Teacher and peer feedback

This study examines university students’ views of teacher and peer feedback and also investigates the efficacy of teacher and peer feedback for improvement in their L2 writing. Additionally, the current study explores whether there is a difference with regard to the efficacy of each feedback for improvement in writing among the students with different language proficiency levels. Thirty-one students enrolled in an English composition course participated in this study. To answer the research questions, students’ writing samples with 6 different topics were collected, and surveys were also conducted. For the data analysis, descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, chi-square tests, a one-way ANOVA test, and a wilcoxon test were utilized. The results derived from the data analysis were as follows: 1) students revealed generally positive attitudes to both teacher and peer feedback, but it was obvious that the students preferred teacher feedback to peer feedback although some advantages of using peer feedback were found; 2) both teacher and peer feedback resulted in better final versions than the first drafts although the students made significantly greater writing improvement after receiving teacher feedback than peer feedback; and 3) more significant differences were found between English level groups for the revised drafts than the first drafts, indicating that teacher feedback was particularly effective for high level students for their writing improvement.