Reduction of Errors in Writing Assignments: A Comparison of the Impact of Peer, Teacher, and Mixed Feedback

Feedback, one of the main components of learning-oriented assessment, has received special attention in recent decades. However, there are controversial remarks over the priority and importance of teacher and peer feedback. Therefore, accepting a pretest-posttest design, the current study investigated teacher feedback and peer feedback in comparison with mixed feedback in an EFL writing context as well as learners’ attitudes towards providing feedback as a crucial strategy. The pretest was a 45-min diagnostic essay on health and longevity, and the posttest was a 45-min essay conducted after working on different types of feedback. Then, using the adopted writing scale, the researchers analyzed the obtained data. In addition, to understand the learners’ attitudes towards peer and teacher feedback, the researchers conducted a focus groups interview with 15 learners randomly. Content analyses were employed to analyze the qualitative data. The results of ANCOVA analyses showed that there were no significant differences between the writing scores of teacher and peer feedback groups. However, the results revealed that the integration of teacher and peer feedback in a dialogic approach scaffolds the learners to outperform the other two. Moreover, the results of content analyses indicated that employing peer feedback might reduce anxiety and increase engagement and responsibility that lead to learners’ autonomy. In practice, peer feedback and teacher feedback supported by feedback training encourages learning and supports learners to become independent.