The role of peer correction and teacher feedback in the improvement of writing skills in high school students

Abstract

Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to analyze the impact of peer correction and teacher feedback in the improvement of writing skills in English as a Foreign Language in high school students and determine their effectiveness in decreasing morphological, semantic, and syntactic errors. This study was carried out at a public institution in Guayaquil with 30 students from third year of senior high school. For the present study, a mixed of quantitative and qualitative research was employed, using pre-test, post-test, rubric, checklist, and survey as instruments for data collection as well as six paragraphs on different topics to identify student s errors. The data collected was tabulated through an Excel table for the subsequent analysis ofthe results obtained. These results indicated that teacher feedback was the most effective in correcting errors and enhancing students' writing skills; however, peer feedback provided collaborative work and basic error correction. Furthermore, this studyrevealed that the students preferred the teacher's feedback because it is clearer, more complete, more accurate and it is the one that most helped them to improve their writing skills.Key Words: peer feedback, teacher feedback, writing skills.