Providing vs. receiving peer feedback: Learners’ beliefs and experiences

Abstract

This study used questionnaires eliciting quantitative and qualitative data to investigate (1) foreign language learners’ beliefs about peer feedback on pronunciation before and after a peer feedback intervention and (2) peer feedback providers’, peer feedback receivers’, and teacher feedback receivers’ experiences of the intervention. Participants included 127 first-year learners of German. They were assigned to a peer feedback provider group, a peer feedback receiver group, a teacher feedback receiver group, or a control group. After a general pronunciation training for the first three groups and a metacognitive instruction session for the first two groups, the peer feedback providers were instructed to give feedback on their peers’ pronunciation whereas the peer feedback receivers were asked to incorporate their peers’ feedback and the teacher feedback receivers were asked to incorporate feedback from their teachers. Quantitative and qualitative data from a pre- and post-intervention beliefs questionnaire revealed that while all groups held mostly positive beliefs about peer feedback before the intervention, only the peer feedback providers’ beliefs changed over time, specifically, their beliefs about peer feedback were significantly more positive after the intervention. Data from an exit questionnaire further indicated that the teacher feedback receivers found their feedback more useful than the peer feedback receivers. Moreover, while the peer feedback providers found correcting peers beneficial for their own language development, many of them felt uncomfortable giving feedback, whereas the peer feedback receivers did not feel uncomfortable receiving it. These findings suggest that peer feedback providers may need additional instruction to help them feel more comfortable correcting other learners.