Comparison of Peer Feedback by Undergraduate Korean Students and Native English Freshmen

Studies on peer feedback by L2 learners generally report several benefits and positive effects of peer feedback on revision and support the use of peer feedback in writing classrooms. Despite these findings, peer feedback is found to be distrusted and scarcely utilized in writing classrooms in Korea. Students' lack of English proficiency has been cited as one of the primary reasons behind the distrust. In order to investigate whether students' English proficiency is a barrier in generating helpful peer feedback, this study analyzed the peer feedback produced by undergraduate Korean students studying in the U.S. and compared it to that of native English freshmen. 2,063 idea units of peer feedback produced by 12 Korean students and 20 native English students under comparable conditions were analyzed in terms of quantity, quality (helpfulness) and pragmatic features. The results show that the feedback generated by Korean students is similar to that of native English students in quantity and nearly similar in quality (helpfulness). Differences in pragmatic features of feedback are also discussed.