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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study
Over the last three decades, second language writing instruction had graduallyevolved from the traditional product-oriented approach to the process writingapproach. Instead of focusing solely on formal accuracy and the final product ofwriting, process approach instilled “greater respect for individual writers and for thewriting itself” (Hyland, 2003:17). Gradually, this approach was brought into China.As a core element of process writing approach, peer review was a well-developedteaching method in both ESL and EFL setting. Scholars both aboard and home hadimplemented a great variety of researches to explore the effectiveness of peer reviewon writing (e.g., Zhang, S. 1995; Tsui and NG, 2000; Mo, 2007; Shao, 2009).In fact, response to students writing had been a source of interest and debate inL1 composition theory and research in the early 1970s. Since then, the “processapproach” to teaching composition began to take hold in classrooms around theUnited States. The scholars strongly suggested that teachers should allow students tocomplete drafts of their papers, encourage substantive revision, and give studentsfeedback. In the field of ESL writing, peer review had been widely adopted over thepast 25 years, and numerous position papers had appeared in journals and books. L2researchers and instructors viewed on peer review enthusiastically and optimistically(Mendonca and Johnson, 1994; Tsui and NG, 2000; Rollinson, 2005). However, astime went on, many ESL writing instructors began to express reservations about theefficacy of peer feedback for L2 writer (Nelson and Carson, 1998; Paulus, 1999.).
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1.2 Significance and Purpose of the Study
Feedback is one prerequisite element of writing which is a key course in Englishteaching and plays a major role in the measurement of student’s English proficiency.The majority of the studies conducted on feedback in EFL context are from theperspective of teacher feedback, self-correction and peer feedback. As peer feedbackis a recent research phenomenon, there are few experimental studies on it. Thus, it isnecessary to study peer feedback in EFL context in order to promote the developmentof the researches in writing area.The present study aims at investigating second-year English major students’overall perception of peer review by means of a questionnaire, a semi-structuredinterview and an English proficiency test. The study also intends to make acomparison in students’ attitude towards peer review between high-level group andlow-level group to examine whether there is significant difference between the twogroups. The purpose of this study is to explore English majors’ actual responses topeer review and the feasibility of peer review applied in English writing instruction. Itis hoped that both teachers and students could consider peer review as an importantcomplementary source of feedback in the EFL writing classroom.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Peer Review
Peer review had been studied for more than 30 year. It was viewed as a writingactivity in which students read each other’s papers, asked questions, providedsuggestions, and made comments. For “peer review”, different researchers had usedvarious alternative terms to ref本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。