EJ1302975

IAFOR Journal of Education: Language Learning in Education Volume 9 – Issue 3 – 2021
Exploring the Impact of Peer Assessment on EFL Students’ Writing

Performance
Eleni Meletiadou
London South Bank University, UK
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Abstract
Lately, researchers have expressed their concern for EFL students’ poor writing performance
and exam failure. They have indicated that peer assessment (PA) can be successfully
employed to support a better integration of teaching/instruction with assessment of progress
in learning. Bearing this in mind, the current study employed a pre-test post-test quasi-
experimental design and aimed to explore the effect of PA on 200 Greek Cypriot EFL
students’ writing performance. These adolescent learners attended two writing classes per
week (90 minutes) for a full school year. Teachers received training in PA skills and then had
to train their own students. Students were asked to use a PA rubric which was also devised by
the researcher but negotiated between the students and their teachers during the training
sessions. Paired T-tests were performed to investigate whether students in the control (n=100
students and 10 teachers) and the experimental groups (n=100 students and 10 teachers)
enhanced their writing performance comparing their pre- to post-test scores. The study
outcomes indicated that PA could have a moderately positive impact on students’ writing
performance. The use of PA improved students’ writing performance in 5 aspects: mechanics,
organisation, content, focus, and vocabulary and language use. In response to the need for
more experimentation, this study provides recommendations for PA implementation in
secondary school EFL writing classes which enable teachers to improve students’ writing
performance.
Keywords: peer assessment, writing performance, secondary education, EFL learning
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Peer assessment (PA), as an alternative form of “assessment for learning” which promotes
learner-centered assessment, has drawn considerable attention for more than four decades
(Chang & Lin, 2019; Hoffman, 2019; Meletiadou & Tsagari, 2016; Topping, 2018). It is an
educational arrangement where students judge a peer’s performance quantitatively, for
example, by providing a peer with scores or grades, and/or qualitatively, for example, by
providing a peer with written or oral feedback (Topping, 2017). PA has significant pedagogical
value because it enables learners to take part in assessment by evaluating their peers’ learning
process and products (Bryan & Clegg, 2019).
According to the literature, PA supports the learning process by providing an intermediate

