A study on the english-majored sophomores’ responses to peer review technique and the difficulties in applying the activities in their writing 2 classes at FFL, IUH :Graduation Thesis - Faculty of Foreign Languages

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MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

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GRADUATION THESIS

A STUDY ON THE ENGLISH-MAJORED

SOPHOMORES’ RESPONSES TO PEER REVIEW

TECHNIQUE AND THE DIFFICULTIES IN APPLYING

THE ACTIVITIES IN THEIR WRITING 2 CLASSES AT

FFL, IUH.

STUDENT NAME: Bùi Hoàng Phương Nhi

ID NUMBER: 18059111

CLASS CODE: DHAV14E

COHORT: 2018-2022

SUPERVISOR NAME: Lê Thị Thúy M.A.

HCMC, 12/2021

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MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

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Student name : Bùi Hoàng Phương Nhi

ID Number : 18059111

Class Code : DHAV14E

Cohort : 2018-2022

Supervisor Name : Lê Thị Thúy M.A.

Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does

not involve in plagiarism or collusion. It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to

another purpose else where. I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism.

Date submitted : 9/12/2021

Signed : ………………………

Word count : 8756 words

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A STUDY ON THE ENGLISH-MAJORED

SOPHOMORES’ RESPONSES TO PEER REVIEW

TECHNIQUE AND THE DIFFICULTIES IN

APPLYING THE ACTIVITIES IN THEIR

WRITING 2 CLASSES AT FFL, IUH.

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ABSTRACT

For second language learners in general and foreign language students in particular, improving

writing ability is a necessity. To do that, it is essential to find an effective method to help

teachers and students. Understanding this situation, research on applying peer evaluation

method for feedbacks on student writings has been carried out. The research subjects are

sophomores who are taking Writing 2 classes at FFL of IUH. There are two methods that have

been applied in the research process: qualitative and quantitative methods. Through observing

the Writing 2 classes (to observe teachers' instructions, how students work in pairs and groups,

stages of peer review), collecting data from the feed backs students wrote in classes (to analyze

the quality of comments) and from 232 participants answered questionnaire survey on Google

docs (to find out students' attitudes towards peer review, find difficulties and writing errors that

common students). The results show that the students have a positive attitude about peer

evaluation and look forward to continuing to apply it in the future. In addition, reviewers have

their own difficulty is not being confident in writing feedbacks and reviewees (authors) have

difficulty is getting unhelpful feedback. The cause of these difficulties was determined that the

students did not have much experience and were still unfamiliar with this new method.

Key words: peer review, difficulties, writing performance

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ADKNOWLEDGEMENT

During the process of doing my graduation thesis, I have received a lot of support and

encouragement and that has helped me to get through this period completely. Although this is

not a perfect graduation thesis, but this is the result of my hard-working time and I will always

remember these meaningful days.

First, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor - Ms. Le Thi Thuy. She was very

patient in guiding and giving me enthusiastically feedbacks very, pointing out the mistakes that

I still have and how to fix them in this graduation thesis. For me, Ms. Thuy is one of the most

wonderful and caring supervisor, and I will never forget what I learned from her.

Second, I want to thank my team members. They are responsible members, full of enthusiasm,

energy and always optimistic although the process we did our research not easy at all.

Completing this research is the result of long days of hard work and the process we putted our

effort. I feel very honored to have been a part of the team and to work with such wonderful

friends.

