Re-Thinking Peer Reviewing in the Virtual Context: The Roles of Giving and Receiving Online Feedback in L2 Spanish Classrooms

Abstract

This study explores learners’ online peer review practices during a four-week second language writing project. The project was developed in a multi-section Spanish writing course at the college level. The study investigates how college Spanish learners give online feedback to their peers, whether there is any relationship between the feedback roles they assume and their final performance, and the additional factors that may influence online peer reviewing practices. A total of 76 students participated in the study, all of whom received training prior to writing three drafts and giving and receiving feedback comments during two online peer review sessions. Descriptive statistical measures were used to analyze the types of online feedback students used most frequently. The comparative effects of giving comments were analyzed along with those of receiving comments by means of multiple regression analyses, in order to examine the relationship of these elements to final project performance as writers. Results support the learning-by-reviewing hypothesis, which argues that giving feedback to peers helps feedback-givers write better essays themselves. A follow-up analysis also shows that learning by reviewing online is most evident when giving specific types of online feedback, which students of all proficiency levels can learn how to do.