Effects of reciprocal peer feedback on EFL learners’ communication strategy use and oral communication performance

Abstract

While most studies focus on individual training of oral communication strategy use and oral communication performance in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), this study examines the effect of peer review from a socioconstructivist perspective. A mobile application, named Speaking Yo, was developed to facilitate learners to engage in discussion tasks, replay their conversation as well as carry out peer review. A quasi-experiment was conducted in a vocational university in Taiwan for four weeks. Forty EFL participants were assigned to an experimental group (n = 20), who received peer feedback, and a control group (n = 20), who received no peer feedback. The results showed that the use of peer feedback enhanced students’ oral communication performance. However, the use of communication strategies was not improved. The findings suggest that with the support of Speaking Yo, students were able to monitor their oral production and provides/receives corrective feedback on their overall communication performance. However, the feedback provided by the peers was not concrete enough to address the use of communication strategies. The possible explanations and future directions are also discussed in this study.