Guiding and assessing development of L2 writing process : the role of peer collaboration

Abstract

This study, informed by Vygotskian notion of mediation and reporting on a partnership between a researcher (the first author) and a teacher (the second author), aims at exploring how peers’ comments can inform teacher assessment and guidance of learners’ L2 (second/foreign language) writing. The participants were 19 L2 English learners in an upper secondary school in Finland. We largely focus on the notes that one pair of learners made on each other’s essays and how they responded to peer assistance. Triangulating these data with classroom observation and a questionnaire, we traced how learners co-constructed their understanding of how their texts can be developed. The foci and how the identified issues were addressed were similar within the groups but varied across them. The innovativeness of the activity lies in (1) the dialectical teacher-researcher partnership in which it was designed and which informed the analysis, simultaneously serving as teachers’ assessment of learners’ writing; (2) the learner notes serving as a source of information for the teacher and as a persistent mediational means for the learners. We discuss the findings with reference mediation and the dialectics of teaching, learning, and assessment, focusing on how teachers can use the information obtained from such notes.