Triadic oral peer feedback: Does EFL learners’ L2 proficiency pairing play a role?

Abstract

While peer feedback has been a staple in second and foreign language (FL) writing for decades, most research explicitly examines the role of second language (L2) proficiency in written feedback among reviewer–writer pairs. The impact of L2 proficiency pairing in oral peer feedback remains under‐researched as does research on peer review among writer–reviewer triads, a commonly practiced peer review activity in FL classrooms. In the present study, 62 undergraduates participated in an oral peer feedback group discussion in an English as an FL writing context, providing and receiving oral peer feedback on two drafts of an argumentative essay topic. A rotary triadic role design was adopted to allow each group member to experience the role of both writer and reviewer, receiving two reviewers’ oral feedback as a writer and giving feedback for two writers as a reviewer in the same group. Self‐initiated L2 proficiency pairing was then examined from a reviewer–writer perspective in relation to the quantity and quality of oral feedback given and incorporated. Results showed significant differences in feedback quantity and uptake between different reviewer–writer pairings. Writers of high proficiency levels would receive and incorporate significantly more oral feedback when paired with reviewers of the same proficiency levels, compared to when paired with reviewers of different proficiency levels. Low‐level reviewers offered significantly more total oral feedback for low‐level writers than high‐level writers. Pedagogical implications could then be drawn as to how to pair learners of different L2 proficiency levels in oral peer feedback activity.