Peer response in language teacher training: Students’ pedagogic approaches and positioning.

Abstract

Although peer response is increasingly used in English as a foreign language (EFL) courses within European higher education (HE), very little research has been carried out to explore its efficacy within specific sociocultural contexts outside of the Asia-Pacific region, and much of the research into peer response has been limited to English as a second language rather than EFL contexts (Yu & Lee, 2016). Students’ positioning of themselves relative to the authors of the texts they review and the texts themselves reveals significant information about how their culture and context impact their approach to peer response. As such, this study examined 119 written peer response texts of EFL teachers in training in a Norwegian HE institution. It found that the low power distance in Norway combined with a shared cultural belief that one should not show hubris impacted students’ ability to provide critical comments to their peers, as well as the manner in which comments were made.