PEER ASSESSMENT IN AN EFL WRITING CLASS: POSSIBLE OR IMPOSSIBLE?
Umi Rokhyati
Assessment is an important activity in the teaching and learning process. This activity will help a teacher notice how far the students understand the teaching material. It becomes the feedback for the teacher of how well he has given knowledge or skill to his students so that a teacher can improve the teaching and learning activity. Assessment is also important to judge whether the learner succeeds or fails in a certain subject.
There are different types of assessment done for different purposes. One of them is a peer assessment that is still rarely done. Why? It seems that peer assessment, especially in writing, is difficult to do. How can an EFL student assess his/her friend’s work while he himself does not know which one is wrong and which is correct for English is a difficult language for them? Does it mean that it is impossible to do peer assessment in writing?
In this paper I would like to share ideas that peer assessment in writing is possible to do. I will explain how peer assessments should be done and what is the role of the teacher when the assessment is done by peer. We, English teachers, can apply it in teaching writing by doing the followings. First, the teacher must have a very clear objective, focus on it, and make the students know it. Next, when he wants the students to do a peer assessment, again, he must focus on the objective, and then make sure that the students assess only the one which becomes the objective of the learning activity. However, a teacher still has to play a role in this kind of assessment by checking what each student has done in assessing his/her friend.
Writing as a complex Skill
One of the language skills that is considered complex, even the most complex, is writing. To be able to write, one has to master different aspects comprising linguistics and non-linguistics. Heffernan (1998: 6) said that good writing requires a working knowledge of grammar, a refinement of the basic or instinctive knowledge you already have. He added that it is also the art of rhetoric-arranging words, phrases, and paragraphs in such a way as to engage and sustain the reader’s attention.
In linguistics factors a writer must be able to use grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and mechanics correctly. Using grammar correctly is very important for it will help the writer compose sentences precisely. In addition, mastering vocabulary will lead to the correct choice of words that is very important in expressing ideas. The next factor is spelling and mechanics. Different from speaking skill, spelling and mechanics in writing is very important for it will help the reader understand the message as what the writer intends to write. Therefore a writer must use spelling and mechanics correctly; otherwise it will cause misinterpretation on the readers.
Besides the linguistics factors, a writer should master the non-linguistics factors needed in writing. First, she/he must have a clear idea of what to write. A deep understanding of what is going to be written (the content) will influence the information given to the readers. Equipped with clear ideas, then he must be able to organize them well. He must be able to arrange sentences logically- to achieve coherence and unity in his piece of work.
This complexity has caused difficulties for the learners to master the skill. Besides, it also makes assessment in writing not easy.
Assessment
Assessment is an important activity in the teaching-learning process. It is always done to check the achievement of the students, to get feedback, and to grade the students. Without assessment the teaching-learning process will be incomplete because the teacher will not know the students achievement; he will not get a clear picture of the students’ competence, of his weakness and strengths in teaching, and will not be able to grade the students precisely.
There are different forms of assessment known. According to O’Malley there are alternatives and traditional forms of assessment in education (1996:1). Traditional assessment usually refers to test, such as multiple choice tests. Meanwhile, alternatives assessment may include portfolio, project, self assessment, peer assessment, etc. The alternative assessment is now getting more interest in education including in ELT.
What and why peer assessment
What is peer assessment? There are some definitions given to explain what peer assessment is.Topping, quoted by Cheng, defined peer assessment as an arrangement in which individuals consider the amount, level, value, worth, quality of success of the products or outcomes of learning of peer of similar status (Cheng, 2005:94). In an EFL context, according to Cheng, peer assessment has been commonly incorporated into English language writing instruction. In this assessment peers respond to and edit each other’s written work. The purpose is helping with revision. Other definition explains that peer assessment is assessment of students by other students, both formative reviews to provide feedback and summative grading. Both the two definitions show clearly that peer assessment is assessment of a student by other student with the same status or level to give feedback or to grade. Thus in this kind of assessment each student is given a right to examine another student’s work, to value or to judge, and to give feedback on his/her friend’s work.
Is peer assessment good to assess writing skills? According to Ur (2002:335) the forms of authentic assessment including peer assessment “are more student-centered in that they provide students with a tool to be more involved in their learning and give them a better sense of control for their own learning”. Meanwhile, Peer stated that peer assessment is an alternative assessment which is commonly done in writing. It is a good thing to do because there are lots of benefits that can be taken. The benefits are among others:
1. It helps expose misconception
2. It can provide immediate support in the classroom
3. Pupils will often respond more positively to a peer than to a teacher
4. When writing for peers, pupils may improve specifics such as handwriting
5. Peers often know more about the work than parents and can give more help, especially in secondary stages.
6. It is individualized and interactive.
7. The assessor gains as well as the assessed
8. Social and communication skills can be improved
9. Teacher can stand back, observe and make focused interventions.
10. Pupils take more responsibility for their own learning
11. It helps develop skills needed in the world of work
12. Pupils can understand better the role of and need for assessment
Bostock (2002) quoted Race and others who listed the advantages of peer assessment. They described some potential advantages of peer assessment for students as
1. giving a sense of ownership of the assessment process, giving motivation
2. encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning, developing
them as autonomous learners.
3. treating assessment as part of learning, so that mistakes are opportunities rather
than failures
4. practicing the transferable skills needed for life-long learning, especially
evaluation skills
5. using external evaluation to provide a model for internal self-assessment of a
student’s own learning (metacognition), and
6. encouraging deep rather than surface learning
In addition to those benefits, Saito (2008) said that some researchers have claimed that working with peers is a critical means of promoting learning. Peer involvement in assessment holds tremendous potential for learning. The potential benefits of peer assessment among others are:
- encouraging reflective learning through observing other’s performance and becoming aware of performance criteria
- seemingly generating positive reactions from students, although some students have concern and worries
- developing students’ sense of shared responsibility.
