Online Peer Feedback and Learner Autonomy in English as a Foreign Language Writing Classes

Abstract

Various studies have been done in the fields of learner autonomy and feedback in English as second/foreign Language (L2) classrooms. Researches on feedback have put forward that although there is a student tendency to favour teacher feedback; positive effects of peer feedback have also been suggested in L2 writing lessons. Arguments regarding autonomy justify that learner autonomy is positively correlated with the active involvement of the learners in learning processes. Based upon the arguments about peer feedback and autonomy and inspired by the use of technology in language classrooms, hypotheses were formulated to investigate the relationship between peer feedback and learner autonomy in the L2 writing classrooms on an online platform. Using a case study approach and a variety of sources including questionnaire and interviews, data was collected from 14 students taking L2 writing lessons and their teacher in a period of five weeks. The results proved the existence of positive effects of peer feedback on the learner autonomy, as well as a slight positive effect of its being an online project.