Finally, I would like to thank the sophomores at IUH and the teachers who are teaching at FFL,

IUH. They created a convenient condition and always able to help and that’s why it was

possible for me to successfully complete this research. I will always appreciate this help and

the time I did graduation thesis will be my fond memories about the lastest time of student life.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................10

1.1. Rationale........................................................................................................................11

1.2. Research objectives .......................................................................................................11

1.3. Research questions ........................................................................................................12

1.4. The scope of the study...................................................................................................12

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................13

2.1. An overview of peer evaluation ....................................................................................14

2.1.1. The definition of peer evaluation ...............................................................................14

2.1.2. The benefits of peer evaluation ..................................................................................14

2.2. An overview of paragraph writing ................................................................................15

2.2.1. The definition of writing ............................................................................................15

2.2.2. The process of writing ................................................................................................15

2.2.3. The definition of paragraph ........................................................................................16

2.2.4. Structure of paragraph ................................................................................................16

2.3. Techniques in writing class ...........................................................................................17

2.3.1. Rubrics for peer evaluation (instructions) ..................................................................17

2.3.2. Students’ challenges/difficulties in applying peer evaluation activity .......................18

2.3.3. Investigation in students’ responses of peer evaluation .............................................18

2.4. Previous studies.............................................................................................................19

2.4.1. Students’ perceptions of peer evaluation in project work (J.K.L Poon, 2011)...........19

2.4.2. Web-enhanced peer feedback in ESL Writing Classroom (Atif Elboshi, 2021)........20

2.4.3. The effects of trained peer review on FFL students’ revision types and writing

quality (Hui-Tzu Min, 2006)................................................................................................20

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................21

3.1. Research site ..................................................................................................................22

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3.2. Participants....................................................................................................................22

3.3. Research methodology and research methods...............................................................22

3.3.1. Research methodology ...............................................................................................22

3.3.2. Research methods.......................................................................................................22

3.4. Procedures .....................................................................................................................24

3.5. Data analysis..................................................................................................................25

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................26

4.1. Findings.........................................................................................................................27

4.1.1. English-majored sophomores’ perceptions of peer evaluation activities in Writing 2

classes...................................................................................................................................27

4.1.2. Students’ difficulties when applying peer review in Writing 2 classes......................33

4.2. Discussion......................................................................................................................44

5.1. Summary of main findings............................................................................................46

5.2. Limitation ......................................................................................................................47

5.3. Suggestion for further studies........................................................................................47

References................................................................................................................................48

APPENDICES.........................................................................................................................52

Questionnaire..........................................................................................................................53

PROGRESS FORM ...............................................................................................................60

SUPERVISOR’S EVALUATION FORM ...........................................................................63

EXAMINER’S EVALUATION FORM...............................................................................65

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TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 4. 1 The students’ current level in writing skills .....................................................27

Figure 4. 2 Students current ability to give feedback on peers' writing............................27

Figure 4. 3 Students’ understanding about peer review definition....................................28

Figure 4. 4: Teacher give instructions before doing peer review in Writing class...........29

Figure 4. 5: How students understand the teacher's instructions for peer review activity

..................................................................................................................................................30

Figure 4. 6: The ways students apply peer review..............................................................30

Figure 4. 7: The amount of members in peer review group ...............................................31

Figure 4. 8: Number of writings students applied peer review in Writing 2 class ..........31

Figure 4. 9: The amount of comments students get from peers for each writing.............32

Figure 4. 10: Students’ opinion about peer review activity ................................................33

Figure 4. 11: The time students spend on giving feedback for a writing of friend...........34

Figure 4. 12: Things students usually do when check friend’s paragraphs......................35

Figure 4. 13: The common errors that students often point out in friends' writing ........36

Figure 4. 14: The amount of confident students in giving feedback on friends' writing .37

Figure 4. 15: Reasons why students feel lack of confidence when giving feedbacks.......37

Figure 4. 16: Types of mistakes reviewers point out in writings........................................39

Figure 4. 17: The amount of useful comments.....................................................................40

Figure 4. 18: The amount of unhelpful comments...............................................................41

Figure 4. 19: Reasons why the comments unhelpful ..........................................................41

Figure 4. 20: How often reviewees write the second draft based on friends' feedback...42

Figure 4. 21: The amount of students want to continue applying peer review.................43

Figure 4. 22: Reasons why students want to continue applying peer review....................43