Empowering peer reviewers to nurture writing skills in peer writers

Abstract

A persistent issue in peer revision is whether peer reviewers have sufficient knowledge to critique the works of peer writers. Supporters of social constructivism believe that learners learn best in collaboration. In the ESL context, student writers, who build meaning based on their cultural experience, often need the assistance of peer reviewers for the correct expressions in the target language. This study examined the nurturing strategies employed by Malay ESL peer reviewers towards improving peer writers' writing skill. Comments on peer writing were collected from ten high school peer reviewers for equal number of peer writers through reviewer feedback forms, peer conferencing sessions and writers' multiple drafts. Findings of the study show that peer reviewers nurtured strategic writing skills in both areas of content and language. The strategies used included alteration and reordering, clarification and suggestion, and praise and criticism. Implications for teaching-learning may be drawn from this study.