Peer Feedback In Language Teacher Training: Students’ Pedagogic Approaches and Interpersonal Positioning

Abstract

Although peer feedback is increasingly used in English as a foreign language (EFL) courses within European higher education (HE), little research has been carried out to explore its efficacy within specific sociocultural contexts outside of the Asia-Pacific region, and much of the research into peer feedback has been limited to English as a second language (ESL) rather than EFL contexts. Students’ positioning of themselves relative to the authors of the texts they review and relative to the texts themselves reveals significant information about how culture and context impact their approach to peer feedback. This study examined 118 written peer response texts of first- and second-year undergraduate EFL teachers in training in a Norwegian HE institution, aiming to investigate both students’ pedagogic approaches to providing feedback on peer texts and the interpersonal stances they took toward each other while providing feedback. It found that students who take a collaborative approach to giving feedback are more likely to position themselves as professionals, while those who approach their peers’ texts in a prescriptive manner are more likely to view themselves as underqualified. Overall, the responses analysed indicated a preference for collectivist rather than individualistic approaches to peer response, perhaps resulting from low power distances between the students or the Nordic educational context.