Findings in relation to the Second Research Question (Peer feedback)

The second research question o f the study was:

2. How does interaction via CMC tools influence EFL learners' production of academic papers in their academic writing course?

a. How does peer feedback provided via CMC tools influence EFL learner's completion o f their assignments?

b. How do students perceive the role o f feedback provided via CMC tools in producing their final drafts?

Learners were required to submit 4 essays each during one term of study. According to the course instructions, the students were required to post their first drafts in the forum for peer review activity provided through the Blackboard® LMS. They were then required to revise their essays in the light o f the feedback provided by peers and submit a revised final draft in the forum. In order to determine the participants' use of feedback, textual revisions made on the initial drafts as well as the rationales behind these revisions were examined. Results after close scrutiny o f the text for similarities and differences in the tw o versions indicated that the revisions made by the participants consisted o f additions and/or deletions in the text for mainly these purposes: correction and elaboration at word or clause level; polishing of language at the sentence level; and

shuffling/rearranging sentences for clarity and cohesion of the ideas under discussion. I chose these categories in the light o f my own teaching experience after consulting some senior colleagues. Since examining intertextuality—the amount of feedback that could be traced in the revised version o f essays—was the main focus o f the research question, rather than delving deep into syntactical and morphological issues in detail, I chose to explain and present the data and the findings using these broad self-explanatory terms rather than using more sophisticated technical ones. Table 4.6 presents the frequency of revisions made by the ten participants during the revision of their essays.

Table 4.6 Frequency o f revisions

Type o f revision Frequency

Revision o f sentences for corrections/clarity 419 Shuffling/rearranging sentences 273 Additions to the text for clarity and cohesion and adding contents/details

197

Deletions to the text 146

As the above table shows, the revision most often employed by the students was revision at sentence level either for correction or for clarity. The most common types o f errors detected by students in the drafts o f their essays were mistakes in the use of prepositions, subject verb agreement, parallel structures, dangling participles and run-on sentences. It is interesting to note that these rhetoric devices were explicitly taught in the face-to-face classroom lectures and the learners were making use o f these in the online peer review activities. This exemplifies the scaffolding that took place during this study between the instruction, the activity and the practice. The second most frequent revisions

were related to rearranging sentences in paragraphs to achieve coherence and clarity. Such revisions also indicated that students were using their knowledge acquired from class room lectures and applying that in peer review activities. The third most common was addition o f more sentences to the texts. Students added sentences in the paragraphs to provide more specific details and add more ideas as suggested by peer feedback. However, this figure hides some discrepancy between different students. Though some students (4 out o f 10) added more sentences for clarity and cohesion taking into account all the relevant feedback, the remaining (6 out o f 10) mostly ignored this kind o f peer feedback and did not add anything to their texts. We might conclude that adding sentences to the body of the paragraph may have been daunting for some o f the students as it required more effort, ability and time. Finally, the deletions were mostly at sentence level and occurred when the students realized through peer feedback that they had repeated some idea or the information given in a sentence was irrelevant and affected the logical progressions o f ideas in a paragraph.

Of all the 10 participants essays—forty in to ta l—which were analysed and studied in detail to detect revisions that could be traced back into peer feedback, only tw o essays, Participant 6's and Participant 2's are presented here as illustration o f how far feedback was or was not incorporated in the revised version o f essays. These essays have been chosen to exemplify tw o distinctly varying revision types. The first one, w ritten and revised by Participant 6, was chosen as a good example o f incorporating a lot o f feedback. He was among the four o f the ten participants who integrated most o f the peer feedback in their revised drafts. The second type of essay, w ritten and revised by Participant 2, was chosen to show how some o f the students, despite getting some constructive feedback, did not revise in order to improve their drafts. He was among the six who usually ignored such feedback which required them to write more to improve their argument, exerting

some effort, requiring a certain level o f writing ability, and spending more time. I am forced to stick to only these tw o examples in order to maintain brevity o f the thesis.

4.3.1 Discussion (Example 1, Participant 6)

Let's look at an essay by Participant 6. Both the first drafts and final versions are presented to see what revisions can be traced. This is an opinion essay and Participant 6 responded to this specific essay question: "Give your opinion whether the government should impose tax on the birth o f every newborn baby in order to control population. Support you opinion with reasons and arguments".

First Draft Final Version Types of Revisions 1 have agreed that the

government should impose tax on the birth of every newborn baby. The number of children born in each family should be fixed so that the

population increases at a constant rate. In my opinion thegovernm ent should take all the possible steps to bring down the birth rate, because overpopulation is the major problem o f the world now days.

Over population has given birth to poverty which is the mother o f many other problems. Poverty causes malnutrition and it pushes the poor people towards crimes which finally lead to the disintegration of the society. Thus the government should take radical steps to control overpopulation. Overpopulation is also caused trouble to women.

“A crowded society is a