Peer assessment training has appeared as potential new tools for enhancing Arab English as foreign language (EFL) high school students on writing performance. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of using peer assessment training on writing performance among Arab EFL high school students. One hundred and twenty students aged fifteen and sixteen years old participated in this study with an equal number of male and female students. The students were from two Arab high schools in Malaysia. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design. Data was collected using Analytical Marking Scale (Alderson, et al., 1995) to assess student's writing performance in the pretest and posttest. The result of this study shows that there is a significant difference in the writing performances between the experimental and control groups at P < 0.001. The findings suggests that students who have been exposed to peer assessment training write a better draft compared with those students who were only given conventional training in writing an essay, and without the benefit of peer feedback.

Despite the crucial role of EFL teachers in enhancing EFL learners' academic writing, addressing EFL teacher classroom stress still stand as significant challenge in education. This study describes two newly developed sets of peer assessment (PA) rubrics on English academic writing of EFL learners. The peer assessment rubrics named PA rubric (PAR A) and PA rubric were adapted from Oshima and Hogue [1]. While both sets of rubrics focus on the components of an essay, each rubric assesses the language criteria differently. Adopting an experimental design, 10 EFL Arab learners enrolled in the Preparatory English Course at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia participated in the pilot study. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups. Both groups were asked to write an academic essay of 250 words, later assessed one essay written by a peer in the other group. Group A used Peer Assessment Rubric A, while Group B used Peer Assessment Rubric B. All ten essays were assessed by two English lecturers based on an agreed essay marking rubric. The findings indicated that there is no significant difference between the two PA rubrics (PAR A and PAR B) and teachers' assessment at p < 0.073 and p < 0.097, respectively. This suggests that PAR A and B manage to guide the peer assessors in evaluating essays as similar as their English teachers' assessment. The preliminary findings suggest that both Peer Assessment Rubrics were suitable for the use of EFL learners in assessing academic essays.

Peer assessment training has appeared as potential new tools for enhancing Arab English as foreign language (EFL) high school students on writing performance. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of using peer assessment training on writing performance among Arab EFL high school students. One hundred and twenty students aged fifteen and sixteen years old participated in this study with an equal number of male and female students. The students were from two Arab high schools in Malaysia. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design. Data was collected using Analytical Marking Scale (Alderson, et al., 1995) to assess student’s writing performance in the pretest and posttest. The result of this study shows that there is a significant difference in the writing performances between the experimental and control groups at P &lt; 0.001. The findings suggests that students who have been exposed to peer assessment training write a better draft compared with those students who were only given conventional training in writing an essay, and without the benefit of peer feedback.

Peer assessment training has appeared as potential new tools for enhancing Arab English as foreign language (EFL) high school students on writing performance. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of using peer assessment training on writing performance among Arab EFL high school students. One hundred and twenty students aged fifteen and sixteen years old participated in this study with an equal number of male and female students. The students were from two Arab high schools in Malaysia. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design. Data was collected using Analytical Marking Scale (Alderson, et al., 1995) to assess student's writing performance in the pretest and posttest. The result of this study shows that there is a significant difference in the writing performances between the experimental and control groups at P < 0.001. The findings suggests that students who have been exposed to peer assessment training write a better draft compared with those students who were only given conventional training in writing an essay, and without the benefit of peer feedback.