Improving Writing Skills through Peer Feedback Facilitated by Facebook among Students from Remote Areas: Research Report

Abstract

The present study focused on finding out whether peer feedback had an impact on descriptive writing improvement. Similarly, the study attempted to verify that students' attitudes changed after applying peer feedback. After five weeks of intervention, participants improved their proficiency in the different writing micro-skills like vocabulary, grammar, mechanics, and organizing ideas based on the evidence. Consequently, they could write a descriptive paragraph coherently. Furthermore, the survey evinced some advantages of giving peer feedback. It was proved that comments helped improve the writing of students. Though students did not want to write their opinion in the beginning, they saw some examples of comments highlighting good aspects of partners' writing and suggesting improvement in weak ones. They felt relaxed because they would realize in strengths and weaknesses of a text. Also, comments helped the students reflect on their tasks while assessing peers' work. They became critical evaluators to give fair comments to other writings; this was corroborated with the presented data. Similarly, most participants showed agreement with the statement: "I think that the evaluation and comments given are fair." According to the collected information, students may initially act reluctant because the strategy was unfamiliar; they could perceive the benefits once they were familiarized. A further aspect to mention was the perceptions of the learners; they found peer feedback a valuable strategy to achieve writing enhancement in different aspects and working with partners was profitable. It is indispensable to remark that the researcher planned the lessons based on the backward design model. This model focus on the learning goals rather than on the teaching objectives. It means that the lesson plan was developed based on students' needs. Meanwhile, the students have never worked with the peer feedback strategy, using a rubric, online modality, and social media as an instrument (See Appendix 9). All these aspects were new for them. Apart from this, the students worked with cellphones; only one student had a computer. Even so, the implementation of the strategy had significant benefits for participants' learning. The outcomes of this research can be taken to support the descriptive writing process in similar contexts to this group under study.