check of student performance against the criteria, accompanied by feedback on strengths,
weaknesses, and/or tips for improvement (Panadero, 2016; Topping, 2017). There can also be
learning benefits for peer assessors since they are exposed to other ideas and writing samples
and are able to internalise the assessment criteria and standards (Smyth & Carless, 2020).
However, not all types of peer feedback may lead to an improvement in performance.
Researchers describe several conditions under which peer feedback may have a positive
influence on learning (Schünemann et al., 2017). Involving learners in the assessment
procedure is widely acknowledged as vital to effective self-regulation since it allows learners
to identify mistakes and develop strategies to address them (Zamora et al., 2018). However,
the development of PA skills is challenging. It requires continuous and repeated practice for
learners to become competent peer assessors (Andrade, 2016). Engagement in PA presupposes
that teachers can inspire learners and involve them in carefully designed tasks (Race, 2019).
Therefore, participation in PA ultimately intends to have a positive influence on their cognitive
development and motivation towards learning (Adachi et al., 2018).
This study aims to explore whether PA of writing can be used to improve adolescent students’
writing performance and present a PA implementation study in the Greek-Cypriot context since
action research in secondary education is scarce. Initially, research studies highlighting the use
of PA of writing in EFL contexts will be presented to examine some of the findings in the
literature. Then, the methodology of the study will be described, and its findings will be
rigorously discussed. Finally, conclusions will be drawn, the limitations of the study will be
highlighted and suggestions for further research as well as recommendations will be provided.
Literature Review
To date, literature that empirically links quality criteria for feedback to performance
improvement in the case of PA is scarce and few studies adopt a quasi-experimental approach
to explore the impact of instructional interventions on PA efficacy and student learning (Double
et al., 2020). The present study intended to explore whether the effectiveness of PA as a
learning tool could be raised through an innovative instructional intervention in secondary
education. It also aimed at developing a deeper learning experience enabling learners to engage
with new information in terms of the written assignment, assessment criteria, and the
assessment procedure as opposed to repetitive and ultimately unsuccessful learning (Topping,
2017).
There are several principles for effective formative PA which is intended to enhance learning.
First, formative PA should aim at self-regulation enabling learners to monitor their learning,
set goals, develop suitable strategies, manage resources, and work consistently to achieve these
goals. Students should be allowed to take responsibility for and take control of their learning
(Lee & Hannafin, 2016). Research indicates that teachers should provide information about
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expectations and aims. Further, assessment criteria should be explained clearly. Teachers
should cooperate with learners to design assessment rubrics and offer opportunities for learners
to provide feedback (marks and comments) to each other in relation to the defined assessment
criteria. They should also use PA with their students because it encourages low-achieving
learners to work hard and overcome obstacles when learning to write. Learners feel that their
peers, who take part in PA, share their concerns and provide them with continuous support
(Barrot, 2016). This study intends to offer recommendations for PA implementation which may
help teachers use PA of writing effectively in their classes.
One of the goals of using PA in EFL classes is that it can guide learners to reflect more carefully
on the same elements of their own written work (Hicks et al., 2016). As learners enhance their
writing performance, while comparing their writings and receiving feedback from their friends
and teachers, the possibility of engaging in fruitful conversations in terms of which they
exchange ideas, clarify points, ask questions, and examine as well as reflect on their options
increases (Zhu & Carless, 2018). Peer assessment may foster enhanced learning because
students can provide additional feedback. This type of response is different and is possibly
received and understood more effectively than teacher feedback (Rotsaert, Panadero &
Schellens, 2018). Revisions initiated by teacher feedback were often found to be less successful
than those related to peer comments although peer feedback sometimes induced uncertainty
(Allen & Mills, 2016). This study indicates ways in which PA can be used by adolescent
students who wish to improve their writing skills and become more autonomous learners.
Teacher feedback, although highly evaluated by learners is often associated with confusion,
misinterpretation and miscommunication (Edwards & Liu, 2018). On the contrary, peer advice
generates discussion and increases reflection as peers ask for clarification and negotiate
meaning (Kuyyogsuy, 2019). Peer assessment enhances learners’ understanding in terms of
writing, allows for more self-corrections, checking books, and asking teachers for clarifications
as students are encouraged to assume responsibility for their own assignments (Fan & Xu,
2020). It increases mindful reception as well as the frequency, extent and speed of marks and
comments for learners while reducing teachers’ workload (Ashenafi, 2017). The current study
wishes to explore how involving learners in the assessment procedure may increase the amount
and number of assessment opportunities and improve their writing performance. Therefore, the
potential lower quality of student feedback may be an acceptable trade-off if PA enhances
learner engagement and progress.
Conversely, some studies indicate that learners think that PA is aimless because peers are not
regarded as experts, tend to provide positive feedback to friends, and teachers make the final
decisions anyway (Wu & Schunn, 2020). It is crucial to remember, however, that formative
assessment methods can enrich learners’ subsequent performance in summative tests (Dixson
& Worrell, 2016). Student engagement in assessment also aims to prepare learners for lifelong
learning (Nguyen & Walker, 2016). Consequently, this study seeks to explore ways in which
secondary school students can develop their professional skills (i.e., reflection) which are
valued by employers.
Peer assessment may also be considered as a luxury or a practice which is, in a way, irrelevant
when the aim is enhanced performance in external high-stakes tests (James, et al., 2017). Since
peers are not experts, the accuracy of PA varies (Reinholz, 2016). Further, peer assessors’
judgement and comments are often challenged by peer assessees as learners do not have the
kind of authority and subject knowledge that teachers have (Topping, 2017). However, PA in
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this study is used in combination with teacher assessment (TA) as the objective is to
complement TA and gradually allow students to develop their writing skills.
To sum up, findings in the literature are quite confusing. Although PA may yield various
benefits in relation to student writing performance (Chien et al., 2020), there still seems to be
an emphasis on teacher-centred instruction and assessment despite students’ poor performance
in formal tests of writing in Cyprus and other countries (Tsagari & Meletiadou, 2015). The
present study aimed at addressing various literature gaps using a semi-experimental design,
rarely used by researchers in the field of PA. It also examined the use of PA in secondary
education, a topic which has not been widely explored (Fu et al., 2019). There is still little
research on how to adapt this approach to the school contexts of many countries (Topping,
2018).
Therefore, the current study investigated the use of PA as an innovative learning tool which
may enhance EFL students’ writing skills in secondary education. It also provided PA
implementation guidelines for secondary school writing classes. The aim was to enable
teachers to improve student performance, particularly in the field of writing. In the present
study, the researcher investigated the following research question:
1. What kind of an impact does PA have on adolescent EFL students' writing

