Oral peer feedback in process approach implemented EFL writing classes

As a reflection of the co-operative learning theory and the process approach, peer feedback is used in process approach implemented writing classroom. By this, teachers aim at helping student writers to develop a sense of audience, to move from writer-based prose to reader- based prose, and to motivate for revision. Despite this, classroom experiences are not very encouraging about using peer feedback, and teachers have reservations about the effectiveness of it. These initiated several classroom oriented studies, and researchers started to investigate different factors, such as stances readers adopt during peer feedback sessions and their attitudes towards peer feedback, that influence peer feedback. Based on the review of empirical studies, the purpose of this study is to investigate the stances adopted by EFL readers, function and content categories used by readers in different stances, their attitudes towards peer feedback and finally to investigate the relation between the reader's stance and writer's attitude. For this purpose, proficient EFL writers were selected and two sets of data were collected for analysis. First one consisted of the peer feedback interactions of the sixteen pairs and the other was the journals in which the subjects expressed their attitudes towards peer feedback. The qualitative analysis of the data indicated that Turkish readers in the study adopted four different stances towards the writer and the text. The observed stances are authoritative, interpretive, probing, and collaborative. The quantitative analysis indicated that there were differences between stances in terms of content and function categories used by these readers. Analysis of the journals indicated that subjects could be divided into four categories according to their attitudes towards peer feedback. These attitudes were positive, negative, mixed and prefer teacher feedback. The subjects also expressed the positive effects of peer feedback on content, and organization and style. On the other hand, their comments focused on limitations of students as critics and limitations of peer review task. Investigation of the relation between the reader's stance and the writer's attitude indicated no significant relation between these two variables.