Incorporating Peer Response with Teacher Feedback in Teaching Writing to EFL Learners: A Literature Review

Abstract

Peer response has gradually gained popularity in teaching English writing to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in recently years. A number of researches have proved its advantages while Chinese English teachers are still doubting its validity and possibility. This paper aims to prove that incorporating peer response and teacher feedback is advantageous to EFL learners’ English writing. It would start with the explanation of some key terms and then first examine the benefits of peer response to verify the necessity of introducing it to an English writing class for EFL learners. Then drawbacks of teacher feedback would be argued with the certification that it is corresponding to some advantages of peer response. Finally, the contribution of using peer response and teacher feedback together would be discussed to further attest the argument mentioned above. At the end of the paper, a conclusion will be made to generally summarize what has been discussed and how this relates to being a language professional. Hopefully, it could be informative and constructive for Chinese English teachers to take a closer step into the theoretical base of this teaching strategy which has been established by former researchers and seek for the possibility of its implementation in the real-setting classroom in EFL context.