that social interaction plays an important role in the development of cognitive ability and learning is not an individual but a cognitive activity that happens through social interaction. He d
etermined at least two developmental levels in order to discover the actual relations of the developmental process to learning capabilities. The first level can be called the actual developmental level and the other the potential level. He defines the zone of proximal development
as “the distance between the actual developme nt level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peer.”
According to Vygotsky (1978), students are capable of performing at higher intellectual levels when asked to work in collaborative
situations than when asked to work individually. Group diversity in
terms of knowledge and experience contributes positively to the learning process. According to his theory, peer review will provide the students an instructional environment in which students both as readers and
writers to interact and thus can contribute to the development of
writing abilities.
2.2 Definitions of “peer review”

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