performance?
Methodology
Participants
The participants in the study were 200, 13-15-year-old students of four public secondary
schools in Cyprus. The participating learners faced considerable problems with their writing
performance and scored relatively low at the end-of-year exams which gradually prepared them
for the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) exams. The learners
randomly formed 20 mixed ability EFL groups which attended two 90-minute writing classes
per week. This was a convenient sample since the researcher had to work with volunteers,
depending on the students and teachers who wished to take part in the study (Mertens &
Caskey, 2018).
Participants were all native Greek Cypriots and shared the same cultural and a similar socio-
economic background. These students also had a similar kind of exposure to EFL which
classified them as intermediate stage (B1) according to the Common European Framework of
Reference (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001). Participation in the present study was voluntary
and conditional on participants and their guardians signing an informed consent form, which
had been previously approved by the Cypriot Ministry of Education.
Instrument
This study employed a multiple-trait approach (Nodoushan, 2014) to assessing student essay
quality prior to and after receiving training in PA. As for measuring the writing scores of the
first drafts and final versions, two different scoring methods were employed: holistic and
analytic scoring (Han & Huang, 2017). These two measurements were complementary and
provided sufficient information about the participants’ writing abilities. The PA rubric (Table
1) was adapted from two lists in White and McGovern (1994) and Jacobs ESL Composition
Profile (Jacobs et al., 1981) to reflect learners’ errors and their examiners’ preoccupations.
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Table 1
The PA Rubric
Criteria/Weighting Excellent/ Good Average Poor Very Poor

Very Good
A. Content (sample statements for all categories)

