Patterns of Peer Feedback and Learner Proficiency in L2 Writing

This study explores to what extent high- and low-proficiency university students provide peer feedback and what kind of peer feedback each group prefers. This is considered in terms of the area (global vs. local), type (clarification, evaluation, suggestion, and alteration), and nature (revision-oriented vs. non-revision-oriented) of comments. To collect peer feedback data, the study employed a peer-review task where 118 Korean university students gave feedback on an unknown student’s first draft of an argumentative essay. The results show that the high-proficiency reviewers differed greatly from the low-proficiency counterparts in the quantity of peer feedback, with the former outperforming the latter. However, the two groups exhibited similar patterns of peer feedback in many ways. Both groups relied heavily on local comments, especially feedback on grammar, with a dearth of global comments such as content and organization. A similar tendency was true in the type of feedback in that both proficiency groups had the strongest preference for alteration comments. Notable as well is that the two groups produced a far higher proportion of revision-oriented comments than non-revision-oriented ones. On the basis of the findings, the study provides pedagogical suggestions to promote effective peer feedback interactions in L2 writing classrooms.