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Exploring university students' peer review competence: A preliminary study of cognitive and affective feedback in language assessment
Author(s)
Date Issued
2018
Citation
Wan, Y. N. (25 Oct 2018). Exploring university students' peer review competence: A preliminary study of cognitive and affective feedback in language assessment. 2018 International Conference on Bilingual Learning and Teaching, The Open University of Hong Kong.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Peer review is commonly used as an assessment task in University English teaching and learning. The peer review process is significant to academic research. Classmates exchange their writings, evaluate others’ per-formance and construct comments for further improvement.However, this review process is considered to be very difficult to many undergraduate students, especially for non-English major students. This is because most students are inexperienced L2 learners in English. They may have problems to express their comments accurately and objectively. As a result, possible cases of over-appreciation or downgrading in others’ work can be investigated.
The present study is founded on extensive research into this reviewing difficulties of Year two undergraduate students in Hong Kong Shue Yan University. The present study aims to raise students’ awareness of the language features of a peer review and to provide pedagogical implications to teaching reviewing skills to non-English major students. About 600 peer reviews constructed by students at Department of History, Chinese Language, Psychology and Counselling, Business Administration, Journalism were collected from 2012 to 2017. These reviews, approximately 72,000 words, were carefully selected and analyzed qualitatively. A detailed analysis of cognitive and affective feedback (Nelson & Schunn, 2009) will be included in the Findings and Discussion section. Over-appreciation, downgrading performance, vague suggestions, impoliteness, and some cultural issues will be illustrated with authentic example taken from the texts. The findings from focus group interview also create valuable insights to the language discussion of writing peer review. The present study hopes to improve non-English major students’ reviewing competence.
The present study is founded on extensive research into this reviewing difficulties of Year two undergraduate students in Hong Kong Shue Yan University. The present study aims to raise students’ awareness of the language features of a peer review and to provide pedagogical implications to teaching reviewing skills to non-English major students. About 600 peer reviews constructed by students at Department of History, Chinese Language, Psychology and Counselling, Business Administration, Journalism were collected from 2012 to 2017. These reviews, approximately 72,000 words, were carefully selected and analyzed qualitatively. A detailed analysis of cognitive and affective feedback (Nelson & Schunn, 2009) will be included in the Findings and Discussion section. Over-appreciation, downgrading performance, vague suggestions, impoliteness, and some cultural issues will be illustrated with authentic example taken from the texts. The findings from focus group interview also create valuable insights to the language discussion of writing peer review. The present study hopes to improve non-English major students’ reviewing competence.
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