1. The main ideas are clear.
B. Organization
1. The writer uses simple linking devices.
C. Vocabulary and language use
1. There are subject/verb agreement errors.
D. Mechanics
1. There are punctuation errors.
E. Focus
1. There is a clear sense of audience.
Analytic score:
Content: __(out of 4)
Organization: __ (out of 4)
Vocabulary and language use: __ (out of 4)
Mechanics: __ (out of 4)
Focus: __ (out of 4)
Total score: __ (out of 20)
Holistic score:
Excellent/Very Good Good Average Poor Very Poor
Students had to read their peers’ essays and reflect on the statements for each category-content,
organisation, focus, mechanics, vocabulary, and language use. They had to assign marks for
each category (ranging from 0 to 4 marks) and then add them to get a final grade (0-20).
Learners were instructed to read the essay under consideration and identify three strengths,
three areas for improvement and provide three suggestions for revision. The aim was to
introduce learners to PA and help them understand how they could reflect on their peers’ and
their own essays and offer suggestions to improve their work by carefully editing and
proofreading it. The aim was to help students assume a more active role by providing meta-
cognitive comments which would allow their peers to revise their work accordingly. The
validity of the PA rubric was explored by consultation with experts, including 8 headteachers,
one inspector, and 10 qualified EFL teachers who had taught at this level for at least 6 years.
Procedure
The study was divided into three phases (Figure 1). In the pre-implementation phase, all
instruments were piloted, and a diagnostic pre-test was administered to ensure that all students
who participated in the study were at the intermediate level. Students were provided with a
mark but no comments or peer feedback. All essays were marked by their class teachers and
an external assessor after a rater calibration session and appropriate training, and 20% of the
essays were marked by the researcher.
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Figure 1
The Procedure of the Study
1. Pre-implementation phase (October-November)
Piloting of the instruments
1. Pre-implementation phase (December-January)
Administration of the pre-test Teacher and student training
2. Implementation (January)
1st draft of the 1st essay 2nd draft for the 1st essay - Feedback
Feedback (PA or TA) (TA)
2. Implementation (February)
1st draft of the 2nd essay 2nd draft for the 2nd essay - Feedback
Feedback (PA or TA) (TA)
2. Implementation (March-April)
1st draft of the 3rd essay (PA or TA) 2nd draft for the 3rd essay - Feedback
Feedback (TA)
3. Post-implementation (April-June)
Post-test
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The same test was administered at the end of the study. Students had to write the same type of
essay on a different but very similar topic. The aim was to evaluate whether students made any
progress after one school year and which groups made more progress, if any, the control or the
experimental.
Students took part in writing workshops prior to engaging in PA of their writing assignments.
During these workshops, they were instructed how to use the rubric, used it with three sample
papers, and received feedback from the instructor on how their comments and marks aligned
with the instructor grades and comments on the same essays. These hopefully contributed to a
level of comfort and proficiency with the rubric and assignment criteria and possibly enhanced
their ability to provide accurate and reliable PAs. Teachers also received extensive training and
had to attend weekly sessions because the researcher wanted to check the progress of the
implementation. Training and clarity hopefully promoted a trusting environment in the
classroom, which had conferred positive outcomes with PA in the literature so far (Hoffman,
2019).
Learners wrote five essays, including a pre-test, 3 essays in two drafts and a post-test. Students
in the experimental groups received peer feedback and teacher feedback once each while
students in the control groups received teacher feedback twice (Figure 1). All student groups
were engaged in the experiment once a week for two teaching sessions (45 minutes each) which
added up to approximately 50 teaching sessions. Five compositions (two informal letters as
pre- and post-tests, a narrative essay, a descriptive essay, and an argumentative essay) were
written in class without disrupting the regular programme to exclude variables such as the
amount of time spent on task at home and help from others.
Students wrote the three types of essays after being introduced to the specific genre.
Experimental group students received peer feedback and a mark based on the PA rubric and
had to assess one of their peers’ essays. Students in the control groups received teacher
feedback (comments and some corrections of major mistakes) and a grade. Students then
received some remedial teaching depending on the challenges they faced in their first draft.
Additionally, they were asked to write a second draft. Teachers were instructed to support their
students during the whole procedure but not to intervene with their writing. They provided
corrections, marks, and comments to students’ second draft and after some more remedial
teaching they taught the next genre. The researcher collected students’ drafts immediately after
learners completed each step of the procedure to ensure that teachers followed the researcher’s
instructions regarding the corrections and comments they provided to their students.
Essays were about 4-5 paragraphs (120-150 words each) long. Instructors monitored the
students but were not involved in the actual editing of the essays. Teachers assumed the role of
a facilitator by explaining any difficult terms or acting as a consultant by offering advice when
needed. All teachers were asked to avoid overcorrecting students’ work and provide only
occasional basic corrections and comments.
During the feedback sessions, the teacher and student/assessors offered feedback to their
students/peers which consisted of both marks and comments based on the PA rubric. In more
detail, all experimental group learners devoted 20 minutes of their normal teaching sessions
using the PA rubric to assess their peers, while the control groups received teacher feedback.
Students were assigned with the correction of their peers randomly and changed every time
they had to assess a new draft. The identity of the student/assessor and the student/assessee
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were not disclosed to avoid conflicts and bitterness. Anonymity and change of
student/assessors also ensured the reliability of the assessment process.
Next, students were asked to re-draft their work. Teacher and peer feedback were provided
with a view to improving successive drafts and prompting more revision. Moreover, the
feedback sessions were structured tightly regarding time to avoid considerable variation among
groups and to increase student concentration. The time between drafts (usually two week) was
regarded as sufficient for learners to redraft without feeling undue pressure ensuring the
reliability of the assessment process. Additionally, students were asked to peer assess only one
draft to avoid any resistance from students.
Learners received remedial teaching depending on their errors. Essentially, the teachers were
instructed to use selected parts with significant errors from students’ essays and encourage
them to identify them and indicate solutions. Teachers also asked students to study their
grammar book and the handouts they used to self-correct errors in class at home.
Findings and Discussion
The current study explored the way PA influences student writing performance. Paired T-tests
were performed to explore whether students in the control (n=100 students) and the
experimental groups (n=100 students) improved their writing performance comparing their
pre- and post-test scores (George & Mallery, 2016). These revealed that experimental group
students improved their writing performance by 3 marks (out of 20) while control group
students improved their performance by only .2 marks. This difference was statistically
significant (Table 2). It indicated that students who received PA together with TA showed
considerable improvement. This finding was confirmed by previous research (Wanner &
Palmer, 2018) which indicated that PA significantly improved the quality of learners’ end
product from draft to final version.
Table 2
Findings from the Paired T-tests of the Experimental versus Control Groups (overall score)
M SD t p Cohen’s d
Paired T- Control Post- 11.73 3.01 .42 .674>.0005
tests groups test
Pre- 11.59 3.5
test
Experimental Post- 11. 3.01 .42 674 >.0005
groups test 73
Pre- 10.37 3.22
test
Independent Control 11. 3.01 3.9 .000 .55
T-test (post- groups 73
test score) Experimental 13.38 2.95
groups
This study also concluded that PA was not only suitable for adult learners (Baker, 2016). Its
adolescent participants provided marks for their peers and improved the marks they received
for their own essays through their involvement in the practice of PA and due to the insight they
