Peer Feedback, Self-correction, and Writing Proficiency of Indonesian EFL Students

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of peer feedback and self-correction based on guideline sheets on the writing ability of the Indonesian EFL students. It involved 71 Indonesian EFL students taking the Essay Writing course at Universitas Negeri Malang, an Indonesian university. The students were from three intact classes and they were given different types of treatment: The students from Class A were given peer feedback based on a guideline sheet, those from Class B were assigned to do self-correction based on a guideline sheet, and those from Class C were involved in a conventional editing process of writing. The results of the study showed that the students given peer feedback based on a guideline sheet (Class A) have better ability in writing essays than those who were not given peer feedback (Class C); the students conducting self-correction based on a guideline sheet (Class B) have better ability in writing essays than those who did not conduct self-correction (Class C); and both peer feedback based on a guideline sheet (given to Class A) and self-correction based on a guideline sheet (given to Class B) significantly improved the ability in writing essays of the students in the two experiemental classes. Given that the two types of treatment were effective in increasing the students " scores in essay writing, peer feedback and self-correction based on guidelines sheets are recommended for practical use in EFL classrooms as well as for further research studies. Introduction One of the language skills that need to be learned by students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) is writing. However, writing is not an easy task for many EFL students, including those from Indonesia. This is because writing demands adequate knowledge of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics (Jacobs, Zinkraf, Wormuth et al., 1981). It also requires a responsibility in self-monitoring in the process of planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing (Cresswell, 2000). Given the fact that it is hard for EFL students to be independent in controlling the quality of their writing, the help of other people or an activity to raise their awareness for self-monitoring is needed. The help of other people that is given to someone in the process of writing is called feedback. Meanwhile, the activity in raising students " awareness to monitor their own writing can be conducted through self-revision (Srichanyachon, 2014), self-feedback (Wakabayashi, 2013), self-correction (Hajimohammadi & Mukundan, 2011), or guided-self correction (Yukio, 1998). Literature Review A number of research studies show that feedback on writing helps EFL students modify their essays to a better quality (e.g. Liu, 2008; Boughey, 1997; Dheram, 1995). Dheram (1995), for example, investigated how students responded to feedback on both language use and content. The first draft and the second draft of the students " essays were compared. The results showed that the students attempted to revise their first drafts. The revisions included syntactic, semantic, and stylistic modifications. They also added arguments with fresh details different from the ones used in their earlier drafts. In line with Dheram, Boughey (1997) examined the effect of feedback given to students working in groups to finish an academic essay. Examination of the first draft indicated that the essay contained claims that were not supported. In the second draft, the students tried to make links between propositions. The results of Liu " s (2008) study strenghthened the findings that feedback enabled EFL students to reduce errors and improve accuracy in the new piece of writing. From the research studies, it was evident that students used feedback as reference for adding, deleting, and rearranging ideas in their essays.