Assessing the Quality of Online Peer Feedback in L2 Writing

The Peer Online Writing Centre

The Peer Online Writing Centre (POWC) at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan, started as a teacher-action research project when the first author, then a full-time teacher at the university, found face-to-face peer feedback to be failing in writing classrooms due to a lack of buy-in from students. Most students felt that their peers, as learners themselves, were not qualified to give advice on English writing. In order to address this issue, also corroborated in the second language writing literature (Nelson & Carson, 2006; Zhang, 1999), an online anonymous system was set up, whereby a group of paid student-workers use nondescriptive online aliases to work together in order to construct advice for other student-writers in a service not connected to formal classes. These students are hired as Peer Online Writing Advisors (POWAs). This acronym, which sounds like “power” in katakana Japanese, reinforces the idea that peer feedback does have merit. POWAs (PAs, for short) are not hired based on their writing proficiency, but rather on their eagerness to learn and help others. The POWC challenges and supports PAs by giving them a demanding work environment, and also extensive training and professional development. PAs work in groups, receive 20 hours of presemester training, and get weekly comments on their feedback from facilitators. Typically, a ratio of one teacher acting as a facilitator for every three PAs is maintained. Facilitators closely interact with PAs by reviewing, questioning, and commenting on final advice before it is sent to a writer.