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22ОБЩЕГУМАНИТАРНЫЕ НАУКИ (HUMANITARIAN SCIENCES) УДК 1
Komek Nazgul
L.N. Gumiliyov Eurasian National University (Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan)
TEACHERS' VIEWS ON USING PEER-CORRECTION IN TEACHING WRITING SKILLS
Abstract: writing skills are generally recognized among the most problematic zones in the study of English in our time. Therefore, new ways of developing skills of writing should be developed and applied. The currents study aims to investigate the influence of peer-correction on writing skills of ESL students. The participants were 5 teachers of English language. A qualitative method was used in the study. Data collected through interviews including 10 open-ended questions about teachers' opinion on using peer-correction in teaching writing skills. All information was collected by different means and illustrated in the most appropriate form. The results of the study show that teachers were familiar with peer correction techniques. Thanks to this technique, the problems associated with the lack ofprogress in writing skills and the reluctance of teachers to work on essays can be resolved, because the verification takes a lot of time.
Key words: ESL (English as a Second Language), peer-correction, writing skills, writing activities
1. Introduction.
Peer correction is a classroom technique, gaining its value in a recent time. It meets all the criteria of modern teaching trends, such as collaboration of students during classroom, autonomy in learning, teamwork, empathy and self-expression.
The mentioned technique, basically, aims to push learners to correct each others' works, rather than the instructor does this. Previously, teachers were considered as the primary source of knowledge, however nowadays, the main focus is given to the involvement of students in the learning process due to the change in the teacher's role.
Just the same values are represented in practicing peer correction. Partially, peer correction might solve the problem of teachers' lack of motivation in checking essays and overloading with papers, as students primarily will peer correct each other's works.
There is substantial significance of this study in the teaching and carrying out writing activities through peer correction during English classes. First of all, some of the expected results are that English Language teachers are anticipated to have less paper works and increase their interest in running writing activities. Secondly, with the help of this study peer correction is going to be introduced and explained in detail. Thirdly, students' attitude toward peer correction will be learned and common ground for further investigations will be settled up. Moreover, the results of this study may lead to dramatic changes in adopting this technique during the lesson. This study may also depict advantages of adopting student-centered approach in the process of teaching and learning. This paper primarily aims to discuss and investigate the impact of peer correction on writing skills of students.
l.l.Literature review.
1.1.1. Peer correction technique
According to Mishra (2005), the peer-correction is when the teacher fixes the work to the students; after that this work is distributed among the students-contemporaries; then examined by classmates in search of faults which need to be corrected. In his work, Mishra emphasized the peer correction as a tool for developing students' self-regulation and autonomous learning. Highlighted skills might be important in future life experiences of students, as collaboration, teamwork and independence are softly practiced during mentioned technique and highly valued in the modern workplace.
One of the studies about peer correction, which is called "The effectiveness of peer written feedback on students' writing skills" B. Ngan (2009), attempted to investigate the benefits of peer correction on writing skills' development and improve
existing situation. Mentioned study defines peer-correction as an effective tool to establish and develop students' writing ability.
Another scholar, P. Rollinson (2005) stated the following underlying principles for peer correction:
1. Peer feedback is less threatening than teacher feedback because students are more comfortable with their classmates and therefore, getting corrected by own friends evokes less anxiety.
2. When correction comes from the teacher, it reinforces the teacher's authority. In a traditional language class, the teacher is the authoritative figure and he/she is considered the sole source of knowledge. Students play the role of just a passive receivers of information. In contrast, the practice of peer feedback leads the classroom to be less dominated by the teacher.
3. The involvement of peers in the correction process makes the classroom atmosphere more supportive and friendlier.
1.1.2. Writing and evaluating texts as a process or product
Peer correction technique requires changes in teachers' views about writing. Murray (2003) stated that many English teachers teach and evaluate writing as a product, focusing their critical attention on what their students have done, as if they had passed literature skills in to them from the cradle. Externally, evaluating writing as a product just identifies errors without looking for causes of that errors, furthermore sometimes bad performance in writing occurs due to the reason that students are not familiar with particular topic, and evaluating negatively their final product in that situation simply plays against students' motivation to produce further writing texts. Moreover, product evaluation does not lead to the progress, because the real progress can be depicted by looking at the process in progress. Zohrabi & Rezaie (2012) concluded that, evaluation of written works as a final product limited, only, to the identification and/or correction of the linguistic errors produced by learners. Because of time limits, learners receive formative feedbacks very rarely, usually they stay face
to face with corrected works alone. This may lead to misunderstandings between evaluator of writing and student.
On the other hand, writing as a process means that teacher is not expecting students to write well from the very beginning. Moreover, learners are guided and monitored through writing process by teacher and peers. Deeper explanation of this process can be found in the work of Cassany (1989), where scholar proposed term "Comprehensive evaluation", which takes into consideration writing, completed by student, in addition to the series of activities followed to complete that writing. That series of actions include: planning, drafting, peer correction, revising and final product. It means that while grading learners, pre-writing activities also taken into consideration and students spend more time practicing writing related exercises. In selected research, peer correction was considered as a primary tool for investigation, because it is tightly connected with a process of writing.
