Date of Award

2013

Rights

Access is available to all users

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA) in English: Teaching English as a Second Language

Department

English

First Advisor

LaVona L Reeves

Second Advisor

Tracey McHenry

Third Advisor

Ronald Dalla

Abstract

"The goal of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a guided peer editing activity for multilingual college freshman. This was an example of action research that began winter quarter 2013. The study used an activity where peer writers and responders identified and corrected errors in essays. Writers then choose which suggestions were errors to change and which did not need change. The study took place at Eastern Washington University in an English 112 class. English 112 is English for Academic Purposes (EAP) which is an English composition class. It took a total of four class periods in two different classes to complete the study. The subjects were taking this course in preparation for English 101 composition. A total of 18 students participated in the study, and they were mainly from Saudi Arabia, but a few were from Japan, China, and Pakistan. Students were divided into pairs for the guided peer-editing activity and had to complete three parts which were forms A, B, and C. This included practice with reading to understand content, identification and correction of errors, and a reflective journal on the process with the benefits and challenges. Students had both cultural similarities essays and argumentative essays to use for this activity. A mixed methods approach was used that employed both qualitative and quantitative methodology. Findings of the study suggest that guided peer response is a positive activity for students and it contributes to improvement with grammar, error identification, and the writing of multilingual writers at the college level. Collaborative learning with community building is also a positive outcome. Finally, the results of the present study provide useful insights into teaching writing to multilingual students and ideas for training peers for this kind of activity"--Document.

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