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gained into their peers’ work. This allowed them to reflect on their own work and eventually
improve it. Taking into consideration that learners can only process feedback for which they
are developmentally ready, teacher feedback may often be ineffective. Therefore, teachers
should tailor their feedback to student needs but since this is practically impossible especially
in large classes, this study has demonstrated a way in which feedback can be individualised for
each learner by combining PA, which is more student-friendly, and TA, which is regarded as
more precise.
An independent t-test was also performed to explore differences between the post-test scores
of both experimental and control groups. On average, in the post-test, experimental group
students outperformed control group students (Table 2). Both the difference, which was
statistically significant, and Cohen’s d indicated that there was a moderately positive impact of
PA on students’ writing performance (George & Mallery, 2016; Cohen et al., 2013).
Paired t-tests were also performed to explore how improvement spread across the five
categories included in the PA rubric (content, organisation, mechanics, focus, vocabulary, and
language use) (George & Mallery, 2016). Students were assigned an analytic score per category
(0-4 marks). The aim was to further explore which aspect(s) of their writing performance
experimental group students improved (Table 3).
Table 3
Findings from the Paired T-tests of the Five Categories (Analytic Scores)
t p Cohen’s d
Mechanics .00 1.000>.0005
Organisation .42 .675>.0005
Focus 2.41 .018>.0005
Control Content (6.16 .000>.0005
Paired T- groups Vocabulary and -.420 .675>.0005
tests language use
Experimental Mechanics 7.16 .000 <.0005 .74
groups Organisation 5.5 .000<.0005 .59
Focus 6.16 .000<.0005 .86
Content 7.08 .000<.0005 .6
Vocabulary and 8.03 .000<.0005 .74
language use
Paired t-tests of the pre- versus post-tests scores control group students received revealed that
there was no improvement, which was statistically significant, for mechanics, organisation,
focus, content, and vocabulary and language use (Table 3). The same paired t-tests were
performed for the experimental groups (George & Mallery, 2016). These revealed that there
was improvement which was statistically significant, for mechanics and organisation.
However, there was no improvement which was statistically significant for focus, content and
vocabulary and language use (Table 3).
Students in the experimental groups improved their vocabulary more than any other aspect of
writing (Table 3). This indicates that PA may have a positive impact on different aspects of
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students’ writing performance. Students read their peers’ essays and learnt new words which
they then used in their own essays. Learners also improved the content of their essays (t=7.08).
They possibly located new ideas in their peers’ work and added new content to their own
essays. Several studies have investigated the revisions made by learners after receiving PA or
TA. These reported that PA leads to more meaning-level revisions while TA leads to more
surface-level revisions (Rotsaert et al., 2018). However, none of these studies have indicated
that students successfully improved almost all aspects of their writing performance.
In addition, other researchers (Choi, 2013) reported that students, when using peer feedback,
mostly concentrated on surface level errors, involving grammatical and spelling mistakes,
instead of deep or semantic level issues such as content. In the current study, the impact of peer
feedback was detected more on deep and semantic level issues rather than surface level issues
possibly because students received training prior to the implementation. This study confirmed
some findings from previous research (Lee, 2015) suggesting that peer feedback might
ultimately lead to more language improvement, because students are possibly more willing to
participate in assessment and learn more easily from their peers since they understand peer
feedback better than teacher feedback.
Students, who participated in this study, also managed to upgrade the mechanics of their
writing (Table 3) supporting previous research (Yaghoubi & Mobin, 2015). Therefore, they
confirmed that the use of PA can cognitively impact how students organise their thoughts as
they write. Students had the opportunity to reflect on their work, edit and proofread their essays
more carefully after providing feedback to their peers. The findings of this semi-experimental
study about mechanics contradict previous research indicating that there are no significant
gains for EFL students in terms of mechanics when students use PA (Wanner & Palmer,
2018). These clearly indicate that PA can have a positive impact on students’ writing by
helping them edit and proofread their work more carefully taking into consideration their
peers’ comments.
Additionally, students enhanced aspects of their essays related to focus (Table 3). PA allowed
students to better understand the texts including the schematic structure and linguistic
features of the genre. It successfully raised students’ awareness of the context, the reader and
facilitated the interpretation of the writer’s intended meaning since experimental group
students in this study conformed more to the conventions of the genre in hand. The deliberate
focus on genres, which were included in the PA rubric, helped learners become more aware
of the requirements of the different genres and take them into serious consideration when
writing their essays. Consequently, they developed their meta-cognitive skills since they
were asked to improve their work relying on two kinds of feedback.
However, students were able to refine their language use and organisational skills (Table 3)
less than the other aspects of their writing. Although students looked at their work again, they
did not manage to improve their use of grammar and their organisational skills as more time
and effort is required to improve these aspects of writing. Previous researchers (Edwards &
Liu, 2018) reported that a combined focus on both language form and content leads to greater
gains than either focus on form or focus on content alone. This was also confirmed by the
current study which showed that feedback on both form and content can result in
improvement in all aspects of writing.
When comparing students’ performance in the post-test, experimental group students seemed
to have improved their performance more in terms of vocabulary, language use and focus
(Table 3) rather than in other aspects of writing. This finding indicates that students who used
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PA enriched their vocabulary and comprehended the requirements of the specific genre used
in both the pre-test and post-test (informal letter) even better. Various measures of text
improvement have been employed in different studies, that is, some researchers considered
improved grammar as a characteristic of enhanced text quality (Liao, 2016). Other researchers
also reported that trained students can provide specific and relevant feedback on global features
of writing, such as genre, which in turn may result in better quality in their revised drafts
(Subaşı, 2014).
Students also improved certain aspects of their writing, for example, mechanics, content, and
organisation (Table 3) slightly less than other aspects. Experimental group students used PA
for a few months with only three types of essays. Previous studies deemed organisation of
information as an important factor in determining text quality as they have shown that PA can
improve students’ organisational skills in writing (Hwang, Hung & Chen, 2014). Previous
research has also indicated that intermediate EFL students improved their texts significantly in
organisation, cohesion and vocabulary when using PA of writing from pre-test to post-test
(Ebadi & Rahimi, 2017). However, adolescent intermediate EFL students, who were
inexperienced in PA, needed more time and exposure to this approach to improve these aspects
of their writing performance.
To sum up, the findings of the present study indicated that students who used PA improved
their overall writing performance by 3 marks out of 20, a statistically significant finding, while
students who received only TA improved their performance by .14. Finally, students who
employed PA improved their writing performance by at least half a mark out of 4 for each one
of the categories included in the PA rubric, that is content, organisation, vocabulary and
language use, mechanics, and focus. These findings revealed that students, who used PA in
their writing classes received multiple benefits in all domains included in the EFL essay rubric.
Consequently, since PA-related learning seems to provide multiple benefits to adolescent
learners in terms of their final summative assessment, it might be a worthwhile exercise.
Therefore, teachers should consider engaging their learners in PA during their classes to
enhance their writing performance.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Few studies adopt a quasi-experimental approach to study the impact of instructional

