The English Department cordially invites you to join our departmental seminar, Using Teacher-supported Peer Feedback for Writing Improvement, to be organized on 18 April 2024 (Thursday).
Date: 18 April 2024 (Thursday)
Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Venue: Room A315, S H Ho Academic Building
Speaker: Dr Maggie Ma, Associate Professor of Department of English
Registration: Complete this online form to reserve a seat. Available on a first-come-first-served basis.
Remarks: 1 iGPS unit will be awarded to undergraduate students who attend the seminar
Abstract
From an internal feedback perspective, this project explores a feedback innovation that aims to develop students’ ability to provide internal feedback for the improvement of academic writing. It focuses specifically on (1) features of the internal feedback generated by the student participants during teacher-supported peer feedback activities and (2) the student participants’ revisions in response to internal feedback. A case study approach was adopted to gain an in-depth understanding of the research topic. Multiple sources of data were used, including classroom documents such as student reflection forms and drafts of academic writing, student interview data, and recordings of teacher-student conferencing. Data analysis showed that the internal feedback formally generated by the 12 student participants differed from teacher feedback and informally generated self-feedback in terms of type, pointing out not only weaknesses of student writing but also its strengths. The students’ internal feedback also differed from informally generated self-feedback in that the former focused predominantly on global aspects of students’ own writing (i.e., content and organization) while the latter emphasized local aspects (i.e., language). Concerning revision, most of the time the students revised successfully regardless of feedback source (e.g., generated by self, peer, or teacher). However, revisions made in response to internal feedback differed from those associated with informally generated self-feedback. The students made predominantly meaning changes, especially macrostructure changes, in response to internal feedback while they made far more surface changes in response to informally generated self-feedback. 9 out of 12 students also considered revisions made based on the internal feedback constituted one of the greatest changes to their writing. It seems that internal feedback generated during teacher-supported peer feedback, with its unique features, has the potential to improve students’ writing. It also complements other feedback sources (e.g., informally generated self-feedback) to enable students to revise various aspects of their writing. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
Bio
Dr Maggie Ma is Associate Professor at the Department of English, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD from the Division of English Language Education, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include second language writing, second language acquisition and formative assessment.
For enquiries, please feel free to contact us at eng@hsu.edu.hk.
