INTERACTION AND FEEDBACK IN MIXED PEER RESPONSE GROUPS

Abstract With the growing number of foreign students on university campuses in the United States, mixed peer response groups consisting of both native English speakers and English as a Second Language (ESL) students are often seen in mainstream composition classes. Although writing researchers have examined various issues concerning peer response in first (L1) and second (L2) language settings, little research has centered on mixed peer response groups. The study reported here examined interaction and feedback in mixed peer response groups by inspecting participants' turn-taking behaviors, language functions performed during peer response, and written feedback on each other's writing. Data were collected from three mixed peer response groups, each with a non-native speaker and two or three native speakers. Transcripts of student discussion of peer writing as well as peer response sheets with students' written comments were analyzed. Findings indicate that the non-native speakers as a group took fewer turns and produced fewer language functions during oral discussion of writing, particularly when they were performing the writer role, but they were comparable to the native speakers with respect to the number of global comments provided in writing.

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