The effects of peer tutoring in learning English as a foreign language at a secondary school

As a social learning theory, peer tutoring allows students learn by teaching. Students have a natural workshop to apply tutoring at school. They try teaching and explore their own teaching methods while investigating learning. They observe, imitate or model to learn. This qualitative case study was conducted to explore the effects of peer tutoring on the student and the benefits of peer tutoring that students gained after they applied while studying for six months. The participants of this study were voluntary students of the secondary school. These participants were paired as tutor or tutee according to their needs, success and ability in English in regards to learn a foreign language. The participants had three different roles according to their needs, success and ability in English as a foreign language: Tutor, tutee, both tutor and tutee in the same time. These roles were integrated with at least three participants like the links of the chain. The participants got at least one role and could involve studying one hour per each role per week. In this study, three groups were investigated as a case study; each group had just a role of tutor, another one had a role between the other two participants as becoming both the tutee of the tutor and the tutor of the tutee who was the last one. These three groups were investigated as seperate cases and used interview, reflection paper, teacher notes and observation to analyse the data obtained. This experience led them see themselves in both sides of education; teaching and learning as intertwined, compare their roles and witness their own improvement in English. This study also suggests on how to benefit from peer tutoring while demonstrating its natural outcomes. Key Words: Social Learning Theory, Peer Tutoring, Learning Strategy