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

Abstract

Abstract: The current research titled "The role of peer correction and teacher feedback in the improvement of writing skills in high school students", has as its main purpose to investigate the difficulties that students have when studying a foreign language to master the skill of writing, with the objective of analyzing the effects of feedback between peers and teachers in the correction of morphological, semantic and syntactic errors, to identify the type of feedback: peer correction and teacher feedback that EFL students prefer to write. This study was carried out in the Educational Unit of the Armed Forces Military College No. 3 "Heroes del 41" in the city of Machala, and was applied to 30 third-year high school students. A mixed methodology was used which combines qualitative and quantitative data. The instruments were students writing activities, a survey, a peer's feedback checklist among them, pre and post tests. The results reveal that the teacher's feedback was more effective on analyze and correct the semantic, morphological, and syntactic errors. Peer feedback was also effective in detecting errors, but students corrected to a lesser extent, especially at the syntactic and semantic levels.