Main Idea of Conversation:

How the peer-reviewing feedback impacts L2 learners and L1 speakers with their writing

experience.

The Setting of The Conversation:

5 representative authors gathered together for their quarterly meeting in order to talk about recent

ideas on the topic of “How the peer-reviewing feedback impact L2 learners and L1 speakers with

their writing experience” through Zoom.

Who is Involved:

5 representative authors and one of them is the host of the Zoom meeting.

Amy Tsui is the host of the meeting.

The Conversation:

Amy Tsui:

Hi, guys! It is my pleasure to host this spring season quarterly meeting. I cannot wait to

hear about the brilliant ideas you guys have to share! During this quarterly meeting, we will

discuss the topic of how peer feedback helps students. As we all know, peer feedback plays an

extremely significant role in second language learning students’ writing progress. Peer comments

enhance a sense of audience, raise learners' awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses,

encourage collaborative learning, and foster ownership of the text. What do you think about it?
 Oh! Before all of that, we can use L1 for the first language and L2 for the second

language for convenience matters.

Youzhen Luo:

Thank you, Amy. Well, from my perspective, it is important to understand that the L2

learners are a special group of students with special needs. But the research I did with my co-

workers, Lou Y, Li Z, Gong P, and Liu J, shows that it is very common for L2 learners to have a

hard time receiving and giving feedback directly such as face-to-face. They have the tendency to

be shy and nervous about communicating with each other’s work. Such shyness could relate to

cultural factors, for most the L2 students think that there are chances they could get negative

feedback from their peers. They consider being given negative feedback is something

embarrassing and humiliating. Such a mindset really exerts a negative influence on L2 students’

participation in peer-reviewing activities. Despite the fact that peer feedback is the key quality of

group work in L2 student classrooms, as a professor, I am just concerned that it could let the

students to have bad feelings about L2 learning as a whole.

Jun Liu:

Em, that is interesting. I never thought that L2 learning students could feel shy or tense

due to cultural reasons. My study is actually related to this issue. Let me ask you a question, have

you ever tried to let L2 students use electronic tools during peer-reviewing-related activities?

According to my study with Randall W. Sadler, students generally have pretty positive feelings

about giving or receiving feedback when they use electronic tools, such as Microsoft Word. At

first, I use face-to-face peer feedback for students, but they give poor numbers of feedback.

Students who received feedback barely revised their writing based on the feedback. But then I
introduced students to Microsoft Word’s “add comment” function. The number of feedback was

increased immediately and more revisions were done by students according to the advice they

received from their peers. I think using electronic tools makes students feel much more

comfortable in giving or receiving feedback, not only because the electronic tools are more

convenient to use and it is much more visually pleasing, but also because the student could

prevent the awkwardness of giving advice to each other directly.

Bee Chamcharatsri:

Speaking of this, I recently heard that some teachers insist on asking L2 learners to only

use L2 in the classroom to better practice their L2. This is such a wrong idea! My study is about

the comparison between L2 students using L2 and L1 in providing feedback. Since peer

feedback plays a so significant role in the writing process, I could not help wondering which

language is most fitting for L2 learners while providing feedback to their peers. But to ask L2

learning students to never use their L1 for giving feedback so they could “better practice their

second language”? I just cannot agree with that. People who promote such ideas have no clue

that letting L2 learners use their L1 to give feedback could enhance students’ confidence and

make them feel much more comfortable in L2 learning classes. For me, I think making the

students feel comfortable and confident about themselves is what truly matters in the L2 learning

experience!

Amy Tsui:

Em… I have heard of this. Whether or not to let L2 students use their L1 in the classroom

is indeed a controversial issue. But I do agree with your opinion that L2 learners using L1 in L2

learning classrooms could promote their confidence and they could express themselves in a more
comfortable way. But there is a huge issue with L2 students using L1 in the classroom. Have you

ever given thoughts about students using L1 to communicate could exclude some groups of

students who have different L1? Because, you know that there are students coming from many

different countries in one classroom, which means students could have different L1. Under that

circumstance, L2 is the only language they all share. If we encourage students to use L1 in the

classroom, there is a high possibility of some students getting excluded from the conversation.

Bee Chamcharatsri:

You have a very good point! I have thought of it actually. The issue of students getting

excluded from the conversation because they have different L1 is unavoidable. So my solution is

to provide students with the freedom to use their L1 when they feel like it is the right time and

situation to use it if using L1 could make them express themselves in a more meaningful way.

But at the same time, they are also encouraged to use L2 to give feedback when L1 is not

appropriate for the circumstances, which is when they encounter students with different L1. I

think a mixture is required in this case. As teachers, we should just keep an open attitude toward

students using their L1 in the classroom. Whether or not to actually use it, is the student’s

decision to make.

Paul Anderson:

Wow, it was a great decision when we decided to have a quarterly conference meeting!

These meetings not only help us catch up with each others’ recent studies but also provide us

with so many inspiring thoughts. Speaking of the mixture, my co-workers, Becky Bergman,

Linda Bradley, Magnus Gustafsson, and Aurora Matzke did a study on what happens when we

put L1 speakers and L2 learners in a group to give each other peer feedback. We decided to
investigate this topic because this situation of both L1 speakers and L2 learners being in the same

writing class is going to happen all the time in college writing classes since we have both

international students and local students on campus. We found that L1 speakers tend to focus

more on the language while L2 students tend to focus more on the content while peer-reviewing.

This finding suggests that students’ decisions on what to and how to give peer feedback may be

determined by complex factors, including how students were taught to give peer-reviewing

previously, the objectives of their writing assignments, the instructions given by their instructors,

the quality of the draft they are reviewing, and so on. However, there is no denying that L1

speakers and L2 learners have different ways of giving peer-reviewing feedback. Thus is better

to mix L1 speakers and L2 learners up in a peer-reviewing group. In this way, all students can

get diverse feedback focusing on various aspects of their writing from different points of view.

Amy Tsui:

Thank you Paul for your excellent speech! As we are approaching the end of this spring

season quarterly meetings. I have to again thank all of you for participating and sharing your

inspiring recent findings. As our campus becomes more and more diversified, improving the

quality of both local and international students’ learning experiences in writing classes is

desperately needed. The brilliant ideas shared in today’s meeting showed how much each

professor cared about our students’ learning environment. I believe there is much more waiting

for us to explore, but we are already making terrific progress. Again, it is my pleasure to host this

meeting and I look forward to our next quarterly meeting in the summer. Have a wonderful day

everybody!