interventions on PA effectiveness and learning (Saito, 2012). Previous studies relied only on
marks to make claims for the potential benefits of PA. Moreover, the absence of a control group
has been the main weakness of longitudinal studies on feedback in writing (Bitchener et al.,
2012). The current study relied not only on students’ overall marks but also on their analytic
scores on five important writing aspects, content, organisation, vocabulary and language use,
mechanics, and focus to explore whether PA can have a positive impact on students’ writing
performance. It used both control and experimental groups in a semi-experimental design to
explore in what aspects and to what extent PA could have an impact on intermediate adolescent
EFL students’ writing performance.
For many instructors, the most viable alternative to teacher feedback would be peer feedback.
This has become almost as common as teacher feedback in writing classes (Lee et al., 2016).
The current study suggests that the introduction of PA in EFL classes from an early age may
improve students’ writing performance even more as learners can receive extensive training
and devote a considerable amount of time, that is several years, to learn how to use PA
effectively. It also recommends the use of PA in combination with TA to maximise the benefits
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of PA and allow students to be exposed to multiple types of feedback. These will allow learners
to reflect on various aspects of their writing.
Peers and teachers tend to focus on different aspects of writing, when asked to provide
feedback, leading to potential differences in improvement in students’ writing. For example, it
has been suggested that teachers may focus on surface-level issues while peers may focus more
on meaning-level issues (Baker, 2016). The positive impact that PA can have on all aspects of
students’ writing should be taken into consideration by EFL teachers who face considerable
challenges as they try to help their students improve their writing performance. Such an
outcome conforms to what has been reported by previous studies, namely that PA can engage
students in making reﬂections when they assume the role of tutor as well as tutee (Wang et. al.,
2017).
However, while instructive, the findings of this study may not be representative enough to
allow generalizations, a challenge to be undertaken in future studies. Although positive effects
were found, it became apparent that the training could have been much more systematic and of
longer duration than was feasible to organise in the available context and time span of the
current study. This study focused only on short-term effects of PA training. Therefore, more
structured PA training for both teachers and students and critical reflection on assessment might
have had a more powerful effect on students’ writing performance.
PA needs to be elaborate and frequent as well as focused on learners’ performance, their