1.1.3. The process of peer correction during the lesson
The practice of peer correction technique during the lesson might appear difficult for some teachers, however, according to the research of Veiga M.R & Lupion (2009), peer correction contrasts with traditional way of teaching writing, as the use of this technique maximizes students' opportunities to use the target language through the process of comprehending, negotiating and modifying information that they have. It means that, peer correction may suit into the lesson and change the view of traditional English classroom, because of the mentioned factors of working on own and someone's written works. Furthermore, peer-correction influences positively on development of mentioned skills, which is an advantage too.
In this respect, Orlich (1990) states that mentioned technique can be a way to help to special students. Students do not feel confident to participate or produce written texts, because of being afraid of making mistakes. Peer correction helps students to overcome difficulties, the advanced students help the weak ones, who sometimes understand classmate's explanation better than the teacher's. This leads to the picture,
which shows us the classroom full of interactions and students who are in the continuous process of supporting each other. Mostly, the teacher in this situation acts like observer and provides rare help, as most of the responsibility for the final written text is on the shoulders of peers, who observe their progress. That also depicts that peer-correction influences to the development of some soft skills.
In general, referring to mentioned works, peer correction suits into the lesson frames and has many additional benefits for the learners. Time frames for conducting peer correction activity varies from 10 to 30 min, depending on class size and prioritized objectives.
1.3. Research questions.
In this study research questions will be considered:
1. To what extent writing skills are practiced during the lessons of ESL students?
2. How can peer correction help learners to reduce mistakes in their written works during the lesson?
2. Methodology
A qualitative study was performed, involving 5 teachers of English language. The data were collected through interviews with several English language teachers. During interviews there were 10 open-ended questions about teaching, students' preferences in English Language learning process, writing skills, essay evaluation, teachers' preference concerning writing activities and etc. All information was collected by different means and illustrated in the most appropriate form. Interviews were provided by WhatsApp.
Questions that are below were asked during the interview and further discussions were promoted.
1. How often do you conduct writing activities on the English lesson?
2. How much time does ordinary writing activity take?
3. How students feel during completing writing activity? Are they excited about writing essays? How do you select topics for future essays?
4. What is the most favorite students' skills to practice?
5. How do you evaluate students' essays? What are the criteria of evaluation?
6. Is it time consuming to check students' written works? Can you describe your feelings during checking written essays?
7. What do you know about peer-correction in writing activities? Is it possible to conduct peer-correction on your lesson? Did you practice it before?
8. How do you see the ideal English lesson in terms of working on writing skill?
9. What do you think about evaluating writing activity not as a final product, but as a process? What outcomes may appear?
10. In your opinion, what is the most effective way to practice writing?
3. Results and Discussions:
Turning to the results of interview, most of the questions were welcomed and sincerely answered. Existing and mentioned difficulties related to writing process in the literature review had been confirmed. While answering the questions, teachers complained about the slow development of writing skills in general. They mentioned about being overloaded with the paperwork. Also some teachers concluded that students treat writing practice as a boring activity. Furthermore, learners have prejudice toward difficulties of writing as challenging obstacles. Despite these problems, while interviewing teachers, sometimes peer correction technique was positively commented. Here are teachers' overall comments:
How often do you conduct writing activities on the English lesson?
To be more precise, for the question about frequency of writing skill related activities during the classes, the answers were as follow:
Figure 1
While 2 out of 5 interviewed teachers responded that writing takes place in their classes rarely, no one experiencing constant writing practice. Partially, it is due to the reason that writing takes too much class time, which can be devoted to other exercises.
How much time does ordinary writing activity take?
From the next question it was learned that on the average 15-20 minutes is spent for writing practice, that is almost half of the lesson. All teachers prefer giving writings as homework.
What is the most favorite students' skills to practice?
For the question about students' most favorite skill to practice, 3 teachers without any doubt answered - speaking. The remaining 2 teachers told that reading and listening were most favorite skills. Once again, writing was not mentioned, moreover it was described as a boring activity. Teachers concluded that students underestimate practicing writing, therefore they are not able to observe any progress. Consequently, they are not motivated and feel themselves bored and tired while doing writing.
Figure 2
Is it time consuming to check students' written works? Can you describe your feelings during checking written essays?
Turning to teachers attitude toward writing, they told that when students write essays, interference is not needed and they like it, because it gives time for school paperwork. Mostly teachers are positive about writing skill practice, except for essays checkings. That is linked to the frequency of conducting writing, and time consuming essay checkings can be a logical reason for why it is rarely conducted.
What do you know about peer-correction in writing activities? Is it possible to conduct peer-correction on your lesson? Did you practice it before?
Also, I revealed information about teachers' awareness of peer correction technique. All teachers at least heard about it. Moreover 2 of 5 teachers practiced peer correction on their lessons. In their cases, peer correction seemed interesting and exciting activity, learners enthusiastically exchanged their opinions and tried to correct each others' works. Teachers concluded that later students rewrote essays and, knowing each students' abilities, these essays were better.
