The effect of a training program on writing achievement and peer-feedback

Studies on writing reveal that applying process oriented writing has a positive and contributive influence on students? writing skills and proficiency. Students should get efficient and appropriate feedback from their teachers and classmates to get maximum benefit from this method. If students do not know how to respond to each other?s papers, this method cannot be applied effectively. Considering this, it is believed that students should have a condensed and detailed peer feedback training program. Briefly, the aim of this study is to eliminate possible problems arising from the lack of peer feedback training and to make writing skill an essential part of communication instead of being a tiring and boring process. This study examines the effect of feedback training on writing achievement and the quality of student feedback. The peer feedback training program was conducted for two hours per week for an eight-week period in 2009. Four graduate writing classes consisting of a total of 75 students (39 experimental, 36 control) were selected from the intermediate level of the preparatory program at Dokuz Eylul University, School of Foreign Languages. For this study an experimental design consisting of a pre-test/post-test control group was used. Furthermore, in order to obtain the views of the participants about the applied program on peer feedback training, oral questions were asked to the experimental group in group interviews and one-to-one interviews and answers were recorded and transcribed. The statistical analysis of the data revealed that the students in the experimental group produced better writing quality than the ones in the control group. The results also indicated that training students for peer feedback led to significantly more and better feedback. In other words, training students on peer feedback will have a positive effect on their writing achievement and on their feelings towards the peer feedback process.