learning needs, and the actions under learners’ control rather than on the learners themselves.
PA should also be timely so that learners can reflect on it and use it in their work or ask for
help if they need any clarifications. Its goal should be to aid with the assignment at hand and
allow learners to understand the assessment criteria even better. It also needs to be suitable to
learners’ conception of learning and previous knowledge as well as attended to and acted upon.
This study also supports research which suggests that students may ignore or misuse teacher
commentary when revising drafts and thus profit when they receive more (peer) feedback (Yu,
2019). More importantly, PA is seen by many researchers as a way of giving more control and
autonomy to students. It involves them actively in the feedback process as opposed to a passive
reliance on teacher’s feedback to ‘fix’ up their writing (Alzaid, 2017). The findings of this
study confirmed that PA can improve EFL learners’ writing skills by allowing them to assume
responsibility for other students’ and their own learning which is in line with previous research
(Topping, 2017).
These findings contribute to linguistic theory by suggesting that PA is anticipated to make a

significant contribution to the field of education if sufficient training and support is provided
to all participants and carefully designed tools are used to familiarize learners with the PA
process. Moreover, PA should be introduced gradually and used on a regular basis as early as
possible, that is even in primary education, and the emphasis should be on the formative use of
PA as an innovative learning-oriented tool employed by teachers to enhance students’ skills.
The present study indicated that PA can be a promising alternative assessment method for EFL
teachers in secondary education. PA may be used to raise a more open assessment culture and
empower adolescent students by involving them in assessment. Finally, it assisted in generating
an evidence-based argument regarding the quality of PA as a tool for enhancing EFL writing
skills (Wanner & Palmer, 2018).
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PA reflects the attempt of the education reform initiatives in many countries, i.e., England and
Hong Kong, to move from a testing culture to an assessment culture and promote all round
education and life-long learning. Within the sociocultural context of countries like Cyprus,
where the stress on measurement and accountability has existed for a long time, the successful
implementation of PA in the way it is intended needs promotion of conversations about
assessment, teaching and learning among all stakeholders, parents, students, teachers, and
senior educational management to promote change, advocate reform, advocate assessment
literacy and define the new aims and associated roles.
Research continues to characterize teachers’ assessment and evaluation practices as largely

