Investigating the Operating Mechanisms of the Sources of L2 Writing Self‐Efficacy at the Stages of Giving and Receiving Peer Feedback

Abstract

Peer feedback has earned an increasingly noteworthy place in second language (L2) writing research. A pressing concern is that issues of motivation are not well understood, largely due to a lack of theory‐driven investigations. Centering on Bandura's self‐efficacy (SE) theory, this study examined the impact of peer feedback on L2 writing SE and the operating mechanisms underlying the theorized sources of SE in peer feedback practice. One hundred and ten Chinese undergraduate learners of English were assigned to peer feedback treatment groups (face‐to‐face and computer‐mediated discussions) or a comparison group. Questionnaire and interview data on writing SE and its sources and on perceived feedback usefulness were collected. The treatment groups reported more positive changes in writing SE, and perceived usefulness of giving (but not receiving) peer feedback enhanced writing SE directly and via a mediating system involving writing self‐regulatory efficacy and apprehension. Writing SE was also shaped through a dynamic interplay between receptive and productive mastery experiences, computer‐mediated exchanges, social comparisons, and achievement goal orientations.

Effects of Trained Peer vs. Teacher Feedback on EFL Students’ Writing Performance, Self-Efficacy, and Internalization of Motivation

“…In recent years, several meta-analyses have established the benefits of peer feedback on learner's writing/task performance (Double et al, 2019;Huisman et al, 2019), including in ESL and EFL classrooms (Thirakunkovit and Chamcharatsri, 2019). Prior findings in both ESL and EFL writing contexts have shown that peer feedback leads to improvements in self-efficacy (Chaudron, 1984;Tsui and Ng, 2000;Ruegg, 2018;Lee and Evans, 2019), similar to benefits of related pedagogical techniques like student blogging (Yousefifard and Fathi, 2021) and wiki writing (Rahimi and Fathi, 2021). Such benefits of peer feedback are likely the result of the combined effect of the training on peer feedback and the opportunities to practice peer feedback.…”

“…A great deal of research has already examined the effects of peer and teacher feedback on ESL and EFL students’ revision quality and writing performance ( Fathman and Whalley, 1990 ; Leki, 1990 ; Connor and Asenavage, 1994 ; de Guerrero and Villamil, 1994 ; Ferris, 1997 ; Villamil and Guerrero, 1998 ; Berg, 1999 ; Paulus, 1999 ; Tsui and Ng, 2000 ; Saito and Fujita, 2004 ; Rollinson, 2005 ; Min, 2006 ; Yang et al, 2006 ; Zhang and Dai, 2011 ; Ruegg, 2015 ; Cui et al, 2019 , 2021 ; Zhang and Cheng, 2020 ), especially when peers have received some training in how to give effective feedback ( Berg, 1999 ; Min, 2006 ). And there is also some research investigating the effects of peer feedback and teacher feedback on ESL and EFL students’ writing self-efficacy ( Chaudron, 1984 ; Tsui and Ng, 2000 ; Ruegg, 2018 ; Fathi et al, 2019 ; Lee and Evans, 2019 ), which is also important because self-efficacy of writing plays an important role in predicting students’ future writing performance ( Zimmerman and Bandura, 1994 ; Pajares and Johnson, 1996 ; Klassen, 2002 ; Woodrow, 2011 ). However, feedback on writing can have other effects that are important to long-term effects (i.e., beyond the specific course) on students’ writing ability such as improving autonomous motivation ( McMahon, 2010 ; Yousefifard and Fathi, 2021 ), a critical goal of foundation courses.…”

“…However, studies on the effect of peer feedback on writing self-efficacy have obtained mixed results. Some studies found that peer feedback had a positive effect on students’ writing self-efficacy ( Chaudron, 1984 ; Tsui and Ng, 2000 ; Lee and Evans, 2019 ). By contrast, Ruegg (2018) found that peer feedback produced no improvement in students’ writing self-efficacy, and even showed a decrease in grammar self-efficacy.…”

Exploring the Role of Training in Promoting Students’ Peer-Feedback Including Critical Peer-Feedback

“…One of the benefits mentioned by participants was that providing peer feedback enabled them to approach their essays with a critical eye since providing peer feedback increased their awareness of the mistakes that can be made throughout the writing process. This finding was supported by several studies in the relevant field (Cao et al, 2019;Lee & Evans, 2019). Another benefit worth noting was that recognizing weaknesses related to content in others' essays stimulated participants to pay attention to issues like posing a strong argument, supporting it with sound pieces of evidence and real experiences/examples, and finding strong refutation points in their own essays, which led them to conduct indepth research related to the topic they were going to write about.…”

Self-Efficacy Sources, Reading Self-Efficacy, Metacognitive Reading Strategies and Reading Comprehension Performance: A Correlational Study in Saudi EFL Context

“…Consequently, self-efficacy beliefs impact the individuals" performance (Bandura, 1986). Past studies determined the connections between SES and numerous kinds of performance including mathematics (Usher, 2009), science (Webb-Williams, 2018), English proficiency (Zheng et al, 2017), L2 writing (Lee & Evans, 2019) etc. ; however, , limited studies have determined the connection between SES and RC by deploying SEB as a mediating construct.…”