How do you evaluate students' essays? What are the criteria of evaluation?
Talking about evaluation, during the interview 4 teachers told that they give marks, based on correctness of spelling, appropriate usage of tenses, range of and non-repetition of vocabulary and structure. Also 3 teachers mentioned about clear writing and good handwriting. If mentioned criteria are followed, then student will receive good mark. On the other hand, 1 teacher explained that she evaluates more context than spelling and etc. She told that good developed idea is more valuable and her students pay more attention to creativity rather than accuracy.
What do you think about evaluating writing activity not as a final product, but as a process? What outcomes may appear?
All teachers evaluate writings by similar criteria and all of them evaluate writings as a final product. They described the process, which was giving writing task, mostly it is essay, then students do given task and teacher checks it. Students do not receive personal feedback on their written works, only general class feedback is given
and common errors are discussed. All mentioned illustrates evaluation of writing as a product.
With the help of these interviews teachers' working conditions were learned, school related problems were discussed; teachers' and students' preferences were identified.
3.1. Answers to research questions
In this section concluding answers to all research questions will be provided. It is important to spotlight that detailed answers appear throughout the whole paper.
1. To what extent writing skills are practiced during the lessons of ESL students?
In an ordinary English Language classes, ideally all four skills aimed to practice
equally. According to the result of interview with teachers, it was found that, activities and tasks that promote writing skills are rarely conducted, moreover none of interviewed teachers always work on writing. They refer to the fact that writing takes too much class time and causes difficulties while teaching.
From the interview it was learned that on the average writing takes about 20 minutes. And it is preferred to give it as a home task, which causes another troubles, mainly related to poor quality of essays. Furthermore, it is important to emphasize that practice of writing skills on the lesson is the least favorite among students. They describe it as boring and useless.
2. How can peer correction help learners to reduce mistakes in their written works during the lesson?
As it was stated by Nunan (1989) and Sapkota (2013), writing is complex and difficult skill which requires operating of many other sub-skills. Moreover scholars emphasized the importance of constant practice of writing related abilities. And peer correction offers the practice of writing in a vastly attractive for students.
Firstly, students correct each others' works with the help of error codes and error logs - that decreases amount of grammar and spelling errors. In other words, students filter out basic errors in each others' essays. Secondly, learners have an opportunity to
read others' essays and not only to correct them, but also to come across the new ideas for own works. Thirdly, while being in the role of evaluators, students learn to analyze essays and by applying critical thinking formulate constructive feedback on read essays. That establishes confidence and beneficially affects the whole classroom environment. Lastly, students rewrite works, which increases accuracy and autonomy in the writing process. In conclusion, it can be said that peer correction offers intensive practice of writing essays and continuous autonomous collaborations of mates, with the aim of helping each other.
As it could be noticed, peer correction systematically helps to reduce mistakes in essays, and provides comfortable occasions for the process of conducting writing. Additionally, peer correction is a pledge of positive students interaction and student-centered approach.
4. Conclusion
To conclude this study, it can be said that peer correction might appear to be practical, if it is included in the regular English Language course books. Implementation of peer correction suited into the lesson, and may add a variety to the writing related tasks.
Taking the role of evaluator during peer correction boosts learners' awareness about errors, and increases the level of responsibility, therefore learners become more independent of the teacher. It also encourages students to pay attention on mate's individual errors, and not to make them in own essays. In a traditional classroom, due to the time limits, the teacher usually explains only common errors, however that errors may be totally irrelevant to some students. In this turn, peer correction appears to provide each student with individual approach and make whole class student-centered.
It is considered that this study should be developed further, as foundation for future studies is established in this paper. This is especially important in Kazakhstani context, because the students are possible English teacher trainees, and may have the responsibility of developing better literacy practices in their future students.
REFERENCES:
Cassany, D. (1989). Describir el escribir: cómo se aprende a escribir [Describing writing: How you learn to write]. Barcelona, ES: Paidós.
Mishra, C. (2005). Error correction in English: A training course for teachers. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons
Murray, D. M. (2003). Teach writing as a process not product. In V. Villanueva (Ed.), Crosstalk in comp theory: A reader (pp. 3-6). Urbana, US: National Council of Teachers of English. Ngan, B. (2009). The effectiveness of peer written feedback on students' writing skill. Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47071474.pdf (2009) Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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Rollinson, P. (2005). Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class. ELT Journal, 59, 23-31. Sapkota, A. (2012). Developing Students' Writing Skill through Peer and Teacher Correction: An Action Research. Nepal: Journal of NELTA, 17, 1-2. (accessed 14/4/2016) Veiga Marriott, R., & Lupion Torres, P. (2009). Handbook of Research on eLearning Methodologies for Language Acquisition. Information Science Reference, Nueva York: IGI Global.
Zemach, D. E., & Rumisek, L. A. (2003). College writing: From paragraph to essay. Oxford, UK: Macmillan Publishers.
Zohrabi, M., & Rezaie, P. (2012). The role of form-focused feedback on developing students' writing skill. Finland: Academy Publishers. ELT Journal, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(7), 1514-1519.
