EFL Students’ Decision-Making and Criteria Use in Peer Review: Influence of Teacher Writing Beliefs

Abstract

This exploratory case study examined one English teacher’s writing beliefs and classroom practice as well as the influence of such beliefs and practice on six selected Chinese EFL university students’ decision-making and criteria use in peer review. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, document analysis, think-aloud protocols and stimulated recall. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data revealed that the teacher’s instructional emphasis was consistent with his writing beliefs about important qualities for good English expository writing and the process of learning to write. Teacher beliefs and practice were found to affect the focus of students’ decision-making and criteria use during peer review by reinforcing students’ original beliefs, helping construct new ones, or directly drawing their attention to particular elements of peers’ writing. Drawing on the concept of rationality (Tudor, 2001), the effect of teacher influence is examined and pedagogical implications are also discussed.