incongruent with recommended best practice (Tsagari, 2016). Teachers’ assessment il-literacy
has resulted in inaccurate assessment of students causing them to fail to reach their full
potential. In an article published by Deluca et al. (2016), the lack of assessment literacy was
presented as professional suicide. Assessment literacy (AL) is seen, therefore, as a sine qua
non for today’s competent educator (Levi & Inbar-Lourie, 2020). As such, AL must be a pivotal
content area for current and future staff development endeavours. This will allow teachers to
familiarise themselves and experiment with a variety of promising alternative assessment
methods, such as peer assessment, in their effort to help their students improve their writing
performance.
90
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Corresponding author: Eleni Meletiadou

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IAFOR Journal of Education: Language Learning in Education Volume 9 – Issue 3 – 2021

Exploring the Impact of Peer Assessment on EFL Students’ Writing

Keywords: peer assessment, writing performance, secondary education, EFL learning

According to the literature, PA supports the learning process by providing an intermediate

1. What kind of an impact does PA have on adolescent EFL students' writing

Criteria/Weighting Excellent/ Good Average Poor Very Poor

A. Content (sample statements for all categories)

1. Pre-implementation phase (October-November)

Piloting of the instruments

1. Pre-implementation phase (December-January)

Administration of the pre-test Teacher and student training

Findings and Discussion

Conclusion and Recommendations

Few studies adopt a quasi-experimental approach to study the impact of instructional

PA needs to be elaborate and frequent as well as focused on learners’ performance, their

These findings contribute to linguistic theory by suggesting that PA is anticipated to make a

Research continues to characterize teachers’ assessment and evaluation practices as largely

Corresponding author: Eleni Meletiadou

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