The benefits of peer assessment are obvious and many. However, its implementation in the classroom still needs other requirements. Students need to be guided and teachers need to do some preparation in order that it can be implemented.
How to implement peer assessment in writing class
Assessment can be done in every learning process or after some learning processes. Thus, it is in the form of formative or summative assessments. Formative assessment usually becomes feedback for teachers so that they can improve their teaching. While summative assessment will help teachers to grade their students or to judge whether they fail or are successful in a subject.
Peer assessment can also be done in the formative or summative forms. However, in learning writing peer assessment is better conducted after the students finish one learning process not some learning processes. So, it is more to give feedback and to make the students revise their work rather than to score or judge the students. The most important reason for this is that the students do not master all the writing skills as English is a foreign language to them. If it is a formative assessment, then the skills that the students assess will be reduced or limited so that it is manageable. .Besides, the right to judge failure and success is better given to the teacher. Just as O’Malley (136) stated that teacher judgment has always played an important role in the assessment in writing.
Although peer assessment only is not enough to assess the students’ writing competence, it is wise to do this because this form of assessment gives advantages for both teacher and students. The followings are steps to be taken in conducting the peer assessment in writing class.
1. determining the skills to be assessed
When starting teaching, the teacher should tell the students the objective that will be gained after the learning process – what skill/s they are supposed to master. There are many micro skills of writing that the teacher can teach in writing class. The teacher has to focus whether he will teach linguistics or non linguistics aspect in writing. He should determine what skills that will be taught to the students, for example writing a thesis statement, using transition signal, using paraphrases, arranging ideas logically, etc. The higher the level of the students the more skills the students can assess.
2. focusing on the skill/s
The teaching activity should be focused and emphasized on the objective- what skill/s to be taught. If the objective set is the ability to use transition signal, the teaching should not be focused on the ability to use simple past tense. The focused skills should not be many but must be limited. It will help the students to concentrate on mastering that skill.
3. implementing the peer assessment
When the students finish writing, the teacher asks the students to assess the work of each other. The teacher should remind the students of the skill they learn at that time and tell that they should pay attention on that skill when they examine their peer’s work and not on other skills. In this case the students must ignore other mistakes found.
The peer assessment will be easier to do and can give clear feedback if a form of assessment is provided. This form should contain criteria of assessment. The teacher can prepare it and distribute it to the students. This form will guide the students in assessing and help them work faster. The example of forms for assessment which are adapted from O’Malley’s design can be seen below.
Peer Assessment form for writing
Model 1 (description)
Skill: writing an introduction
| Reader’s Name _______________________________ Date ______________ Author’s Name _______________________________ Title of piece _______________________________ |
| Peer Evaluation
This piece can be improved by ……………………………………………………………. |
Model 2 (scaling)
Skill : using simple past tense and transition signals
| Reader’s name : _________________ Writer ‘s name: _________________ Title of piece: _________________ | Date _________________________ | |||
| The writer : | Never | Sometimes | Often | Always |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Etc | | | | |
| Comment | ||||
When the students have finished assessing, they give the work back to the writer. Every student gets the feedback and has to revise the work based on that feedback.
The role of teachers in peer assessment
Although in peer assessment the students do the assessment, it does not mean that the teacher has nothing to do. As English is a foreign language for students and they are still learning it, mistakes are always possible to happen. And this is the teacher’s responsibility to check whether it happens or not, whether they make mistakes in assessing or not. This is an important role of a teacher in implementing peer assessment. However, this is not the only one. The roles of teachers in peer assessment are :
- deciding and showing what should be accessed to the students
This is done by reminding the students of the objective of the lesson stated at the beginning of the lesson
- guiding the way in assessing through description, scaling, and/or giving comment
The teacher distributes the assessment forms and explains what the students should do and should not do with the forms.
- monitoring the students when assessing
The teacher walks around, is ready to answer students’ questions, and observes what the students are doing
- checking the students’ assessment
When the students finish revising and collect their work to the teacher, the teacher needs to check whether the students have assessed correctly.
- checking the revised work
The teacher checks the final work of the students. From this activity he will know the students’ performance and get feedback from the students so that he can improve his teaching. Students need appreciation, the teacher can do it by giving signature and give a short motivating expression.
Conclusion
Peer assessment in which a student assesses another student’s work is an alternative form of assessment that can give advantages to the students. This is so because by doing peer assessment the students will learn much.
In an EFL writing class, a teacher can implement this type of assessment by considering some important points. First, he must set and show the objective in teaching clearly. Next he must guide the students in the assessment by providing assessment form and show how to assess the work. Finally, he must monitor how the students assess and check the students’ work to see their performance in writing.
To summarize, peer assessment can be implemented in an EFL writing class. However, the teacher should play his role of guiding, monitoring and checking.
Bibliography
Bostock, Stephen.2000. Student Peer Assessment.
Cheng, Winnie and Martin Warren.2005. Peer assessment of language proficiency.
Edward Arnold. http://www.ltj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/1/93.On line journal downloaded on April 4, 2009.
Heffernan, James A.W. and John E. Lincoln.1998.
O’Malley, J Michael and
English Language Learners- Practical Approach for Teachers.
Saito, Hidetoshi. 2008.EFL classroom peer assessment : Training effects on rating and
commenting.LosAngeles:SAGE Publication.
http://www.ltj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/1/93. On line journal downloaded on April 4, 2009.
Ur, Penny. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching – Practice and Theory. Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press.
Learning and Teaching should be Flexible: Peer and Self Assessment. Highland
Council Education, Culture and Sport Service. Down loaded on April 21,2009.
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