Developments in learners’ affective engagement with written peer feedback: The affordances of in situ translanguaging

Abstract

The literature on peer feedback has yet to investigate the effects of translanguaging on learners’ affective engagement with feedback. Therefore, this case study 1) explored the affordances of translanguaging between two English learners in Iran, and 2) investigated any developments in these learners’ affective engagement with peer feedback mediated by translanguaging. The analysis of eight samples of student writing with peer feedback, stimulated recalls, and reflection journals showed that translanguaging mediated the learners’ affective engagement with peer feedback. Using their first language, Persian, helped improve their affective engagement with peer feedback on content-related issues. As shown by a sociocultural theory-motivated analysis, the learners’ affective engagement with peer feedback was nonlinear, dynamic, and evolving over the course of six weeks. Indeed, the participants deemed Persian as an effective tool in providing meta-feedback on content-related, and at times, grammar issues, thus leading to more positive affective engagement with peer feedback. We think that teachers should consider allowing their students to use their first language during the process of peer feedback to enhance their affective engagement with peer feedback.